The vice presidential candidates are about to meet for their only scheduled debate of the 2024 presidential race.
Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio are facing off in the “CBS News Vice Presidential Debate.”
The debate, which will feature no studio audience, will last 90 minutes and have two four-minute commercial breaks.
WATCH THE “CBS NEWS VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE SIMULCAST” ON SCRIPPS NEWS
Candidates take the stage
Walz and Vance began with a review of the rules and took their first questions on recent events in the Middle East.
Moderators asked: “Would you support or oppose a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran?”
“Israel’s ability to defend itself is absolutely fundamental,” Gov. Walz said. But “steady leadership is going to matter.”
Walz elaborated by saying a second Trump presidency would be a danger to the world.
“What we’ve seen out of Vice President Harris is steady leadership,” Walz said.
Sen. Vance began by introducing himself and reviewing his background.
“Donald Trump delivered stability in the world, and he did it by establishing effective deterrence,” Vance said.
“It is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe, and we should support our allies wherever they are,” Vance said.
Reducing the impacts of climate change
“Donald Trump and I support clean air, clean water,” Vance said.
If you believe that carbon emissions drive climate change, Vance said, “you’d want to re-shore as much American manufacturing as possible, and you’d want to produce as much energy as possible in the United States of America, because we’re the cleanest economy in the entire world.”
Vance repeatedly emphasized that more domestic manfuacturing would help make the economy more environmentally friendly.
“If we actually care about getting cleaner air and cleaner water, the best thing to do is double down and invest in American workers and the American people. And unfortunately, Kamala Harris has done exactly the opposite,” Vance said.
Investment through the Inflation Reduction Act has already spurred the growth of green jobs and manufacturing in the U.S., Walz said.
“Climate change is real,” Walz said. “Reducing our impact is absolutely critical. But this is not a false choice. You can do that at the same time you’re creating the jobs we’re seeing all across the country.”
On immigration policies
“We have to stop the bleeding,” Vance said of immigration. “We have a historic immigration crisis because Kamala Harris started and said she wanted to undo all of Donald Trump’s border policies.”
This has enabled the flow of fentanyl into the country “at record levels,” Vance said.
“We start with the criminal migrants,” Vance said. “You start with deportations on those folks. Then you make it harder for illegal aliens to undercut the wages of American workers.”
“Most of us want to solve this,” Walz said.
“We had the fairest and the toughest bill on immigration that this nation’s seen,” Walz said, referencing the bipartisan immigration bill that was up for consideration early in 2024. “Donald Trump said no.”
“Pass the bill, [Harris] will sign it,” Walz said.
Rules of the debate
The candidates selected certain aspects of the debate based on a coin flip: Vance chose to give his closing statement last, and Walz chose to stand at the leftmost podium on screen during the broadcast.
According to CBS News, Walz and Vance would be given a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water, but they were not allowed to bring any pre-written notes or props with them to the stage.
Each candidate gets two minutes to answer questions, two minutes to deliver rebuttals, and one minute for responses or follow-ups as granted.
Moderators are allowed to mute the candidates’ microphones during the debate when it is not their turn to speak.
Closing statements will run for two minutes per candidate and there will be no opening statements.
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