 "Tim Walz, JD Vance")
Each rival tried to inflict lasting damage by discussing the Middle East crisis, immigration, taxes and abortion in the last remaining debate before the Nov. 5 presidential election. Photo: Bloomberg
Democrat Tim Walz and Republican J.D. Vance clashed during the vice presidential debate Tuesday, but remain surprisingly moderate in the final stages of an ugly campaign marred by incendiary rhetoric and two assassination attempts. It was a great discussion.
The two rivals, who have fiercely attacked each other during the campaign, have mostly struck a friendly tone, instead speaking for the front-runners, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump. The fire was conserved.
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The most tense exchange occurred near the end of the debate, when Mr. Vance, who has said he did not vote to certify the 2020 election results, asked whether Mr. Trump would object to this year’s vote if he lost. It was when he avoided questions about whether
Walz responded by saying that voter fraud was what incited the mob to attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a failed attempt to stop Joe Biden’s certification of the 2020 election. They accused President Trump of making false claims.
“He keeps saying he hasn’t lost the election yet,” Walz said before turning to Vance. “Did he lose the 2020 election?” Vance again dodged the question, instead accusing Harris of advancing online censorship of dissent.
“That’s a total non-answer,” Walz said.
Mr. Walz, 60, a liberal Minnesota governor and former high school teacher, and Mr. Vance, 40, a best-selling author and conservative firebrand U.S. senator from Ohio, consider themselves to be in the Midwest. He is the son of two people in the heart of the United States, and claims to have deeply opposing views on current issues. country.
Rival camps each dealt lasting damage as they discussed topics such as the Middle East crisis, immigration, taxes, abortion, climate change and the economy in the last debate before the Nov. 5 presidential election. I tried.
But in general, the two seem intent on demonstrating “Midwestern goodness” and appreciate each other even as they go after their respective vice presidential candidates in the traditional attack dog role. was.
Vance has repeatedly questioned why Harris didn’t do more to tackle inflation, immigration and the economy during the Biden administration, a consistent attack that Trump often failed to deliver during Harris’ debate last month. strengthened the route.
“If Kamala Harris has a great plan to address the problems of the middle class, she should do it now. in the work he gave,” Vance said. Said.
He has been effective in relentlessly targeting Harris for criticism, but he has also made misleading or false statements about the U.S. record on gun violence and climate emissions.
Walz described Trump as an unstable leader who has prioritized billionaires and reversed criticism of Vance on immigration, and earlier this year urged Republicans in Congress to abandon a bipartisan border security bill. He attacked President Trump for putting pressure on him.
“Most of us want to solve this problem,” Walz said of immigration.
“Donald Trump had four years to do this, and he promised, my fellow Americans, how easy it would be.”
The tone that night was far from the divisiveness that has characterized this campaign. Trump has repeatedly denigrated Harris, leveling racist and sexist attacks, and has twice survived attempts on her life. Walz has previously called his Republican opponents “weirdos,” and Vance has come under fire for past comments in which he disparaged some Democrats as “childless cat ladies.”
Trump live blog
The debate at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York began as the Middle East crisis intensified on Tuesday after Israel continued its offensive into southern Lebanon and Iran launched retaliatory missile strikes against Israel.
Walz said Trump was too “whimsical” and sympathetic to strongmen to be trusted to handle escalating conflicts, while Vance claimed Trump had made the world safer during his term. did.
Asked if he supported Israel’s first strike against Iran, Vance suggested he would defer to Israel’s decision, but Walz did not directly answer the question.
President Trump, who was watching on TV, posted furiously on his website Truth Social during the debate, sometimes twice a minute, attacking the CBS host and calling Walz “pathetic” and “IQ-poor.” He called it “low.”
razor blade
Political analysts say vice presidential debates don’t typically change the outcome of an election, and neither man threw a decisive punch Tuesday.
But in the razor-sharp five weeks before Election Day, even the slightest change in public opinion can be decisive.
Walz was asked this week about reports that he was not in China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, as he had previously claimed.
“I have crooked fingers sometimes,” he said in a meandering answer. “I arrived there that summer and I made a gaffe about this. So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy movement, and from there I learned a lot about the meaning of governance. ” Meanwhile, Vance defended his running mate despite criticizing Trump before the 2016 election.
“I was wrong about Donald Trump,” he said. “First of all, I was wrong, because I believe that some of the media articles turned out to be dishonest fabrications of his record. But most importantly That’s what Donald Trump has done for the American people.”Waltz also called for repealing nearly half a century of nationwide abortion rights, which has proven harmful to the Republican Party. He criticized President Trump’s role in appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who participated in the Supreme Court’s decision.
Vance, known for his deeply conservative stance on abortion, on Tuesday backed a nationwide ban, even as he voiced support for a 15-week limit through 2022 proposed by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. “I didn’t,” he said in a more moderate tone. Mr. Trump’s view is as follows. Each state must decide whether to restrict abortion.
President Trump said in a social media post that he would veto the nationwide ban, weeks after refusing to say whether he would veto it during a presidential debate.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that U.S. voters have a negative view of Vance, even though he wrote the popular 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” , 51% of registered voters said they viewed him favorably, compared to 39% who viewed him favorably. Meanwhile, Walz is viewed favorably by 44% of registered voters, with 43% having an unfavorable view in a Sept. 20-23 poll.
Harris was widely seen as the winner in her only debate with Trump on September 10 in Philadelphia, but it was far more chaotic than Tuesday’s debate.
The standoff did little to change the trajectory of what was an extremely close election. Although Harris has a slight lead in national polls, most polls show voters remain fairly evenly divided in the seven states that will decide November’s election.
