No breakouts in polite VP debate as Walz calls himself a ‘knucklehead,’ Vance spars with moderators

The vice presidential debate Tuesday night saw both candidates politely hold their own, though a handful of awkward moments from Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and the moderators sparring with Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, attracted meaningful attention.

Moderated by CBS News’ Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell, the debate marked the only planned face-off between Vance and Walz of the 2024 election cycle. Both participants largely answered the moderators' questions and several moments saw the pair express their agreement with each other in polite exchanges.

But the lopsided fact-checking activities of the moderators against Vance largely eclipsed the policy exchanges between him and Walz, who made a handful of awkward gaffes. Neither candidate, however, landed meaningful hits on the other.

Still, pollster Frank Luntz indicated that his focus group for the debate ultimately broke 12-2 in favor of Vance, with only five leaning toward the Republicans at the start of the debate.

Walz’s gaffes

While discussing gun violence, Walz explained his past opposition to an assault weapons ban and why he changed his position to support such a measure. In the exchange, he asserted his transition followed having met with the families of school shooting victims, but awkwardly said, "I've become friends with school shooters” in an apparent gaffe.

"Sometimes it just is the guns," Walz continued. "It's just the guns. And there are things that you can do about it, but I do think that this is a healthy conversation. I think there's a capacity to find solutions on this that work. Protect the Second Amendment, protect our children. That's our priority."

In a separate moment, moderators pressed Walz on his past claim to have been in Hong Kong amid the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Local newspaper reports in Nebraska, however, have indicated that Walz did not leave for Hong Kong until the protests had concluded.

Walz did not address the discrepancy but said “I'm a knucklehead at times” and admitted “I will get caught up in the rhetoric,” then pivoted to his support for his local community.

“It's always been about that those same people elected me to Congress for 12 years, and in Congress, I was one of the most bipartisan people working on things like farm bills that we got done, working on veterans benefits, and then the people of Minnesota were able to elect me to governor twice,” he said.

Fact-checks

The debate also saw the moderators attempt to fact-check Vance, leading to tense exchanges as he pushed back on their commentary. While not as intense or rampant as the lopsided fact-checking against former GOP President Donald Trump that marked the ABC News presidential debate, the moderators were generally lopsided in their intrusions against Vance.

In one exchange, Brennan intervened to addressed the influx of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, saying, "just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary, protected status.”

Vance proceeded to object to Brennan’s intrusion.

"Margaret, the rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check, and since you're fact-checking, me, I think it's important to say what's actually going on," he said, before explaining what he called the “facilitation of illegal immigration.”

"So there's an application called the CBP One app, where you can go on as an illegal migrant, apply for asylum or apply for parole, and be granted legal status at the wave of a [Vice President] Kamala Harris open border wand,” he said. “That is not a person coming in, applying for a green card and waiting for 10 years, that is the facilitation of illegal immigration, Margaret, by our own leadership."

Brennan then sarcastically retorted, "Thank you senator, for describing the legal process.” The remark drew rebuke from Trump, who chastised her on Truth Social for cutting Vance’s microphone to prevent him from responding.

Another moment saw one moderator press Walz to respond to Vance’s claims about fentanyl trafficking and kids being used as drug mules, but appeared to misquote him, saying he had claimed Harris was “letting in fentanyl and using kids as drug mules.”

“I didn't accuse Harris of inviting drug mules,” Vance objected. “I said that she enabled the Mexican drug cartels to operate freely in this country, and we know that they use children as drug mules, and it is a disgrace, and it has to stop.”

Choice of questions

The debate also saw the moderators largely omit a series of key policy issues, such as energy, which Vance noted in his closing statements.

Iran, for instance, received only a single question just hours after the country launched a volley of missiles against Israel. Both candidates were pressed on their potential support for a preemptive strike on Iran, though foreign policy largely was not featured.

Prominent in the debate were issues of disproportionate importance to Democrats, including abortion policy and climate change. Housing costs and inflation also featured prominently.