5 Takeaways From the Vance-Walz Vice Presidential Debate

Cordiality amidst clashes marked the first and only vice-presidential debate of 2024.

The Oct. 1 CBS News event hosted by Norah O’Donnell, of CBS Evening News, and Margaret Brennan, of Face the Nation, pitted Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Here are highlights of a debate that revealed commonalities and differences between the two Midwesterners.

Vance Highlights Harris’s Record, Walz Defends It

“If Kamala Harris has such great plans for how to address middle class problems, then she ought to do them now,” Vance said in his closing remarks.

The senator brought up Vice President Kamala Harris’s record on a range of issues from immigration and the economy to America’s ongoing housing crisis. He blamed Harris for moving to free up several billion in Iranian assets before the events of Oct. 7 when Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel.

“When did Iran and Hamas and their proxies attack Israel? It was during the administration of Kamala Harris,” Vance said.

Walz countered by claiming that former President Donald Trump’s leadership had laid the groundwork for destabilization in the region.

“We need the steady leadership that Kamala Harris is providing,” he said.

Vance described a surge of immigrants in recent years as one of multiple factors increasing housing prices, pinning responsibility on Harris and her administration for relatively lower wages for domestic workers and other issues he tied to the border.

Walz responded in part by saying that the border crisis could have been addressed through the bipartisan bill advanced by Sen. Jim Lankford (R-Okla.) and others earlier this year, in line with arguments from Harris and other Democrats.

Vance also blamed Harris for what he called “censorship on an industrial scale,” describing government-coordinated suppression of information on social media and in other contexts as more perilous to democracy than Trump’s rhetoric on Jan. 6, 2021.

Walz in his response pivoted to talk of Jan. 6, the initial question that prompted Vance’s talk of censorship.

Vance also discussed Harris’s record on energy, saying the United States “has got to invest more” in nuclear power than it has under Biden-Harris.

Amid a discussion of reshoring American manufacturing, Walz said, “much of what the senator said right there, I’m in agreement with him,” before saying the Schumer-Manchin bill championed by his ticket-mate drove manufacturing job growth.

In a discussion of housing prices, Walz said he and Vance could “find some common ground.”

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Vance said some of his opponent’s statements, which focused on the commoditization of homes and Minnesota’s down payment financial assistance program, included some things he sees as “halfway decent” and others with which he disagrees.

He went on to specify that he agrees housing shouldn’t be seen as a commodity.

In a discussion of childcare shortages, Vance said his opponent was right to emphasize a lack of flexibility when it comes to funding providers, saying churches and some other models cannot always easily get support under the status quo.

“Unfortunately—look, we’re going to have to spend more money,” the senator added.

“I don’t think Senator Vance and I are that far apart. I’m not opposed to what he’s talking about on options,” Walz said.

CBS Cuts Mics as Vance Challenges Fact Check

At the beginning of the debate, Brennan said the debate would “provide the candidates with the opportunity to fact-check claims made by each other.