J.D. Vance, Tim Walz clash, politely, at policy-heavy US vice-presidential debate

NEW YORK - Democrat Tim Walz and Republican J.D. Vance clashed on Oct 1 at a vice-presidential debate that was surprisingly civil amid the final stretch of an ugly election campaign marred by inflammatory rhetoric and

two assassination attempts.

The two rivals, who have forcefully attacked each other on the campaign trail, mostly struck a cordial tone, instead saving their fire for the candidates at the top of their tickets – Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris and Republican former president Donald Trump.

The most tense exchange occurred near the end of the debate, when Mr Vance – who has said he would not have voted to certify the results of the 2020 election – avoided a question about whether he would challenge the 2024 vote if Trump loses.

Mr Walz responded by blaming Trump’s false claims of voter fraud for instigating the Jan 6, 2021, mob that attacked the US Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to prevent the certification of Mr Joe Biden’s 2020 election.

“He is still saying he didn’t lose the election,” Mr Walz said, before turning to Mr Vance. “Did he lose the 2020 election?”

Mr Vance again sidestepped the question, instead accusing Ms Harris of pursuing online censorship of opposing viewpoints.

“That is a damning non-answer,” Mr Walz said.

Mr Walz, 60, the liberal governor of Minnesota and a former high school teacher, and Mr Vance, 40, a bestselling author and conservative firebrand US senator from Ohio, have portrayed themselves as two sons of America’s Midwestern heartland with deeply opposing views on the issues gripping the country.

The rivals each sought to land a lasting blow at the final debate before the Nov 5 presidential election, arguing over the Middle East crisis, immigration, taxes, abortion, climate change and the economy. But by and large, the two men appeared intent on providing a demonstration of “Midwestern nice”, thanking each other even while they went after their respective running mates in the traditional attack-dog role for vice-presidential candidates.

Mr Vance repeatedly questioned why Ms Harris had not done more to address inflation, immigration and the economy while serving in the Biden administration, mounting a consistent attack line that Trump often failed to deliver while

debating Ms Harris in September.

“If Kamala Harris has such great plans for how to address middle-class problems, then she ought to do them now – not when asking for promotion, but in the job the American people gave her 3½ years ago,” Mr Vance said.

He was effective in relentlessly targeting Ms Harris for criticism, but also made misleading or false statements over gun violence and the US record on climate gas emissions.

Mr Walz described Trump as an unstable leader who had prioritised billionaires, and turned Mr Vance’s criticism on its head on the issue of immigration, attacking Trump for pressuring Republicans in Congress to abandon a bipartisan border security Bill earlier this year.

“Most of us want to solve this,” Mr Walz said of immigration. “Donald Trump had four years to do this, and he promised you, Americans, how easy it will be.”

The night’s tone was a far cry from the divisiveness that has characterised the campaign. Trump has repeatedly denigrated Ms Harris, including levelling racist and sexist attacks, and twice escaped attempts on his life. Mr Walz had previously called his Republican opponents “weird”, and Mr Vance came under fire for past comments disparaging some Democrats as “childless cat ladies”.

Trump live-blogging

The debate at the CBS Broadcast Centre in New York began with the escalating crisis in the Middle East, after Israel continued its assault on southern Lebanon on Oct 1 and

Iran mounted retaliatory missile strikes against Israel.

Mr Walz said Trump is too “fickle” and sympathetic to strongmen to be trusted to handle the growing conflict, while Mr Vance asserted that Trump had made the world more secure during his term.

Asked whether he would support a preemptive strike against Iran by Israel, Mr Vance suggested he would defer to Israel’s judgment, while Mr Walz did not directly answer the question.

Trump, watching on television, was posting furiously during the debate, sometimes twice a minute, on his Truth Social site, attacking the CBS moderators and calling Mr Walz “pathetic” and “low IQ”.

A razor’s edge

Political analysts say vice-presidential debates generally do not alter the outcome of an election, and neither man delivered a knockout punch on Oct 1.

That said, even a slight shift in public opinion could prove decisive with the race on a razor’s edge five weeks before election day.

Mr Walz was asked about a report this week that he was not in China during the violent 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, as he had previously claimed.

“I’m a knucklehead at times,” he said during a meandering answer. “I got there that summer and misspoke on this. So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests, and from that I learned a lot about what it means to be in governance.”

Mr Vance, meanwhile, defended his running mate despite having criticised Trump ahead of the 2016 election.

“I was wrong about Donald Trump,” he said. “I was wrong, first of all, because I believe some of the media stories that turned out to be dishonest fabrications of his record. But most importantly, Donald Trump delivered for the American people.”

Mr Walz also criticised Trump for his role in appointing three US Supreme Court justices who joined the court’s decision to eliminate a nearly half-century nationwide right to abortion, an issue that has proven damaging to Republicans.

“Donald Trump put this all into motion,” Mr Walz said. “He brags about how great it was that he put the judges in and overturned Roe versus Wade,” the 1972 Supreme Court decision protecting a right to abortion.

Mr Vance, known for his deeply conservative stance on abortion, struck a more moderate tone on Oct 1, saying he did not back a national ban despite having previously done so. He said Trump’s view is that individual states should decide whether to limit abortion.

In a social media post, Trump said he would veto a national ban, weeks after he refused to say whether he would during the presidential debate.

Despite Mr Vance’s having written “Hillbilly Elegy”, a popular 2016 memoir, US voters have a negative view of him, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, with 51 per cent of registered voters saying they view him unfavourably, compared with 39 per cent who view him favourably.

Meanwhile, Mr Walz was viewed favourably by 44 per cent of registered voters, with 43 per cent reporting an unfavourable view in the Sept 20-23 poll.

Ms Harris was widely viewed as the winner of her sole debate with Trump on Sept 10 in Philadelphia, which was watched by an estimated 67 million people.

That square-off did little to change the trajectory of an extremely close election battle. While Ms Harris has edged ahead in national polls, most surveys show voters remain fairly evenly divided in the seven states that will decide the November election.

‘High drama’

Mr Walz and Mr Vance were each picked by their bosses to reach out to voters in the Midwestern battlegrounds where, thanks to the country’s idiosyncratic electoral college system, a few thousand votes could determine who wins the White House race.

Both are military veterans with strong blue-collar credentials. Mr Vance authored the Rust Belt memoir Hillbilly Elegy, while Walz boasts a folksy persona as a former teacher and football coach.

The similarities end there.

The combative Mr Vance shares Trump’s penchant for courting controversy, whether by smearing Democrats as “childless cat ladies” or by boosting false claims that Haitians living in an Ohio town ate residents’ pets.

His goal will be to overcome polls that initially had him as one of the least popular vice-presidential nominees in history, after a series of previous comments on women and abortion were unearthed.

“Vance has to be careful, because I think a trap has been laid for him,” said Prof Whalen.

The cheery Mr Walz will be seeking to introduce himself to a public that barely knows him, after Ms Harris’ swift rise to replace Mr Biden as the Democratic nominee.

Mr Walz became a hit with Democrats for branding Mr Vance and Trump “weird”, and for his progressive politics – but that will be a target for Mr Vance as he and Trump seek to paint their rivals as “Marxists”.

Mr Vance “is going up against a moron, a total moron”, Trump said in an interview on Sept 30 on Fox Nation.

Televised debates have already proved their ability to shock in 2024, with Mr Biden forced to drop his re-election bid after a disastrous performance against Trump in June brought long-simmering concerns about his age to the fore.

Prof Whalen said few vice-presidential debates have “had any appreciable difference” in the past, but the clash on Oct 1 could produce “high drama” for viewers who love political theatre. AFP, REUTERS