The United States vice presidential candidates clashed on their approaches to the Middle East crisis, immigration, taxes, abortion, climate change and the economy during their first and likely only debate of the campaign.
The debate between Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance, broadcast from the CBS Broadcast Centre in New York on Tuesday (AEST), was heavy on policy disagreements but light on personal attacks.
The two rivals, who have savaged each other on the campaign trail, 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.
Here are the key takeaways.
Focus on presidential candidates
Vance questioned why Harris had not done more to address inflation, immigration and the economy while serving in President Joe Biden’s administration, mounting a consistent attack line that Trump often failed to deliver while debating Harris last month.
“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 three and a half years ago,” Vance said.
Walz described Trump as an unstable leader who had prioritised billionaires and turned 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,” Walz said of issues around immigration in the US.
“Donald Trump had four years to do this, and he promised you, Americans, how easy it will be.”
The 90-minute debate took place at New York’s CBS Broadcast Centre and was watched by millions. Source: Getty / Chip Somodevilla
Microphones muted
Moderators muted both participants at the same time at one point, to allow moderators to speak, in line with rules agreed to ahead of the event.
While the debate participants’ microphones were not automatically switched off when it was not their turn to speak — as with earlier presidential debates in the campaign — the moderators had the right to mute them at any time.
CBS News moderator Margaret Brennan told the two candidates: “Gentlemen, the audience can’t hear you because your mics are cut,” as co-moderator Norah O’Donnell began moving the debate discussion from immigration to the economy.
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is a senator for the state of Ohio. Source: Getty / Chip Somodevilla
Knucklehead admission
Walz was asked about a recent report 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.
“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.”
Election looming
It was the third and likely final debate in the campaign for the 2024 presidential election ahead of the 5 November election.
It followed on from presidential candidates and the , which led to Biden exiting the presidential race.
Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz is currently the governor of Minnesota. Source: Getty / Chip Somodevilla
Harris was widely viewed as the winner of her sole debate with Trump on 10 September 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 Harris has edged ahead in national polls, most surveys show voters remain fairly evenly divided in the seven ‘battleground’ states that will decide the November election.
