Vice presidential candidates Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (Democrat) clashed on Tuesday in what is expected to be the final debate of this presidential election season.
With no subsequent presidential debates scheduled, this year’s vice presidential debate had unusually high stakes.
The discussion, which lasted less than two hours, was generally cordial, but there were a few heated moments.
Here are four memorable moments from the Vance-Walz debate:
Vance challenges the arbitrator on fact-checking.
Vance got into an argument with CBS News moderators after Margaret Brennan attempted to clarify his opinions on immigration in Springfield, Ohio, which has dominated the news cycle.
About 30 minutes into the debate, Brennan explained to viewers that in Springfield, “there are a lot of Haitian immigrants who have legal status, temporary protected status.”
“The rule was no fact-checking.” As the moderator was about to move on to the next question, Vance interrupted. “And I think it’s important to tell you what’s really going on because you’re fact-checking me.”
Vance tried to keep talking while Walz also tried to intervene. As the two people claimed, the host cut off the candidate’s microphone.
Walz pressed the China story.
Walz attempted to defend his past false claims that he was in Hong Kong during China’s Tiananmen Square student protests in 1989 and called himself a “knucklehead” before saying he had misspoke.
Brennan was pressed about recent reports that the Minnesota governor did not travel to Asia until August of that year, months after the protests broke out.
“I try to do my best, but I’m not perfect. I’m an asshole sometimes,” Walz said in a meandering reply.
When pressed to make his statement, Walz said he had made a mistake when he said he had arrived in the area that summer and had been there during the Tiananmen Square protests.
“I was in Hong Kong and China during the pro-democracy protests, and I learned a lot about what is needed for governance there,” he said.
Walz presses Vance on Trump’s 2020 election claims.
In the final moments of the debate, Walz and Vance argued over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and Trump’s continued claims that the 2020 election was affected by widespread voter fraud.
Walz asked Vance if Trump lost the 2020 election.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future.” Vance answered. “Has Kamala Harris censored Americans from speaking their minds in the wake of COVID 2020?”
“That’s so damned. That’s not a terrible answer,” Walz said.
Vance said the GOP needs to do a better job on the abortion issue.
Abortion is a major election issue heading into November, and Vance acknowledged the Republican Party’s weakness on the issue during the debate.
Vance responded to Waltz’s attacks on Trump’s record, saying, “We’ve got to do a much better job of regaining the trust of the American people on this issue, where frankly they don’t trust us.” problem.
“I think that’s one of the things Donald Trump and I are trying to do. “I want us as Republicans to be pro-family, literally.” Vance added, before emphasizing that President Trump wants to leave the abortion issue up to the states.
