Vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz discussed various topics at the vice presidential debate hosted by CBS on Tuesday.
The moderators for the debate were CBS News anchors Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan.
One of the first topics of discussion debated by the two candidates involved immigration policy and the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Brennan asked Vance about his policy including the deportation of immigrants and the potential separation of immigrant parents from their United States-born children.
Vance responded to this by first saying that the immigration crisis was the doing of the Biden-Harris administration by undoing all of the Trump administration's border policies.
“About a million (immigrants) have committed some form of crime in addition to crossing the border illegally,” Vance said. “I think you start with deportations on those folks, and then I think you make it harder for illegal aliens to undercut the wages of American workers.”
As for separating immigrant families, Vance said Homeland Security has lost nearly 320,000 children that have either been sex trafficked or used for trafficking drugs, and the real family separator was Harris’ “wide open southern border.”
Walz responded to this by agreeing with Vance that immigrants bringing fentanyl into the U.S. are a problem but said Trump was the reason an immigration bill Harris tried to pass in Congress did not go through.
“Kamala Harris helped get that, 1500 new border agents, detection for drugs, DOJ money to speed up these adjudications on this, just what America wants, but as soon as I was getting ready to pass and actually tackle this, Donald Trump said no,” Walz said.
The next topic the candidates discussed was reproductive rights and the overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision to let the states decide on abortion rights.
O’Donnell proceeded to ask Walz about an allegation Trump made about Minnesota, where Walz is governor, being the least restrictive state when it comes to abortion and being okay with abortions in the ninth month.
Walz denied the allegation and talked about real-life examples of women who needed abortions and suffered because they were unable to get one in the state they lived in.
“This is a basic human right. We have seen maternal mortality skyrocket in Texas, outpacing many other countries in the world,” Walz said. “This is about health care. In Minnesota, we are ranked first in health care for a reason. We trust women. We trust doctors.”
Vance responded to Walz’s claims by saying he thinks it was the best option to leave the decision of having a right to an abortion to voters in a given state.
“One of the things that changed is that in the state of Ohio, we had a referendum in 2023, and the people of Ohio voted, overwhelmingly, by the way, against my position, and I think what I learned from that Nora is that we've got to do a better job at winning back people's trust,” Vance said.
The gun violence epidemic and increases in school shootings was another topic brought up by the moderators to be discussed by the VP candidates.
Vance was first asked if the parents of the people who are committing acts of gun violence in schools should be held accountable for the actions of their child.
Both candidates agreed that the government needs to do something to decrease the gun violence happening in U.S. schools, but whether or not the parents should be held accountable depends on the circumstances of the situation.
“I certainly trust local law enforcement, local authorities, to make those decisions,” Vance said. “The details really matter here, of course. For example, if a kid steals a gun, that's going to be different than if a parent hands over a gun knowing that their kid is potentially dangerous.”
Walz related to this, saying his 17-year-old son witnessed a shooting and how it sticks with a person.
He said he agreed there are things that need to be done through the government to decrease shootings in the U.S. that do not infringe on the Second Amendment.
“There are reasonable things that we can do to make a difference,” Walz said. “It's not infringing on your Second Amendment, and the idea to have some of these weapons out there, it just doesn't make any sense.”
During closing statements, Walz mentioned several prominent Democrats, including running mate Harris, who said they believe in a positive future for this county.
“Let's look for a new day where everybody gets that opportunity and everybody gets a chance to thrive. I humbly ask for your vote on Nov. 5 for Kamala Harris,” Walz said.
Vance’s closing statement took a different approach, saying the country has the potential to thrive and prosper but has not due to the Biden-Harris administration.
“(American people) are not going to be able to live their American dream if we do the same thing that we've been doing for the last three and a half years. We need change. We need a new direction,” Vance said.
