Debate sees Vance edge Walz in final vice presidential clash

Commentators evaluated the debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz, the candidates for vice president of the USA, as an exceptionally calm and substantive discussion. According to surveys, Donald Trump's candidate performed slightly better.

Governor of Minnesota Walz and Ohio Senator Vance clashed in the CBS television studio in New York in what was likely the last televised debate before the 5 November elections.

Although the stage was not lacking in mutual accusations, the discussion climate mainly lacked the sharp verbal skirmishes typical of presidential candidates. Both candidates repeatedly acknowledged each other's points and declared faith in their opponents' goodwill.

The debate covered topics such as the economy, healthcare, abortion, the right to bear arms, and the future of American democracy. Interestingly, the war in Ukraine did not come up. However, the discussion began with the situation in the Middle East and Iran's missile attack on Israel. Neither candidate directly answered the question of whether they would support a "preemptive" Israeli attack on Iran.

Walz pointed to Kamala Harris's words and her declarations that the USA "will protect our forces and our allied forces" and that Iran will face consequences for its attack on Israel. He also accused Trump of contributing to the dissolution of the nuclear deal with Iran, which limited its nuclear programme, and argued that America needs reliable leadership and a commitment to alliances.

"When our allies see Donald Trump turn towards Vladimir Putin, turn towards North Korea, when we start to see that type of fickleness around holding the coalitions together, we will stay committed," declared Walz.

Vance, on the other hand, stated that Israel should decide how to respond to the Iranian attack, and America should "support our allies wherever they are when they're fighting the bad guys." He also argued that during Trump's presidency, there was stability because America's enemies feared him.

In the discussion on abortion, J.D. Vance admitted that a significant portion of voters do not share his views. He is an opponent of abortion, but in 2023 voters in Ohio – the state he represents – supported protecting abortion rights.

"We've got to do so much better of a job at earning the American People's trust back on this issue [abortion] where they frankly just don't trust us," Vance said. He stated that he and Donald Trump support maintaining various regulations on abortion depending on individual states.

Walz recalled the story of a young woman, Amber Thurmond, who could not obtain an abortion in her state – Georgia – and died while travelling to North Carolina, where she planned to undergo the procedure. He added that if it were not for the repeal of the nationwide right to abortion by judges appointed by Trump, the woman might still be alive. He also claimed that if Trump and Vance come to power, there will be a pregnancy registry and restrictions on contraception and in vitro fertilisation (Vance denied this).

The candidates agreed—though they had different solutions—that housing availability, healthcare quality, and tax breaks for parents of children must be increased.

Vance also praised the current Biden administration for continuing Trump's protectionist policies. Biden has maintained most of the tariffs introduced by his predecessor and even introduced new ones.

Walz criticised Trump's plan to introduce universal tariffs on all foreign products, claiming it would effectively tax consumers and contribute to inflation.

The Republican senator repeatedly returned to the topic of immigration, claiming that the current policy – which he called "Kamala Harris's open borders" – allows for the free smuggling of drugs, burdens the healthcare and education systems, and increases crime. However, he did not repeat his previously promoted false stories about immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, and did not want to directly answer the question about Trump's promised "mass deportations."

Walz referred to this, mentioning the bipartisan bill to tighten border restrictions that Donald Trump torpedoed.

"We fix this issue with a bill that is necessary. But the issue on this is this is what happens when you don't want to solve it. You demonize it. And we saw this, and Senator Vance, and it surprises me on this, talking about and saying, "I will create stories to bring attention to this." That vilified a large number of people who were here legally in the community of Springfield. There's consequences for this. There's consequences. We could come together. Senator Lankford did it. We could come together and solve this if we didn't let Donald Trump continue to make it an issue," Walz noted.

A more excellent contrast between the candidates was visible during the discussion on threats to American democracy. Walz warned that Trump is already laying the groundwork to contest the election results once again. He also accused Vance of "revising history" and downplaying the seriousness of the pro-Trump supporters' storming of the Capitol on 6 January. He also directly asked his rival whether Trump still believes he won the 2020 election.

Vance—who has previously said he would not certify those election results—did not answer that question. However, he promised that if Walz and Kamala Harris win the election, he will personally accept the result and pray for them.

"Kamala Harris is engaged in censorship at an industrial scale. She did it during COVID, she's done it over a number of other issues. And that, to me, is a much bigger threat to democracy than what Donald Trump said when he said that protesters should peacefully protest on January 6th," Vance said. He accused the current administration of wanting to censor social media users for spreading misinformation.

According to a CNN poll, J.D. Vance narrowly won the debate. 51 per cent of respondents indicated him as the winner, while 49 per cent chose Walz.

CBS, which organised the Tuesday debate, also published its survey. The result was very similar to CNN's: 43 per cent indicated Vance as the winner, while 42 per cent chose Walz.

Before the debate, 52 per cent of respondents viewed Walz positively, while after the debate, it rose to 60 per cent. For Vance, these ratings increased from 40 to 49 per cent.

According to the respondents, Walz performed significantly better than Vance on the issue of abortion (62:38 per cent) and healthcare (59:41 per cent). In matters mentioned as most important to voters – the economy and immigration – Vance held a slight edge (51:49 and 52:48 per cent, respectively).

The U.S. presidential elections will take place on 5 November.