With only 34 days until election day, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance met in New York for the only Vice Presidential Debate for the 2024 election. With Donald Trump refusing a second presidential debate with Kamala Harris so far, this might be the last debate between the two campaigns before election day. While the night had a few fiery moments, there were some big issues to take away from it.
In recent months, there has been a lot of discussion about toning down extreme political rhetoric. In tonight’s debate, that was something both Walz and Vance attempted to do. While it was clear that they both had fundamental disagreements on certain issues, they also did work to try to show they could disagree while still being civil towards each other.
However, Vance’s main problem is that Donald Trump refuses to do the same thing. In the only Presidential debate, Trump called Harris a “Marxist”, a “radical” and “crooked”. Leading up to the debate, he called Harris “mentally impaired”, and during the debate said that Walz is “obviously not very bright,” on Truth Social. No matter how much Vance tried to make it seem that this is a normal election, Trump continues to remind voters that this is not a normal election because he is not a normal candidate. And while Vance did his best to make it seem like the policies he and Trump are running on are normal, it is important to remember where Vance and Trump actually stand.
The main way Vance tried to normalize Trump during the debate was by making him seem like a middle-of-the-road candidate. When talking about reproductive rights, Vance said that Trump made it clear that “the proper way to handle this is, as messy as Democracy sometimes is, is to let voters make these decisions, let the individual states make their abortion policy.” When discussing climate change, Vance said “Donald Trump and I support clean air and clean water, we want the environment to be cleaner and safer.” While Donald Trump has made these statements, there is missing context. During the Presidential debate, when asked if he would veto a national abortion ban, Trump responded, “Well I won’t have to,” before rambling about how Harris could never get the votes to pass a bill to restore Roe V. Wade. During the Vice-Presidential debate, Trump sent another message on Truth Social saying he would veto a national abortion ban, which means that no one has any idea what he would do if Congress were to pass a national abortion ban.
Regarding climate change, Trump has said he wants clean water and clean air. He has also referred to climate change as a hoax, and in the wake of Hurricane Helene, called climate change, “one of the greatest scams of all time.” Time and again, Vance tried to clean up Trump’s image, just for Trump to undermine whatever Vance said.
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The vice presidential nominee also tried to do this with his comments. When asked about his thoughts on a national abortion ban, Vance said he has never supported that, even though he has. No more was this attempt to revise history more clearly done than when the topic of the 2020 election came up.
There were a lot of problems with this topic. The most glaring issue was that it was not brought up until the 89th minute of the debate, which was far too long considering the Trump campaign is setting the groundwork to overturn the election. Then there was Vance’s answer, in which he said, “What President Trump has said is that there were problems in 2020, and my own belief is we should fight about those issues, fight about those issues, peacefully, in the public square.”
While this should not have to be said, it bears repeating that Trump did not just say there were problems with the election. He said that the election was stolen, there was massive amounts of fraud, and that former Vice President Mike Pence had the power to stop the election from happening.
Walz, for his part, would not stand for these comments. “He lost the election. This is not a debate. It’s not anything anywhere other than in Donald Trump’s world. Because look, when Mike Pence made that decision to certify that election, that’s why Mike Pence isn’t on this stage. What I’m concerned about is, where is the firewall with Donald Trump. Where is the firewall if he knows he can do anything including taking an election.”
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It was a good moment for Walz, who needed it. While he did make clear he stands for federal abortion protections, believes in climate change, thinks Trump is a threat to democracy, and that Trump tried to end the Affordable Care Act, not save it as Vance disingenuously claimed, there were moments when Walz was clearly out of his element. When asked about why he said he was in Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989 when he didn’t go until August, he gave a long-winded answer about his life story and the trips he took to China with his students. When asked again if he had made a mistake, Walz said, “All I said on this is that I got there that summer and misspoke on this. That’s what I’ve said.”
It was a moment that rattled Walz, and although he would go on to have a fine debate, this wasn’t the big win that the Democrats were hoping for. Historically, vice presidential debates rarely help win presidential elections. Vance did everything he could to court independent voters, but it will not change the fact that Trump is a polarizing figure in American politics. Walz had a very up-and-down debate, but it won’t change the fact that almost everyone thinks Harris crushed Trump in the presidential debate. In the end, this will still end up being a very contested election, and may very well come down to a single swing state like Pennsylvania.
