Did we just see a U-turn in politics? On Oct. 2, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Senator J.D Vance faced off in a vice presidential debate on CBS News. This comes just a month after the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump and just five weeks before the Presidential election.
As the vice presidential hopefulls stepped on the stage, they embraced in the obligatory handshake. They then took their places at their stands. There were many important topics that needed to be covered between the two candidates. Topics included abortion rights, the influx of immigration, and climate change. Both candidates had the difficult job of revealing who they are as politicians, as both were relatively unknown prior to being selected.
The opening remarks were made at 8pm with the first question being about the current state of the Middle East. Walz was asked by moderator Margaret Brennan, “If you were the final voice in the situation room, would you support or oppose a preemptive strike by Isreal on Iran?” Per debate rules, Walz had two minutes to respond. His response began with, “We have been clear Israel has the right to defend itself. We’ve always stood in that position.”, he continued however with, “We have always said we reserve the right to protect American troops, our allies in the region, and that there are consequences for Iran”. Senator Vance then had two minutes to offer a rebuttal.
Both candidates had key talking points going into the debate, however, they both launched their attack at the opposers runing mate, rather than at each other. Walz focused on topics such as Trump’s age saying, “It’s clear, and the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago: A nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment.” Many Americans have noted that while Trump has previously targetted Biden’s age when debating him, if Trump wins, he will be the oldest president in history at the age of 78.
Vance attacked the Biden administration’s handling of the border. Current Vice Preisdent Kamala Harris was named the “Border Czar”, and has been fiercely criticized by republicans for the influx of immigration. Vance stated, “We have a historic immigration crisis because Kamala Harris started and said that she wanted to undo all of Donald Trump’s border policies.” Border crossings have been on the increase since Biden has entered office, and it has caused uproar as immigrants have been bombarding streets all over the nation.
Overall, Americans had a pretty positive review of the debate. With the presidential election soon approaching this debate was a huge factor in many voters’ minds. While I am sure there are still many undecided voters, this debate was the decdiding factor for many.
