Immigration, taxes, abortion, climate change, the Middle East crisis, and the economy remained at the centre of the lone VP debate between US Vice presidential nominees Tim Valz and JD Vance on Tuesday.
The debate, which remained surprisingly civil and calm, was in stark contrast to the ongoing heated campaigns marred by two assassination attempts and scathing personal attacks ahead of the 5 November elections.
JD Vance, Donald Trump’s pick for VP and Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, remained cautious about their approach to the televised debate hosted by CBS News in New York.
Unlike the two presidential debates, Vance and Walz made no gaffe large enough to tarnish their party’s ticket. Instead, they remained calm throughout the debate, focusing on various issues, including women's abortion rights, immigration policy, economic turmoil, etc.
The issue of women's abortion rights and guns remained one of the hot buttons of the debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz. While Vance denied supporting a national ban on abortion, he accused the Democrats of being “pro-abortion”.
“We have a partial-birth abortion ban in place in this country at the federal level. I don't think anybody's trying to get rid of that, or at least I hope not, though I know that Democrats have taken a very radical pro-abortion stance,” Vance said during the debate.
Reacting to Vance’s accusation of Democrats being “pro-abortion”, Walz responded sharply, “No, we are not. We’re pro-women. We’re pro-freedom to make your choice.”
The two leaders locked horns on one of the most burning issues of the US election campaigns: immigration. Walz accused Vance and Trump of villainising legal immigrants. He also highlighted the repercussions of Donald Trump and JD Vance’s false claims about Haitians eating pets.
“This is what happens when you don’t want to solve it. You demonise it,” AP quoted Walz, who added that not doing so would allow people to “come together.”
In retaliation, Vance said the 15,000 Haitians in the city had caused housing, economic and other issues that the Biden-Harris administration was ignoring.
Questioning Kamala Harris’s leadership and stance on economic issues, JD Vance advocated for a change in regime for “a new direction.” He also asked why Harris didn’t implement her economic plans to address middle-class problems now while being in the government.
“If Kamala Harris has such great plans for how to address middle-class problems, then she ought to do them now - not when asking for promotion, but in the job the American people gave her 3-1/2 years ago,” Vance said.
“Whether you're rich or poor, you ought to be able to afford a nice meal for your family. That's gotten harder because of Kamala Harris' policies,” he added.
Despite arguing on various issues, the two leaders shied away from making a clear statement related to the Middle East crisis and Iran’s attack against Israel and the latter’s retaliation.
Neither of the two leaders, however, would say if they would approve of a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran, reported BBC.
During the debate, Tim Walz was forced to explain his previous claims about his presence in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in 1989. Earlier, he had claimed to be in Hong Kong for a teaching position.
“I got there that summer and misspoke on this,” AFP quoted Walz as he called himself a “knucklehead” who “will get caught up in the rhetoric.”
“I got there that summer and misspoke on this. So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests, and from that, I learned a lot about what it means to be in governance,” he added.
Tim Walz and JD Vance were at loggerheads over Donald Trump’s policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Minnesota governor criticised former US President Trump's handling of the pandemic and said Kamala Harris inherited Donald Trump’s failure on COVID-19, which he said “led to the collapse of the US economy."
