ANALYSIS — Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz clashed during a frenetic Tuesday evening debate over a number of hot-button issues, again making clear voters soon will choose between widely diverging visions for the future of the country.
The Republican nominee called for policies to make the country “more pro-baby and pro-family,” while the Democratic nominee said reproductive decisions should be up to women and their doctors. But it was Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, who made the most news on the issue Tuesday night.
In an all-capital letters social media post, he declared: “EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT, BECAUSE IT IS UP TO THE STATES TO DECIDE BASED ON THE WILL OF THEIR VOTERS (THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!).”
Vance defended Republicans’ support for the end of federal abortion protections by touting the matter should be up to each state, while Walz shared stories of women he said died because of conservative justices — three picked by then-President Donald Trump — and reminded voters of his personal history with reproductive treatments.
Walz and Vance met for their lone planned verbal sparring session as several Southeast states — including battlegrounds Georgia and North Carolina — were still reeling from Hurricane Helene. And earlier Tuesday, Iran launched its second missile attack on Israel in several months, this one in retaliation for a number of Israeli air strikes inside Lebanon that killed several top Hezbollah leaders and civilians.
Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, was in hard-hit Georgia on Monday. Harris was scheduled to visit there on Wednesday, with President Joe Biden headed to the storm-ravaged Carolinas also on Wednesday. White House officials on Tuesday declared anew Biden’s support for Israel, which included an order to U.S. military officials to help the country’s Defense Forces shoot down the Iranian missiles.
In another era, the twin crises might have a shot at swinging a presidential election toward one candidate. That has not been the case this cycle since Harris became the Democratic nominee and turned what was a likely Trump defeat of Biden into a competitive race. The Trump-Harris contest has been a dead heat nationally and in seven key battleground states for over a month.
“Fasten your seat belts! The presidential campaign will be a long and bumpy ride thru the battleground states. The state races in the electoral college combat zones are as tight as ticks on hound dogs,” Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist, said in an email. “It will be hard to create much separation in this hyper-partisan, polarized political environment. This will be a grind it out campaign. No Hail Mary passes, but lots of runs that create three yards and a cloud of dust. Turnout will be key.”
To that end, Walz and Vance spent ample time during their debate trying to rev up their respective bases. Here are some top takeaways.
Israel-Iran tensions
The debate began with a flub by a seemingly nervous Walz and a shaky premise underlying the first question. The VP nominees were asked whether they would support Israel carrying out a “preemptive strike” on Iran.
Both candidates said they fully support the Jewish State and its right to defend itself. Walz went even further, but made a gaffe, alluding to “Israel and its proxies.” One major challenge for decades for Israel has been dealing with all of Iran’s proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups in the region.
But the question seemed to miss a key point: Iran has twice fired hundreds of missiles and drones at population centers inside Israel. So a major Israeli attack on Iran would no longer meet widely held definitions of a preemptive strike.
Vance had some name troubles of his own, twice referring to CBS moderator Norah O’Donnell as “Laura.”
Mass deportations
The nominees clashed over Trump’s proposal to carry out what the ticket has boasted would be the largest mass deportation program of individuals in the U.S. illegally.
Walz appeared to suggest his biggest gripe with the idea of rounding up perhaps millions of people and returning them to their native countries simply would be “unworkable.”
But he also knocked Vance’s running mate for pushing Senate Republicans to earlier this year block a bipartisan border and immigration package. Without new policies in place, “it gives him a campaign issue,” Walz said of Trump. “What would Donald Trump talk about if we did these things?”
The Democratic VP nominee also contended, while Trump was president, “less than 2 percent of that wall got built — and Mexico didn’t pay a dime.”
A Harris campaign official said their focus group of undecided voters responded particularly well to Walz’s reminder that Trump did not build the wall and did not get Mexico to pay for it, as Trump repeatedly said the country to the south of the United States would do.
For his part, Vance proposed starting the deportation program by rounding up illegal migrants that have criminal records. “We have to stop the bleeding,” the Ohio senator said, contending the Biden-Harris administration has allowed “massively increasing asylum fraud” and accused the vice president of “letting in fentanyl” across the Southern border.
He also said a second Trump administration would “make it harder for migrants to undercut the wages of America workers.”
Peaceful transfer?
Given the opportunity by the CBS moderators to clearly say he would vote to certify the coming election Vance (who will still be a senator on January 6 unless he resigns) opted against doing so.
Instead, he said the 2020 election allegations Trump pushed — and continues to push — should be debated “peacefully.” Vance also took a jab at Harris’ and Walz’s — and Biden’s — contention that Trump is a threat to Democracy by contending the actual one is “censorship” by big technology companies and Democrats.
Walz recounted the history of Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol riot and said of Trump: “For the first time in history that a president … tried to overturn the peaceful transfer of power. … The winner has to be the winner. This has to stop.”
Vance also did not answer Walz’s question about whether Trump lost the 2020 election.
‘Really great shape’
Harris and Biden spent the day in Washington, first receiving briefings on the ongoing Hurricane Helene search-and-rescue and relief efforts, then monitoring the second retaliatory missile strike this year on Israel by Iran.
“The attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective,” Biden told reporters at the White house. “Make no mistake, the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel.”
Trump made a campaign stop in Wisconsin, where he falsely stated that he was solely responsible for Starlink satellite assets being deployed to affected areas of the hurricane to help with communications. FEMA on Monday said it had sent around 50 Starlink units to the Carolinas and other hard-hit places.
Trump also falsely said storm victims were in “really great shape now from the standpoint of emergency needs” since the units had arrived. But video footage from several states and officials in Western North Carolina indicated the opposite, with thousands still without power and hundreds still missing.
Localities on Tuesday night were still pleading on social media for monetary and other forms of donations, including: food, chainsaws, fuel, ATVs, bottled water, baby formula and cleaning supplies.
Niels Lesniewski contributed to this report.
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