On a true politician's manner, both candidates began by avoiding answering the first question, which concerned Iran and Israel. The Democrats' Walz went on the attack against Donald Trump as unreliable in foreign policy matters, while Republican Trump's running mate Vance took the opportunity to give a quick version of his upbringing in a working-class family in Ohio.
But when migration and Springfield, Ohio came up – a city in Ohio about which the Trump campaign spread baseless rumors that Haitian migrants eat pets and are there illegally – things heated up.
Walz accused his opponent and his party of blaming everything on immigrants. Vance accused the Democratic administration of letting in "millions" of undocumented immigrants.
Trump dissatisfied
When the TV debate moderators pointed out that the Haitians in Springfield are there legally, Vance objected:
Since you're fact-checking me, I'd like to point out how it is, he said.
The moderators then explained that they would move on to discussing the economy, something that Vance opposed until his microphone was turned off. His boss, former President Donald Trump, followed the debate on TV and commented on the moderators' performance.
"Both the young women have been extremely partisan anchors!", he wrote in a post on his platform Truth Social about the CBS moderators. On the whole, however, the vice presidential candidates were relatively polite to each other and maintained a respectful tone.
Regarding the economy, Vance promised that Trump would "on day one" solve the rising prices in the wake of inflation. Walz claimed that Trump and Vance would try to dismantle the general healthcare system called "Obamacare".
Abortion issue hot
Another question was about abortion rights, which have been in the spotlight since the country's highest court revoked the decision in Roe vs Wade guaranteeing this.
Walz turned against the fact that it is now up to individual states to decide on the matter.
How can we as a nation claim to care about your life and your rights when something as fundamental as the right to your body depends on geography, Walz asked rhetorically and turned to female voters.
Pressed about fabricated memory
Both were also pressed about missteps and flip-flops. Walz was asked, for example, about having repeatedly claimed to have been on the scene as a teacher in Hong Kong when the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing took place in 1989. This despite the fact that he was actually in Nebraska and did not show up until several months later.
It was incorrect, I landed there that summer, he said and added that he sometimes "is a fool".
Vance had to answer for how it is that he is now Trump's running mate, a man he once criticized and compared to Hitler.
Sometimes I don't agree with the president (Trump), but I've also been very open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump, he said.
