JD Vance and Tim Walz meet Tuesday night in the first and only vice presidential debate of the 2024 campaign.
Historically, the face-off between running mates hasn’t mattered in terms of the outcome in November. Nevertheless, vice presidential debates have yielded some of the most memorable political moments in recent history.
For many, the evening will serve as an introduction to Ohio Sen. Vance and Minnesota Gov. Walz. In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, roughly a quarter of those polled said they had never heard of the two men.
Los Angeles Times columnists Lorraine Ali, Mark Z. Barabak, Anita Chabria and Doyle McManus are watching the debate live, discussing the highlights and lowlights as they happen.
How to watch the debate| Debate moderators| What to know
6:31 p.m.: Mark, I love that you love an old-school debate. But I feel like I’m watching the teacher from “Peanuts,” who drones on with no real words. “Waaa waaa, waa waaaa.”
—Chabria
6:30 p.m.: One analyst I spoke with beforehand suggested, absent Donald Trump’s bluster, this could be a more thoughtful, substantive debate than either of the two featuring the candidates atop the ticket.
And so far that seems to be the case.
Each is making his points without a lot of the histrionics and Sturm und Drang that turned Trump vs. Biden as well as Trump vs. Harris into the rhetorical equivalent of a high school food fight.
Pretty good opportunity for those watching to appreciate the difference between the two tickets.
—Barabak
6:29 p.m.: Mics cut for both. Stop babbling.
—Chabria
6:26 p.m.: The wave of “a Kamala Harris open border wand.” Magical words from Vance about immigration, but not magical enough to keep his mic from being cut a moment later. Walz’s was cut as well.
—Ali
6:24 p.m.: Springfield! Walz brings it up. Then, weirdly, he says something nice about Vance, that he believes Vance too wants to solve the issue of immigration. People, we are here to fight! Vance comes back with an also-weird answer where he says Walz wants to solve the problem too. Are we bro-mancing here? Ya’ll, not to be shallow. But, yawn.
—Chabria
6:22 p.m.: As Mark noted a few minutes ago, from a technical standpoint, Vance is very good at this format. He’s relentlessly blaming every problem in the country on something he calls “the Kamala Harris administration.” Chaos in the Middle East? The “Harris administration.” High gasoline prices? “Kamala Harris’ policies.” A crisis on the southern border? “We have a massive immigration crisis because Kamala Harris … wanted to undo all of Donald Trump’s border policies.”
Without debating the substance of all these issues, everything Harris has done for the last four years has been carrying out the policies of the president she worked for, Joe Biden. But it’s in Vance’s and Trump’s interest to rebrand it — hence, the “Kamala Harris administration.”
—McManus
6:21 p.m.: Vance’s tie matches Margaret Brennan’s suit. Walz’s tie matches Norah O’Donnell’s. Conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day.
– Ali
6:20 p.m.: Vance has it all over Walz so far on style points.
The Democrat still seems a bit unsettled to my eye — pausing, occasionally stammering over his words, peering down, scribbling notes.
Vance is forceful, direct-to-the-camera. Speaking in crisp, neatly indented paragraphs. Even a JFK-style karate chop or two!
—Barabak
6:18 p.m.: Vance is backtracking so fast on immigration he could win an Olympic gold medal. All of a sudden, there’s no dog tacos in sight. Instead, we’re only going to deport criminals, which no one disagrees with. This is 100% not what he says to his base.
—Chabria
6:17 p.m.: JD Vance offers a hypothetical in response to a question about Hurricane Helene and climate change: “Let’s just say carbon emissions are true.” Yes, let’s say that, because it is true!
—Ali
6:12 p.m.: Vance brings up Hurricane Helene and promises that the federal government will do everything possible to help with recovery if Trump is elected. Except Trump wants to do away with itty-bitty things like FEMA and the Weather Service. Hmm. Are we going to send elves?
—Chabria
6:10 p.m.: Vance is a very skilled debater and manages to show it off on the very first question.
It dealt with Iran’s attack on Israel but Vance — deftly — pivoted into a brief autobiographical introduction of himself.
Polls show these two men are strangers to a large chunk of the electorate, and Vance is clearly mindful of the need for that type of overview before getting into the rhetorical meat and potatoes of the evening.
—Barabak
6:10 p.m.: Fickle, fickle are the fates. Walz hits Trump as fickle and clearly the jitters are past. This is off to a strong start as a superboring policy debate. Fireworks, please!
—Chabria
6:09 p.m.: On the specific question of whether he would support a preemptive Israeli strike against Iran, Vance said, essentially, yes: “We should support our allies wherever they are when they are fighting the bad guys.” That’s going to set off some back-and-forth over the coming weeks — because that’s a recipe for a gigantic regional war between Israel and Iran.
—McManus
6:07 p.m.: Vance comes out strong and clear with a brief bio. Hillbilly. Mom fighting addiction. America! He’s off to a strong start.
—Chabria
6:06 p.m. Walz starts off sounding nervous, but making his points. C’mon, coach. Play the game!
—Chabria
6:05 p.m.: Debate starts off with a question about Iran and Israel, but Walz shows he’s not going to wait for an in to attack the opposing ticket. He used the moment to address another global threat: “A nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment…. Those around Trump see how dangerous he is when the world is this dangerous.” I’d use a football analogy here about playbooks and winning strategies, but I know nothing about sports. Simply put, he showed some moxie.
—Ali
6:01 p.m.: And away we go!
A brief handshake between Vance and Walz. Midwest Nice prevails!
Joe Biden and Donald Trump — who plainly detest each other — wouldn’t deign to shake hands. Kamala Harris took the initiative in her debate with Trump, crossing the stage and extending her hand.
“Let’s have a good debate,” she said.
“Nice to see you,” Trump responded. “Have fun.”
And she seemed to.
—Barabak
5:45 p.m.: Can JD Vance feign normalcy for 90 minutes? What will it take for Tim Walz to appear more folksy than he already does? Coveralls? A wrench in one hand, and a Farmer’s Almanac in the other?
So many deep questions heading into tonight’s debate between the senator from Ohio and the Minnesota governor. The name of the game is appealing to working-class voters in the “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin (the rest of us are superfluous), but what that looks like depends on the candidate. Is it about demonizing immigrants or big business? Lamenting abortion bans or the high price of eggs and milk?
Breaking news also presents challenges. Who will dare to go near the expanding war in the Middle East, where Israel just launched a ground invasion into Lebanon and Iran launched missiles toward Israel? Gaza has been a hot potato on the campaign trail, and this is a conflict that the winning party will inherit.
And remember, this is a VP debate so the potential is high for it to be about as exciting as watching your dog sleep. Consider memorable outtakes of past VP debates: Former Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan nervously drinking copious amounts of water during his debate with VP incumbent Joe Biden in 2012 (see the “SNL” sketch), or the fly that lodged itself in then-Vice President Mike Pence’s hair as he sparred with Harris in 2020 (see the “SNL” sketch).
But with an incredibly tight election on the horizon, this could be the rare VP debate that makes an impression — or lends itself to another great “SNL” sketch.
—Lorraine Ali
5:30 p.m.: In the battle of Midwestern dads, I think we’ll see each one try to steal a little mojo from the other. JD Vance will try to come across as amiable and reasonable (a ginormous stretch after his Springfield rants) while Tim Walz will try to go tougher and throw some not-so-pleasant-guy punches against Vance and Trump.
How that switch lands with viewers will determine the winner. Do we like a bully who can play nice, or a nice guy who can take on a bully? I’ll let you figure out who is who.
Along with the usual topics — immigration, abortion and the economy — current events, including Tuesday’s attack on Israel by Iran and the federal response to the devastation of Hurricane Helene, will probably pop up.
But enough guessing, here we go.
—Anita Chabria
5:20: p.m.: The most important thing to remember about a vice presidential debate is that the two candidates onstage aren’t really running against each other. They’re just surrogates (OK, super-surrogates). Their main job is to represent the candidates at the top of the tickets.
That’s why Lloyd Bentsen’s “Jack Kennedy” line, while brilliant, didn’t affect the election of 1988. It’s why campaign insiders consider Joe Biden’s solid 2012 performance against Paul Ryan a model to emulate, even though it didn’t feature any memorable quips. Biden made a better case for his boss, then-President Barack Obama, than Obama had made in his lackluster first debate against Mitt Romney.
So Tim Walz’s main mission is to make the most effective case he can for a Harris presidency, and remind voters of everything they dislike about Trump. JD Vance’s mission is to make the case for a Trump presidency and reinforce undecided voters’ doubts about Harris.
I’d expect Vance to spend most of his time talking up Trump’s first-term economy and attacking both Harris and Vance as “dangerously liberal.” Polls suggest those have been the Trump campaign’s most effective messages to the few remaining undecided voters.
And I’d expect Walz to deliver a folksy explanation of Harris’ economic plan and a middle-class attack on Trump’s economic proposals (tax cuts for corporations, high tariffs that would push prices up).
Wild Card: Will Walz remind voters that Trump is 78 years old (in contrast to Harris’ youthful-by-current-standards 59), making it more possible that Vance, with his weird views on childless cat ladies, could end up in the Oval Office?
—Doyle McManus
5:10 p.m.: Allow me to kick things off with some thoughts on what I’ll be watching for, then you all can chime in.
As noted, it’s virtually certain that nothing said or done at CBS News headquarters in New York will matter a whole lot once the studio lights fade. Recall, from 1988, Dan Quayle and the infamous “You’re no Jack Kennedy” rejoinder, which Democrat Lloyd Bentsen leveled after the youthful Quayle compared himself to the youthful president. The gibe blew Quayle off the debate stage; then, just a few weeks later, Republicans won the White House in a landslide.
That said, it could be an interesting and, dare I say, entertaining evening — depending on your tastes in entertainment. Tim Walz and JD Vance share a Midwestern pedigree and that’s pretty much it.
Walz is all avuncular, with his can-I-help-shovel-your-walk approachability and good cheer. His attacks — “They’re weird!” — tend to singe, not burn. Will he take a more aggressive tack tonight?
Vance has certainly given him plenty to work with, whether it’s his denigrating remarks about “childless cat ladies” or the phony horror stories he’s conjured about supposedly pet-eating Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.
Vance, who’s approached his understudy role with fists up and teeth bared, seems to have the tougher challenge of the two, making himself appear more likable while taking on Walz and, especially, Kamala Harris.
But maybe Vance doesn’t care about his popularity with voters beyond the MAGA base. He may simply play to an audience of one, Donald Trump, who only has one mode and one method: attack, attack, attack.
—Mark Z. Barabak