New York:

Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz and his Republican rival JD Vance debated each other on Wednesday as millions of Americans tuned in to the first, and most-likely, only vice-presidential debate before the country votes on November 5.

Unlike the presidential debate, which saw personal attacks by the contenders, the vice presidential debate was calm, structured and surprisingly civil as Mr Vance and Mr Walz engaged in debating mostly policy issues.

Instead of indulging in slander, both candidates stuck to criticism of the opposing presidential candidate. The debate came as a surprise to most, especially after a months-long ugly and divisive election campaign – that saw personal attacks, derogatory language, racist slurs, inflammatory rhetoric and even assassination attempts.

The US Vice Presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz was calm, structured and surprisingly civil.

Mr Vance and Mr Walz too, have in the past, attacked each other during the election campaign, but for the vice-presidential debate, they struck a respectful tone.

THE MOST HEATED EXCHANGE OF THE DEBATE

The debate was cordial and focused mostly on policy matters but saw some tense moments towards the end when a question was asked to the Republican candidate on whether he agrees that Donald Trump lost the 2020 US election.

During the debate Mr Vance, who has said that he would not have voted to certify the result of the previous presidential election, evaded the question when asked if he would challenge this year’s vote if Donald Trump loses the election.

To this Mr Walz responded by blaming Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud which had instigated a mob attack on the US Capitol in January, 2021, which was an attempt to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election win in 2020.

Blaming Mr Vance, Mr Walz said, “He is still saying he (Tump) didn’t lose the election,”. He then directly questioned his rival by asking, “Did he (Trump) lose the 2020 election?” When the Republican candidate again dodged the question and went on to accuse Kamala Harris of pursuing online censorship of opposing views, the debate was at its most intense exchange.

“That’s a damning non-answer,” Mr Walz exclaimed.

Slamming JD Vance, Tim Walz said, “He is still saying he (Tump) didn’t lose the 2020 election”.

The two candidates, with vastly divergent views on every subject, debated each other on a series of subjects – from inflation to immigration, from taxes to the economy, from abortion to gender issues, the West Asia crisis and even climate change.

PUNCHES AND COUNTER-PUNCHES

Picking on each other’s presidential candidate and what they considered their vulnerabilities, both Mr Walz and Mr Vance dodged the verbal punches that came their way and responded with equal measure.

Describing Donald Trump as an “unstable” leader who puts the interest of billionaires before commoners, Mr Walz attacked Donald Trump over his policy on immigration. He slammed the former president for “pressuring the Republicans in Congress” to abandon the bipartisan bill on border security.

“Donald Trump had four years to do this. He promised you, Americans, saying how easy it will be.”

Mr Vance took a jab at the Democrats over the problem of inflation and economy, and repeatedly questioned Kamala Harris on why she has not done enough to address these important issues in the four years that she was vice-president in the Biden Administration.

Vance and Walz also clashed on pressing global issues, especially the crises in Europe and West Asia.

“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,” Mr Vance said.

The two also clashed on pressing global issues, especially the crises in Europe and West Asia. Mr Walz called Donald Trump “too fickle” and “sympathetic” to strongmen like Putin and Netanyahu and said that Trump cannot be trusted to handle the conflict-prone region. Mr Vance rejected these claims and asserted that when Mr Trump was President, he had made the world “a more secure place” during his term in office.

Donald Trump, who was watching the debate live, was posting messages – mostly personal attacks – on his website ‘Truth Social’ in his trademark style. He attacked the moderators of the debate hosted by US television network CBS. He also called the Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz a man with “low IQ” and even called him “pathetic”.

During the debate, Republican candidate JD Vance, who had once been a strong Trump basher, blamed the media for its reporting on Donald Trump, and tried to set the record straight by saying “I was wrong about Donald Trump”.

He went on to explain that “I was wrong, first of all, because I believe some of the media stories that turned out to be dishonest fabrications of his record. But most importantly, Donald Trump delivered for the American people.”

THE ‘MINNESOTA NICE’ DEBATE

The Vice Presidential debate was between Democratic candidate Tim Walz, 60, a former high school teacher and current Governor of Minnesota with liberal views, and his Republican rival JD Vance, 40, a former venture capitalist, bestselling author and conservative firebrand US senator from Ohio with some very conservative views on issues like abortion.

Though both candidates portrayed themselves as sons of America’s Midwestern heartland, each had deeply opposing views on nearly every major issue that is gripping a vastly polarised United States of America.

By and large both candidates appeared calm and courteous, demonstrating a ‘Minnesota Nice’ attitude throughout the debate.

While both candidates tried to outperform one-another while dealing the occasional blow to the rival, by and large both men appeared calm and courteous, demonstrating a ‘Minnesota Nice’ attitude throughout the debate, occasionally even thanking each other.

At the end of the debate, reports and polls suggested that neither candidate dealt a ‘knockout punch’ to the other, nor could one outshine the other, resulting in a balanced debate with no clear winner.

Political analysts believe that vice presidential debates generally do not alter the outcome of a presidential election. That said, even a slight shift in public opinion could prove decisive with the race on a razor’s edge five weeks before election day.
 

New York:

US vice presidential contenders JD Vance and Tim Walz took on the crisis in the Middle East as they met Tuesday for what could be an unusually important undercard debate, competing for decisive votes weeks before the election.

The showdown between Walz, the Democratic Minnesota governor chosen by Kamala Harris, and Vance, the Republican senator from Ohio who is Donald Trump’s running mate, is likely to be the last of the 2024 campaign.

Trump has refused a second debate with Vice President Harris, meaning this could be the final chance to see the two tickets go head to head.

The first question of the night was on Iran’s missile attack on Israel and Walz immediately turned his fire on Trump’s foreign policy record, slamming the ex-president for his “turn towards” Russia’s Vladimir Putin” and his withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear disarmament deal, known as the JCPOA.

“As much as Governor Walz just accused Donald Trump of being an agent of chaos, Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world,” Vance countered.

“And he did it by establishing effective deterrence. People were afraid of stepping out of line.”

Vance, 40, and Walz, 60, each claim to be the true voice of the crucial swing states — including Michigan and Wisconsin — that could decide an election that remains on a knife edge with five weeks to go.

History suggests vice-presidential debates rarely move the dial much. But in an election campaign that has seen Harris step in for President Joe Biden unprecedentedly late in the game, Tuesday’s contest may have added significance.

Biden offered words of encouragement for Walz, telling him in a post on X ahead of his big night: “Coach, I got your back tonight!”

The race has seen Vance and Trump use increasingly divisive rhetoric and even falsely accuse immigrants of eating people’s pets — meaning the debate could make for fiery television.

“It will whet a lot of people’s appetites for November 5,” Thomas Whalen, an associate professor of social sciences at Boston University, told AFP.

But the debate itself risked being overshadowed by Mideast tensions, after Iran launched ballistic missiles against Israel, which said it largely repelled the attack.

Trump, visiting swing state Wisconsin on Tuesday, focused on the crisis, insisting that “if I were in charge, today’s attack on Israel never would have happened.”

Should Harris and Walz win, he warned, “the world goes up in smoke.”

Trump told Vance to “have fun” when he was asked what advice he would give, praising his running mate as a “warrior.”

Harris for her part pledged her “unwavering” commitment to the security of Israel after Iran launched what she called “a reckless and brazen attack” on America’s ally.

The CBS clash comes as several states dig out from enormous storm Helene, which has left at least 150 people dead and brought misery to many thousands more.

‘High drama’ 

Walz and Vance were each picked by their bosses to reach out to voters in the Midwestern battlegrounds where, thanks to the country’s idiosyncratic electoral college system, a few thousand votes could determine who wins the White House race.

Both are military veterans with strong blue-collar credentials. Vance authored the Rust Belt memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” while Walz boasts a folksy persona as a former teacher and football coach.

The similarities end there.

The combative Vance shares Trump’s penchant for courting controversy, whether by smearing Democrats as “childless cat ladies” or by boosting false claims that Haitians living in an Ohio town ate residents’ pets.

His goal will be to overcome polls that initially had him as one of the least popular VP nominees in history after a series of previous comments on women and abortion were unearthed.

“Vance has to be careful because I think a trap has been laid for him,” said Whalen.

The cheery Walz will be seeking to introduce himself to a public that barely knows him, after Harris’s swift rise to replace Biden as the Democratic nominee.

He became a hit with Democrats for branding Vance and Trump “weird” and for his progressive politics — but that will be a target for Vance as he and Trump seek to paint Walz and Harris as “Marxists.”

Vance “is going up against a moron, a total moron,” Trump said in an interview Monday on Fox Nation.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)