Key events
Vance is asked to respond to the question about family separations. He says that there are already “massive” child separations thanks to Kamala Harris’s “open border”.
He accuses Harris of having enabled Mexican drug cartels to operate freely and to use children as drug mules.
Walz says Kamala Harris, as attorney general of California, was “the only person in this race who prosecuted transnational gang for human trafficking and drug interventions”.
Walz notes that Donald Trump told his Republican lawmakers to vote against the “fairest and the toughest bill on immigration that this nation seen”.
Vance says Harris to blame for what he calls ‘historic immigration crisis’
The next question is about immigration. JD Vance is asked if he would deport parents who have entered the country illegally and separate them from their children.
“We have to stop the bleeding,” Vance replies, blaming Kamala Harris for a “historic immigration crisis”.
Vance says Donald Trump’s border policies have been reimplemented and calls for the wall to be built.
He says the first thing to start with is deportations of “criminal migrants” and then to make it harder for people who have entered the US ilegally to “undercut the wages of American workers”.
Fact check: Vance on climate change and manufacturing
JD Vance has repeatedly expressed skepticism about the reality that carbon emissions have caused global heating.
Tonight, he was a bit subtle: “One of the things that I’ve noticed is some of our Democratic friends talking a lot about is, is a concern about carbon emissions, this idea that carbon emissions drives all the climate change … let’s just say that’s true, just for the sake of argument.”
It is true. One hundred percent of global heating since 1950 is due to human activity such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation.
Vance also took us on a circuitous journey, to suggest that if Kamala Harris really cared about climate change, she would bring manufacturing jobs back to the US.
Of course, carbon emissions – whether they are manufactured in the US or overseas – contribute to global heating. But also, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 – the Biden administration’s landmark climate legislation – is greatly aimed at incentivizing domestic manufacturing.
Walz defends Biden-Harris administration investment in climate policies
Walz, on the subject of the climate crisis, notes that Donald Trump previously called it a “hoax”.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, Walz says, we’ve seen “massive investments – the biggest in global history that we’ve seen”. Walz says that the Inflation Reduction Act has created jobs all across the country.
He says that farmers in his state of Minnesota “know climate change is real”, having seen droughts and floods “back to back”.
The solution is to “move forward”, Walz says.
Vance says ‘re-shoring’ US manufacturing will cut emissions in climate crisis question
Vance says the answer to reducing carbon emissions would be to “re-shore as much American manufacturing as possible” and to produce as much energy as possible in the US.
“We’re the cleanest economy in the entire world,” Vance says. He says that Kamala Harris’s policies led to “more doing business in some of the dirtiest parts of the entire world”.
He says that “if we actually care”, then the best thing would be to “double down and invest in American workers and the American people”.
The next question is about Hurricane Helene and the climate crisis.
JD Vance is asked what responsibility the Trump administration would have in order to try to reduce the impact of climate change.
Vance says the hurricane is an “unbelievable, unspeakable human tragedy”:
Our hearts go out to those innocent people, our prayers go out to them, and we want as robust and aggressive as a federal response as we can get to save as many lives as possible.
On climate change, Vance says “a lot of people are justifiably worried about all these crazy weather patterns”, and he says he and Trump both support “clean air, clean water”.
Vance says he and Trump want the environment to be “cleaner and safer”.
Walz says Iran is closer to being a nuclear power, adding that allies know ‘Trump is fickle’
Walz responds by saying that Iran is closer to having a nuclear weapon because of Donald Trump’s leadership.
US allies “understand that Donald Trump is fickle”, Walz says:
He will go to whoever has the most flattery.
Tim Walz just referred back to a moment from earlier today, when Donald Trump appeared to suggest that US troops with traumatic brain injuries weren’t really that injured.
Trump was asked about Iran injuring 100 US troops in 2020, and here’s how he responded:
Wow — in response to a question about Iran injuring US 100 troops in 2020, Trump suggests they weren’t really hurt
“Because they had a headache?”
He then says “Iraq” when he means “Iran” and attacks the report who asked him the question pic.twitter.com/IyzhNa2DKP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 1, 2024
Vance says that it is up to Israel to do what they need to do to keep their country safe.
“We should support our allies wherever they are when they’re fighting the bad guys,” he says.
It’s Vance’s turn to answer the question, but he begins by talking about his background “because I recognize a lot of Americans don’t know who either one of us are”.
Vance says he knows that a lot of Americans are worried about “the chaos in the world” and “the feeling that the American dream is unattainable”.
Vance says Donald Trump “consistently made the world more secure” and that Trump, as president, recognized that “you needed peace through strength”.
Walz goes on to say that “steady leadership” is fundamental, and says Donald Trump “talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment”.
Walz notes that Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, said the former president was “the most flawed human being he’d ever met” and that Trump’s secretaries of defense and his national security advisers “said he should be nowhere near the White House”.
The CBS moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan will be focusing on enforcing ground rules, but they’re not planning on any aggressive fact-checking. Instead, CBS said the candidates will have opportunities to fact-check each other.
Of course, Guardian journalists will be fact-checking both candidates on this blog, in real time.
Candidates asked if they would support pre-emptive strike on Iran by Israel
The first question is about the Middle East.
Both candidates are asked whether they would support or oppose a pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran.
Walz begins by saying “let’s keep in mind where this started” and talks about the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel.
Israel’s ability to defend itself is “absolutely fundamental”, he says.
Walz and Vance take to the stage
Tim Walz and JD Vance are on the stage at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City before the vice-presidential debate.
The pair were pictured shaking hands.
After tonight’s debate, Tim Walz is expected to head out on a bus through Pennsylvania with stops in Harrisburg, Reading and York, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
Walz will be joined by John Fetterman, the Democratic senator for Pennsylvania.
The tour marks Walz’s second time campaigning in central Pennsylvania and fifth trip to the battleground state since he was tapped to serve as Kamala Harris’s running mate, the campaign said.
