5 key takeaways from the vice-presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance

The only debate between the 2024 vice-presidential nominees has concluded. Here are our five key takeaways from the debate on CBS, which by the way included no mention of LGBTQ+ issues.

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JD Vance is in denial about January 6.

The Republican nominee, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, evaded many questions, including about the insurrection of January 6, 2021, and accepting election results. When moderator Norah O’Donnell asked about the subject, Vance said he was “focused on the future” and said Donald Trump encouraged his followers to protest peacefully when they tried to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. (Actually, he told them to “fight like hell.”)

The Democrat, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, pointed out that Trump has repeatedly denied that he lost the 2020 election and that 140 police officers were beaten at the Capitol that day. “To deny what happened on January 6, the first time in American history that a president or anyone tried to overturn a fair election and the peaceful transfer of power — and here we are, four years later, in the same boat,” Walz said. Trump is already laying the groundwork for imprisoning his political enemies.

Vance also said that questioning election results is not strictly a Republican issues, as Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, complained about Russians buying misleading ads on Facebook to undermine her. "January 6 was not Facebook ads," Walz responded, calling out Vance for his "revisionist history."

More denial, this time about health care.

Trump has been much criticized for his comment in the presidential debate with Kamala Harris that he has “concepts of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. When asked about this, Vance said, “You’re not going to propose a 900-page bill on a debate stage.” He claimed that Trump, as president, “salvaged Obamacare,” when in fact he tried unsuccessfully to repeal it.

The “concepts of a plan” comment, Walz said, “cracked me up as a fourth-grade teacher, because my kids would never have given me that.” He mentioned the loss of coverage for preexisting conditions if the ACA were repealed. “Kamala Harris will protect and enhance the ACA,” he said.

Vance said any plan from Trump would preserve coverage for preexisting conditions, saying there are laws in place for that. That law is the ACA.

To Vance, child care is primarily a women's issue, an exclusionary viewpoint.

“Being a working mom, even for someone with all the advantages of my wife, is extraordinarily difficult,” Vance said when asked about the availability and affordability of child care. “A lot of young women would like to go back to work immediately,” he continued, “some would like to spend a little time home with the kids, some would like to spend longer at home with the kids.” He said any government policy should support choice in child care, such as having churches or a group of neighbors provide the care, which is not funded by federal block grants.

Moderator Margaret Brennan asked Vance about Trump’s comment that child care is relatively inexpensive, which is not true. Vance said economic growth under Trump would generate enough revenue to make resources available for child care.

Walz said he hopes Congress will pass Harris’s proposal for a $5,000 child tax credit, and he favors paid family leave.

Vance talks about supporting women who have unwanted pregnancies, but his party has shown little willingness to do so.

“My party, we’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust,” Vance said after he mentioned a friend of his who had an abortion because she was in an abusive relationship. “I want us, as the Republican Party, to be pro-family in the fullest sense of the word. I want us to support fertility treatments. I want us to make it easier for moms to afford to have babies, I want to make it easier for young families to afford a home. … There’s so much we can do on the public policy front to give women more options.” But Republicans have often opposed policies that would give women — and men and families — more support so that they have options.

Vance also said the proper way to handle the abortion issue is to let each state set abortion policy. But Walz pointed out that women have died because they weren’t able to obtain an abortion in their state since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. “How can we as a nation say that your life and your rights, as basic as the right to control your own body, is determined on geography?” he said. “If Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota, she would be alive today.” Thurman, who lived in Georgia, died when she had to journey to North Carolina to have an abortion. Minnesota has written the terms of Roe into state law.

Vance denied that he ever supported a national ban on abortion, and he noted that his state of Ohio codified abortion rights by referendum.

Vance blames everything on undocumented immigrants, or as he often calls them, "illegal aliens."

Gun violence? It’s because weapons are coming across the southern border with illegal migrants, Vance said. However, most guns used in mass shootings are obtained legally. The lack of affordable housing? It’s “because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes,” he said. He also brought up Springfield, Ohio, where the Haitian immigrants he and Trump have demonized are here legally — and no, they're not eating dogs and cats.

Walz responded, “Look, this issue of continuing to bring this up, of not dealing with it, of blaming migrants for everything. On housing, we could talk a little bit about Wall Street speculators buying up housing and making them less affordable, but it becomes a blame.”

He also noted that there was a bipartisan bill pending in Congress to increase border security, speed up asylum claims, and more, but Trump instructed Republicans to kill it because he wanted to have immigration as a campaign issue.

Bonus takeaway: endorsements.

Walz touted the diverse endorsements Harris has received: “From Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney to Taylor Swift and a whole bunch of folks in between there.” Vance, on the other hand, mentioned Trump’s endorsements by “lifelong leaders in the democratic coalition,” conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who’s left the Democratic Party and offended many with her anti-LGBTQ+ comments.