What to watch for during the Vance-Walz VP debate

CNN
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Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance will face off Tuesday night in the only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election — and it could be the last time the two campaigns face off on stage.

The match between Walz, the 60-year-old governor of Minnesota, and Vance, the 40-year-old senator from Ohio, will be hosted by CBS News and will take place in New York without a live audience.

The debate coincides with major news stories at home and abroad – including recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene in the southeastern United States and the Middle East teetering on the brink as Israel escalates its campaign against Iranian-backed militant groups in Lebanon.

Vice presidential candidates traditionally play the role of attack dog for their frontrunners — in this case, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump.

But Walz and Vance also harassed each other for months. Walz won the Democratic vice-presidential award in part because he branded the GOP ticket “weird” in television interviews that served as semi-auditions for the role. Vance, a military veteran, has questioned Walz's length of service.

The debate will be moderated by CBS's Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan. It begins at 9 p.m. Eastern Time and will be simulcast on CNN.

Here are five things to keep in mind during the vice presidential debate:

The Middle American roots that lie at the core of Walz and Vance's well-cultivated political identities will be on display Tuesday night when the two men, a heartbeat away from the presidency, pitch their biographies to the largest audience of voters they likely had to date.

Walz, a two-term governor and former congressman, was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006. But expect him to take on the roles he held before entering politics: high school teacher and assistant football coach.

Vance, meanwhile, is a Marine veteran and the author of a best-selling book about his family's Appalachian values ​​and the socioeconomic struggles of his hometown. He will likely highlight how he has prevailed over the former president in recent years, without making much mention of his past as a political commentator and harsh Trump critic.

Both candidates' biographical presentations were born out of an effort to demonstrate their authenticity, a valuable political asset, especially in a race where undecided voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could decide the outcome.

Voters' decisions are overwhelmingly influenced by party leaders, and Walz and Vance will likely spend much of their time attacking Trump and Harris, respectively. But they could also spend time highlighting parts of their own biographies and trying to undermine those of their rivals – all in an effort to bolster their credibility with voters.

The two parties are divided on abortion rights, an issue that Democrats see as crucial to motivating women and young people and attracting swing voters.

Walz discussed the issue within the broader framework of Harris' support for “freedom,” a contrast to Trump, who appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted with the majority in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade's federal protections for abortion rights.

He has also revealed more vulnerable aspects of his own story, including the fertility issues he and his wife Gwen faced. And Democrats have highlighted Vance's 2021 joke about “childless cat ladies” to portray him as a condemner of women's reproductive choices.

Meanwhile, Vance and Trump struggled at times to see eye to eye on the issue of abortion. But Vance has supported measures that he said would incentivize childbearing.

He has also tried to portray Walz as extreme on the issue of abortion. He said at a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina last week that as governor of Minnesota, Walz supported a measure that would allow abortion “up to the moment of birth, even to the point where doctors would no longer be required to do it.” provide life-saving care to a baby who has survived a botched abortion.”

“This is just sick,” he said.

Walz put the measure into effect in early 2023. At the time, advocates said it aimed to keep decisions about reproductive care in the hands of women and their doctors, rather than in the hands of politicians and judges.

Walz emerged from relative national prominence to become Harris' vice president in August, after one of the quickest selection processes in a generation, in no small part because of his sweet and sharp comments on cable news.

His matter-of-fact insistence that Trump, Vance and their allies were “weird” captivated Democrats – who were desperate for a possible blow to MAGA Republicans – and pushed him narrowly short of the vice presidency.

Since then, however, Walz has been rather tame.

Cable news appearances dwindled, he didn't say much during his joint CNN interview with Harris, and his speeches didn't make many headlines. He spent some time on the defensive about his military successes but has largely faded into the background.

That will change on Tuesday evening. What is less clear is, for what purpose?

Walz could play the role Biden once played in a debate against another rising young conservative, when then-Vice President Mitt Romney stymied Vice President Paul Ryan in a crucial debate in 2012.

Or is there another reason why Walz has been kept somewhat under wraps for the last six weeks or so? The answer should be clear in the first minutes of the debate.

If past performance is any indication, Vance will condemn Walz for his military record.

Republicans, particularly Vance, have accused the governor of overstating his resume and retiring before his unit's deployment to Iraq. They claimed Walz was proactive in trying to avoid combat deployment. A review of records revealed that Walz filed to run for Congress in February 2005, before his unit was told it could deploy to Iraq. He retired in May 2005, according to the Minnesota National Guard.

Walz has also admitted that he misrepresented his experience carrying a “weapon of war.” Yet — according to a KFILE review of his first campaign — he never explicitly claimed to have been in combat.

The story is so nuanced that Vance is unlikely to budge. In August, he said Walz was Harris' “stolen bravery buddy” and called the governor's previous comments “disgraceful.”

It seems unlikely that Walz would want to litigate on stage, but Vance might persuade him to try.

For weeks, Vance and Trump have doubled and tripled down on false claims that Haitians in the Ohio city are kidnapping and eating their neighbors' pets.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and many others have called the claims outlandish, and no one has provided evidence to the contrary. Still, Trump and Vance want to put immigration front and center, and even though the migrants are in the country legally, the Republican Party has sought to use the debunked rumor to stoke anger over the Biden administration's handling of the border.

When Trump brought up Springfield during the presidential debate last month, the moderators checked on him in real time.

Pressed on the claims by CNN's Dana Bash in September, Vance said: “If I have to make up stories so that the American media will actually pay attention to the suffering of the American people, then I will.”

It wouldn't be surprising if Walz made this comment, especially as he attacks Republican rhetoric.