In true politician fashion, both candidates began by avoiding answering the first question, which concerned Iran and Israel. The Democrat’s Walz attacked Donald Trump as untrustworthy in foreign affairs, while the Republican Trump’s partner Vance took the opportunity to give a quick version of his upbringing in a working-class family in Ohio.
But when the migration and Springfield, Ohio came up — an Ohio city about which the Trump campaign spread baseless rumors that Haitian migrants were eating pets and were there illegally — it ignited.
Walz accused his opponent and his party of blaming everything on immigrants. Vance blamed the Democratic administration for letting in “millions” of undocumented immigrants.
Trump unhappy
When the moderators of the televised debate pointed out that the Haitians in Springfield are there legally, Vance objected:
– Since you are fact-checking me, I would like to point out how it is, he said.
The moderators then declared that they would switch to talking about economics, which Vance resisted until his microphone was turned off. His boss, ex-president Donald Trump, followed the debate in the box and made comments on the efforts of the debate leaders.
“Both young women have been extremely biased anchors!” he writes in a post on his platform Truth Social about CBS moderators. On the whole, however, the deputy candidates were relatively polite to each other and maintained a respectful tone.
On the economy, Vance promised that Trump would “day one” solve rising prices in the wake of inflation. Walz argued his side that Trump and Vance will try to dismantle the universal health care system called “Obamacare”.
The abortion issue was hot
Another issue was that of the right to abortion, which has been in the news since the country’s highest court overturned the ruling Roe vs. Wade if it was guaranteed.
Walz objected to the fact that it is now up to the individual states to decide in the area.
– How can we as a nation claim to care about your life and your rights when something as basic as the right to your body depends on geography, Walz asked rhetorically, addressing female voters.
Pressed about invented memory
Both were also pressed for slips and reversals. Walz was asked, for example, that he claimed several times to have been there as a teacher in Hong Kong when the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing took place in 1989. This despite the fact that he was in fact in Nebraska and did not show up until several months later.
– It was wrong, I landed there that summer, he said, adding that sometimes he “is a fool”.
Vance had to answer how it is that he is now the vice presidential candidate of Trump, a man he once saw and compared to Hitler.
“Of course, sometimes I don’t agree with the president (Trump), but I’ve also been very open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump,” he said.