Vice presidential nominees Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) clashed Tuesday in what is likely to be the last debate of this presidential election season.
Without a scheduled presidential debate to follow it up, this year’s vice presidential debate featured unusually high stakes.
The debate, which lasted just under two hours, was largely congenial, but featured several high-octane moments.
Here are four memorable moments from the Vance-Walz debate.
Vance challenges moderators on fact-checking
Vance sparred with the CBS News moderators after Margaret Brennan attempted to clarify his comments about immigration in Springfield, Ohio, that have dominated recent news cycles.
About 30 minutes into the debate, Brennan explained to viewers that Springfield “does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, Temporary Protected Status.”
“The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check,” Vance interjected as the moderators attempted to proceed to the next question. “And since you’re fact-checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on.”
Vance attempted to keep talking as Walz also tried to jump in. As the two argued, moderators cut the candidates’ mics.
Walz pressed on China story
Walz, in a pointed exchange, attempted to defend his past false claim that he was in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests in China, calling himself a “knucklehead” before saying he had misspoken.
Brennan pressed about recent reporting that found the Minnesota governor did not travel to Asia until August of 1989, months after the protest took place.
“I try to do the best I can, but I’m not perfect. I’m a knucklehead at times,” Walz said in a winding answer.
When pushed on his comments, Walz said he arrived in the area that summer and had misspoken when he said he was there during the Tiananmen Square protests.
“I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protest, and from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance,” he said.
Walz presses Vance on Trump’s 2020 election claims
In the closing moments of the debate, Walz and Vance sparred over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and former President Trump’s continued claims the 2020 election was influenced by widespread voter fraud.
Walz asked Vance if Trump lost the 2020 election.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance responded. “Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 COVID situation?”
“That is a damning. That is a damning nonanswer,” Walz said.
Vance says GOP must do better job on abortion issue
Abortion is a key election issue heading into November, and Vance acknowledged the GOP’s weakness on the issue during Tuesday’s debate.
“My party, we’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue where they, frankly, just don’t trust us,” Vance said in response to Walz’s attack on Trump’s record on the issue.
“I think that’s one of the things that Donald Trump and I are endeavoring to do. I want us as a Republican Party to be pro-family in the fullest sense of the word,” Vance added, before stressing that Trump wants says he wants to leave the issue of abortion to states to decide.