WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. J.D. Vance and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will face off Tuesday night in the vice presidential debate, the last scheduled in-person exchange between the campaigns as polls continue to show a tight race just over five weeks from the November election.
The debate, hosted by CBS News, will begin at 9 p.m. ET and will last 90 minutes. The event will be broadcast live on local CBS affiliates and streamed on the CBS News app, CBSNews.com, YouTube and Paramount+.
The nominating matchup pits former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris against two men with congressional credentials and prior service in the U.S. armed forces.
The debate also extends to the southeastern United States rolls from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which moved inland as a tropical storm, causing record flooding and claiming more than 100 lives, including a third in North Carolina, a swing state in the 2024 presidential election.
The Republican National Committee and Trump campaign officials said Monday that Vance, Ohio’s junior senator, plans to attack Walz during the debate on several fronts, including tying Walz to the Biden administration.
“No amount of good times in Minnesota can make up for the fact that Walz embodies the same disastrous economic situation, open borders and (record) mild crime that Harris has inflicted on our country over the last four years,” said Minnesota GOP Rep. Tom Emmer, who he filled in for Walz during Vance’s debate preparations.
“J.D. Vance is ready to wipe the floor with Tim Walz and expose him as a radical liberal,” Emmer told reporters in a Monday morning telephone interview.
But Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, warned that “Walz is very good at debates. I want to reiterate that Tim Walz is very good at debating, really good. He has been a politician for almost 20 years.”
Trump sent on Monday on his Truth Social platform that he would host a “personal play-by-play” of the debate.
Vance brings the campaign message to Christians in Western Pennsylvania and gathers supporters in Bucks
Harris’ campaign did not release details about Walz’s debate preparations. CNN reported that Walz is nervous and practicing with Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in Vance’s stead.
Walz spent Saturday in Ann Arbor at a football game between the University of Michigan Wolverines and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, where he was greeted by local officials and encouraged students to emphasize the importance of juvenile people voting, according to the campaign.
Military service, China
Trump campaign surrogates said debate watchers would certainly see Vance attacking Walz during his military service.
Vance boasts of his four years in the United States Marine Corps, from 2003 to 2007, during which distributed to Iraq in 2005 as a military journalist.
The Trump campaign is keeping Walz retired to avoid being deployed to Iraq. In Monday’s call, Trump campaign officials spoke with two veterans who criticized Walz for being a “traitor.”
“He left his post and his unit after 24 years of military service,” said Tom Behrends, retired command sergeant major of the Minnesota National Guard.
Walz, a former six-term congressman representing the state’s 1st Congressional District, served in the National Guard for 24 years before running for office. In 2003–2004, he deployed to Italy to support Operation Enduring Freedom, a non-combat facility.
Fact verified by PolitiFact found submitted candidacy papers in February 2005, one month before the Walz Battalion was notified of its possible deployment within two years. A fact check shows that Walz submitted his retirement paperwork five to seven months before he was notified of his deployment.
Walz led the 2007 U.S. House of Representatives resolution honoring Minnesota soldiers for their deployment to Iraq, According to to the National Guard.
Walz boasts the highest-ranking soldier to ever serve in Congress, According to to his congressional biography published in 2017.
Walz is campaigning in Erie, an influential county in Pennsylvania
Walz suffered from hearing loss and tinnitus after two decades of specializing in hefty artillery, according to Department of Veterans Affairs records he shared with reporters during his 2018 run for governor.
In his 2013 application for benefits, he wrote that the explosions “would have knocked us out, and the shot left my ears ringing.” According to to records reviewed by Minnesota Public Radio. Ultimately, Walz underwent surgery to correct his hearing loss.
Retired Sgt. Freshman Tom Schilling, who joined the RNC call on Monday, also criticized Walz’s trips to China and the governor’s handling of the “George Floyd case,” referring to the protests that rocked Minneapolis after the police killing Floyd, a black man.
“He had 30 trips to China that he didn’t really get a response to. As governor, he allowed Minneapolis to burn,” said Schilling, who served in the Minnesota National Guard.
Walz said he was proud of the way local, state and federal authorities handled the protests in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Walz ordered full mobilization of the National Guard roughly three days after the protests. However, Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Republican state officials criticized parts of Walz’s response: According to for a review published by the Associated Press.
Walz taught for a year in the southern Chinese city of Foshan. As a public school teacher in Minnesota, he took students on annual trips to China. He has said in the past that he has visited China 30 times. When pressed to document your trip through APM reportsHarris’ campaign said his visit count was “closer to 15.”
Trump visits Helene’s destruction in Georgia
Trump delivered he remarks Monday outside a dilapidated furniture store in Valdosta, Georgia, while wearing his trademark red “Make America Great Again” hat.
“We are here today to express our complete solidarity with the people of Georgia and all who are suffering from the terrible consequences of Hurricane Helene,” Trump said, standing alongside US evangelist Franklin Graham, who coordinated the supply delivery.
Trump also said presidential campaigns should take a backseat to responding to the storm. “We are not talking about politics right now, we all need to come together and solve this problem.”
Moments later, he falsely claimed that Biden had not answered calls from Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp. Biden spoke with Kemp by phone on Sunday.
Journalists traveling with Harris to Las Vegas, Nevada, reported early Monday that the vice president was canceling campaign events to return to Washington. DC, for information on the response to Helene.
Harris released a statement Saturday saying her “hearts go out to everyone affected by the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.
“Doug and I are thinking of those who tragically lost their lives and keeping all who loved them in our prayers in the difficult days ahead. President Biden and I remain committed to ensuring that no community or country has to respond to this disaster alone,” she continued.
At a Sunday campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump criticized Harris for being in San Francisco “at fundraising events with her crazy radical left donors when immense parts of our country have been devastated by a massive hurricane and are underwater, and many, many people people are dead.”
President Joe Biden delivered remarks from the White House early Monday and pledged federal support for affected areas. Biden has already spent it emergency reports for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. He also said he would visit storm-damaged areas once his cavalcade would not interfere with rescue operations.
Republicans for Harris
Harris’ campaign continues to tout growing Republican support.
The Harris campaign is sedate about courting Pa. voters. GOP organizing an event in Lancaster
Former conservative senator Jeff Flake of Arizona announced his support for Harris over the weekend.
“I served with Kamala in the United States Senate. I also served with Tim in the House of Representatives. I know them. I know first-hand their great character and love for their country” – Flake he wrote on the tenth Sunday.
Republican anti-Trump voters also announced a novel multimillion-dollar advertising push in swing states on Sunday.
The group launched a $5.8 million advertising campaign in media markets in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The ad launch is part of a $15 million campaign that will also reach audiences ArizonaIn Michigan and Wisconsin, according to the press release.
“Many voters who are on the fence will make their decision in the coming weeks, and it is critical that we let them know what is at stake,” Sarah Longwell, executive director of the political action committee, said in a statement.
“You can reject it without giving up your deeply held conservative values. “We are here to help establish an eligibility structure for right-wing swing voters to do the right thing and vote their conscience,” the statement continued.
Next on the campaign trail
On Saturday, Trump is scheduled to return to Butler, Pennsylvania – the site of the first attempt on his life, during which he suffered a non-life-threatening ear injury, one spectator was killed by gunfire, and two others were seriously injured.
Trump also plans to hold a town hall on Thursday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, far east of the devastation caused by Helene.
