Tim Walz and JD Vance faced off this Tuesday in the first and only vice presidential debate of this election cycle, and clashed over issues including abortion, child care, cost of living and rejection of Trump’s 2020 election result.
Vance and Harris as “border czar”
Vance attacked Harris’ role regarding the borders. “The only thing she did when she became vice president, when she became border czar, was reverse Donald Trump’s actions to open the border,” he said .
This contains inaccuracies. First of all, Harris has never been a “border czar” – that’s a term coined by his detractors. His role in the Biden administration was to study the root causes of migration to the United States, including the security and economic situation in Central American countries.
Second, she did not “undo Donald Trump’s executive actions.” Presidents sign executive orders, and she was not president. Joe Biden repealed some Trump executive orders at the border. He initially retained the Trump-era restrictions known as Title 42, which allowed the United States to hot swap migrants at the border on the grounds of preventing the spread of Covid-19, before ultimately lift them.
Vance on Trump’s role on January 6
Vance defended Trump’s role on the day of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The Ohio senator followed the line of his electoral partner’s speech on January 6, 2021, before the insurrection. According to Vance, Trump “said on January 6 that protesters should demonstrate peacefully.”
But Trump also repeatedly encouraged his supporters to “fight.”
“We will fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore,” Trump said at the time.
Vance on Trump and the Affordable Care Act
Vance claimed that Donald Trump strengthened or saved the Affordable Care Act.
This is not true.
The former president cut millions of dollars in funding intended to help people access health care, repeatedly supported congressional efforts to repeal the law, and asked the Supreme Court to overturn the law .
Advance on immigrants and real estate prices
Vance twice implicated immigrants in rising housing prices, although when pressed he acknowledged that immigration was not the “only” factor.
Independent analysis showed that mass evictions would drive up prices in several sectors and affect labor availability. The Peterson Institute for International Economics predicts that the policies advocated by Trump in this regard would constitute “a major shock to the American economy, with substantial disruptions to all sectors, particularly agriculture, mining and manufacturing” .
Vance on Trump’s stance on abortion
Vance claimed that Donald Trump had supported states in making their own abortion laws, and that Trump had said that “the right way to handle this is to let the voters make those decisions, to let each state define its policy on abortion.
This is not entirely true. Donald Trump refused to say whether he would sign a national abortion ban during the last debate.
Walz on the ambitions of Project 2025
The Minnesota governor claimed that Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s ambitious plan to reshape the federal government under a second Trump term, would require people to register their pregnancies.
“Their 2025 plan is going to have a pregnancy registry,” Walz said.
This statement is false. The 2025 Project calls for a number of restrictive abortion policies, including revoking FDA approval of abortion pills, dismantling privacy protections for abortion patients, and increased oversight of abortion providers on abortion, but does not require that all pregnant women. to register.
The CDC already collects information on abortion in most of the country, but its reporting is incomplete because some states don’t provide data. Project 2025 suggests that the CDC go so far as to cut off a state’s funding if it does not tell it “exactly how many abortions are occurring within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the State of residence of the child”. the mother, and with what method.
Vance on Immigrants in Springfield, Ohio
Referring to Springfield, Ohio – where several Haitian immigrants have recently settled – Vance spoke of immigrants with “illegal” status.
“There are overwhelmed schools, overwhelmed hospitals, completely unaffordable housing because we have brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans,” he said: “We have overwhelmed schools, hospitals overwhelmed, housing completely unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants. immigrants to compete with Americans.
Haitian immigrants in Springfield, as CBS moderator Margaret Brennan pointed out, have legal status. Their arrival, residents and local leaders say, helped revive the city, which has lost a quarter of its population since the 1960s.
Vance on the climate crisis and industry
The Ohio senator has repeatedly expressed skepticism that carbon emissions have caused global warming.
This Tuesday evening, he was a little subtle: “One of the things that I’ve noticed some of our Democratic friends talk about a lot is the concern about carbon emissions, this idea that carbon emissions are causing all climate change…” let’s say it’s true, just for the sake of argument.
Despite Vance’s skepticism, it’s true. 100% of global warming since 1950 is due to human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
Vance also took viewers on a winding journey to suggest that if Harris really cared about the climate crisis, she would bring manufacturing jobs back to America.
Carbon emissions, whether produced in the United States or abroad, contribute to global warming. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 – the Biden administration’s signature climate legislation – is primarily aimed at encouraging domestic manufacturing.
