Vice Presidential candidates Senator J.D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz went head-to-head on Oct. 1 to discuss how they planned to address domestic issues if their running mate is elected. The debate covered important topics that stand to impact the lives of every American including climate change, immigration and gun violence.

The moderators, Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell, made it clear at the beginning of the debate that CBS News reserved the right to cut either candidate’s microphone should the discussion get out of hand. The regulations of this debate followed those of the Presidential debate. Once the question was asked, each candidate had two minutes to answer and one minute for rebuttals. 

Climate change

Following the damages of Hurricane Helene, Vance and Walz discussed climate change and their respective policies surrounding it. 

Vance called Hurricane Helene an “unbelievable, unspeakable human tragedy.” He went on to say that to slow our rapidly changing climate and reduce natural disasters such as Helene, the government must invest in American oil and green energy manufacturing as opposed to outsourcing to other countries like China. 

“We’re the cleanest economy in the entire world,” Vance said, adding that outsourcing manufacturing would have a negative impact due to China’s “dirtier” economy. He claimed that this would also help combat CO2 emissions from other countries and would strengthen the American economy. 

Walz refuted this by pointing out that the state of Minnesota typically manufactures solar panels instead of importing them. “[Climate change] roared onto the scene faster and stronger than anything we’ve seen,” said Walz. Although the production of fossil fuels has created over 200,000 jobs, green energy and fossil fuels must be used simultaneously to produce an optimal effect on the environment and the economy. 

Walz insisted that farmers are aware of climate change, having witnessed extreme droughts followed by equally extreme flooding events. He noted that many farmers support wind energy due to the severe impact climate change has had on their crops and livelihoods.

Immigration

One of America’s most hotly debated topics is immigration in relation to violence, substances and the economy. 

“Before we talk about deportations, we have to stop the bleeding. We have a historic immigration crisis because Kamala Harris said that she wanted to undo all of Donald Trump’s border policies. 94 executive orders suspending deportations, decriminalizing illegal aliens, massively increasing the asylum fraud that exists in our system, has opened the floodgates,” Vance said. “And what it means is that a lot of fentanyl is coming into our country.”

Vance claimed that the Department of Homeland Security has “effectively lost” 320,000 children due to sex and drug trafficking. He claimed children would be safer with stricter controls on the borders. He also dodged the moderator’s question about separating illegal immigrant parents from their legal American resident children. 

Walz took a different approach, in the way of pushing a bipartisan border bill.

“[We all want to solve the issue so] that’s why we had the fairest and the toughest bill on immigration that this nation’s seen. … Democrats and Republicans worked on this piece of legislation…and the Chamber of Commerce and the Wall Street Journal said pass this thing. Kamala Harris helped get there. 1,500 new border agents, detection for drugs, DOJ money to speed up the adjudications on this—just what America wants,” Walz said. 

He added that when immigration, “becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanize and villainize other human beings.” Walz referenced the Bible to say that Americans just want order and to, “keep our dignity about how we treat other people.” 

Vance responded by claiming that law enforcement simply wants to feel “empowered” by the President and to do their jobs. He also argued that schools and hospitals are “overwhelmed” due to the influx of immigrants, and that is also driving up the cost of housing.

Gun violence

In response to the ongoing trend of nationwide school shootings, the candidates debated what to do about gun violence, mental health and again, immigration.

“Now here’s something that really bothers me and worries me about this epidemic of violence: the gross majority, close to 90% in some of the statistics I’ve seen, of the gun violence in this country is committed with illegally obtained firearms,” Vance said.  “And while we’re on that topic, we know that thanks to Kamala Harris’s open border, we’ve seen a massive influx in the number of illegal guns run by the Mexican drug cartel so that number, the amount of illegal guns in our country, is higher today than it was three and a half years ago.”

He claimed that illegal immigrants and the mental health crisis are the primary sources of gun violence, opposing the claim that Walz made about guns (particularly automatic weapons) being overly accessible. Vance’s solution to the gun violence epidemic was to increase security in schools and to focus on the shootings taking place in large cities.

Meanwhile, Walz asked a question that appealed to the American pathos. 

“Do you want your schools hardened to look like a fort?” He emphasized that the Harris administration is not trying to take guns away; instead, they aim to implement stricter gun laws and ban certain automatic weapons like AR-15s. 

“There are reasonable things we can do to make a difference. It’s not infringing on your Second Amendment [rights]. And the idea to have some of these weapons out there, it just doesn’t make any sense,” said Walz.

He pointed out that Finland has a high gun ownership rate, but it doesn’t have the magnitude of school shootings we experience here–proving that it’s possible to live in a peaceful country and retain the right to bear arms. 

Vance refuted this claim by stating that America has “way higher” rates of substance abuse and mental health problems. He added that as a nation, we need to “get to the root” of the mental health crisis because it isn’t the only influence on violence, but it is a major contributor. 

Walz rebutted Vance’s point about mental health by saying that stigmatizing mental health is harmful, and not every person with a mental illness is violent. He emphasized the importance of not using mental health as a scapegoat. 

“Sometimes, it is just the guns,” Walz said. 

Closing statements

“Now I’ll have to tell you, I’m going to be careful about the quotes but there’s one that Senator Vance said that does resonate with me: he said ‘Donald Trump makes the people I care about afraid.’ A lot of America feels that way. We don’t need to be afraid. Franklin Roosevelt was right—all we have to fear is fear itself. Kamala Harris is bringing us a new way forward. She’s bringing us a politics of joy, she’s bringing real solutions for the middle class, and she’s centering you at the heart of that, all the while asking everyone, ‘join this movement, make your voices heard.’ Let’s look for a new day where everybody gets that opportunity and everybody gets a chance to thrive. I humbly ask for your vote on Nov. 5 for Kamala Harris,” Walz said.

“Now, I believe that we have the most beautiful country in the world. I meet people on the campaign trail who can’t afford food, but have the grace and generosity to ask me how I’m doing, and to tell me they’re praying for my family. What that has taught me is that we have the greatest country, the most beautiful country, the most incredible people anywhere in the world. But they’re not going to be able to achieve their full dreams with the broken leadership that we have in Washington…We need change, we need a new direction, we need a President who has already done this once before and did it well. Please vote for Donald Trump, and whether you vote for me or vote for Tim Walz, I just want to say, I’m so proud to be doing this and I’m rooting for you,” said Vance.