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5 things to watch for at the vice presidential debate

Originally Published: 01 OCT 24 00:00 ET

Updated: 01 OCT 24 08:32 ET

By Eric Bradner and Gregory Krieg, CNN

(CNN) — Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance are set to meet Tuesday night in the only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election – and in what might be the last time the two campaigns square off onstage.

The matchup between Walz, the 60-year-old Minnesota governor, and Vance, the 40-year-old Ohio senator, is being hosted by CBS News and taking place in New York, without a live audience.

The debate coincides with huge news stories unfolding at home and abroad – including Hurricane Helene recovery efforts across the southeastern United States, and the Middle East on the brink as Israel escalates its campaign against Iran-backed militant groups in Lebanon.

Vice presidential nominees traditionally play the role of attack dog for the top of their tickets – in this case, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump.

But Walz and Vance have also hammered each other for months. Walz earned the Democratic vice presidential nod in part because of his branding of the GOP ticket as “weird” in television interviews that served as semi-auditions for the role. Vance, a military veteran, has questioned Walz’s service record.

The debate is being moderated by CBS’ Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan. It starts at 9 p.m. Eastern time and will be simulcast on CNN.

Here are five things to watch at the vice presidential debate:

The coach vs. the ex-pundit

The Middle America roots at the heart of both Walz’s and Vance’s well-cultivated political identities will be on display Tuesday night as the two men vying to be a heartbeat away from the presidency introduce their biographies to the largest audience of voters they’ve likely had to date.

Walz, a two-term governor and former congressman, was first elected to the US House in 2006. But expect him to lean into the roles he held before entering politics: high school teacher and assistant football coach.

Vance, meanwhile, is a Marine veteran and the author of a best-selling memoir about the his Appalachian family values and the socioeconomic problems of his hometown. He’s likely to highlight how he came around on the former president in recent years, without making much mention of his past as a political commentator who was a strident Trump critic.

Both candidates’ biographical pitches are born of an effort to showcase their authenticity – a precious political commodity, particularly in a race in which undecided voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could determine the outcome.

Voters’ decisions are overwhelmingly influenced by the tops of the party tickets, and Walz and Vance are likely to devote much of their time attacking Trump and Harris respectively. But they could also spend time emphasizing parts of their own biographies and attempting to undercut their rivals’ – all in an effort to establish their credibility with voters.

Abortion, family issues

The two tickets are split on abortion rights – an issue Democrats see as critical to motivating women and young people and winning over swing voters.

Walz has discussed the issue within the broader framework of Harris’ support for “freedom,” a contrast with Trump, who appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted with the majority in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade’s federal protections for abortion rights.

He has also revealed more vulnerable aspects of his own story, including the fertility struggles he and his wife, Gwen, faced. And Democrats have highlighted Vance’s 2021 quip about “childless cat ladies” in an effort to portray him as judgmental of women’s reproductive choices.

Vance and Trump, meanwhile, have at times struggled to get on the same page on the issue of abortion. But Vance has supported policies he says would incentivize child birth.

He has also sought to portray Walz as extreme on the issue of abortion. He said last week at a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina, that Walz, as Minnesota governor, backed a measure that would allow abortion “right up to the moment of birth, even to the point at which doctors wouldn’t be required to provide life-saving care to a baby who survived a botched abortion.”

“That is just sick,” he said.

Walz signed the measure into law in early 2023. Advocates at the time said it was intended to keep decisions about reproductive care in the hands of women and their doctors, rather than politicians and judges.

Which Walz do we see?

Walz emerged from relative national obscurity to become Harris’s running mate in August, after one of the quickest selection processes in a generation, in no small part because of his sweet and spicy commentary on cable news.

His matter-of-fact insistence that Trump, Vance and their allies were “weird” captivated Democrats – desperate for an accessible hit on MAGA Republicans – and vaulted him to within a step of the vice presidency.

Since then, though, Walz has been rather tame.

The cable news appearances trailed off, he did not say much during his joint CNN interview with Harris, and his speeches haven’t made many headlines. He spent some time on the defensive over his military record but has largely faded into the background.

On Tuesday night, that will change. What’s less clear is, to what effect?

Walz could play the part Biden once did in a debate against another rising young conservative, when the then-vice president stymied Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan in a crucial 2012 debate.

Or is there another reason Walz has been kept somewhat under wraps over the past six or so weeks? The answer should be clear in the first few minutes of the debate.

Walz’s military record could come under attack

If past performance is any indication, Vance will hammer Walz over his military record.

Republicans, Vance in particular, have accused the governor of overstating his resume and retiring prior to his unit’s deployment to Iraq, claiming Walz proactively tried to avoid serving in combat. A review of the records found that Walz filed to run for Congress, in February 2005, before his unit was notified it could deploy to Iraq. He retired in May 2005, according to the Minnesota National Guard.

Walz has also acknowledged misspeaking about his experience carrying a “weapon of war.” Still, he never explicitly claimed – per a KFILE review of his earliest campaign – to have faced combat.

The story is nuanced enough that Vance is unlikely to back off. In August, he said Walz was Harris’ “stolen valor sidekick” and called the governor’s past comments “disgraceful.”

Walz seems unlikely to want to litigate it onstage, but Vance could make him try.

About Springfield, Ohio …

For weeks now, Vance and Trump have been doubling and tripling down on false claims that Haitians in the Ohio city are abducting and eating their neighbors’ pets.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and many others have called the claims outlandish, and no one has provided any evidence to the contrary. Still, Trump and Vance want immigration front and center and, even though the migrants are in the country legally, the Republican ticket has sought to use the debunked rumor to gin up anger over the Biden administration’s handling of the border.

When Trump brought up Springfield during the presidential debate last month, the moderators fact-checked him in real-time.

Pressed on the claims by CNN’s Dana Bash in September, Vance said, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

It would not be surprising to hear Walz bring up that comment, in particular, in attacking the Republicans’ rhetoric.

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