JD Vance vs. Tim Walz vice presidential debate: What to expect
Here’s what to look out for as JD Vance and Tim Walz square off in a vice presidential debate one month ahead of the Trump-Harris presidential election.
When Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz take the stage in New York City for Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, it will be their first in-person meeting.
But Vance and Walz have been nipping at each other from afar for weeks, playing the customary role of attack dog on opposing tickets.
The stakes for their 90-minute debate, hosted by CBS News and scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET, are unusually high for an undercard clash. The race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is tight nationally and in the battleground states, according to recent polling. Given that Trump hasn’t agreed to a second showdown with Harris, Vance vs. Walz could very well be the last debate before Election Day.
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Polls also indicate that Vance has some work to do after he made a rough first impression. In a recent NBC News national poll, 45% of registered voters said they viewed Vance negatively, compared with 32% who said they viewed him positively — making him one of the least-liked vice presidential candidates in the last 30 years. Walz, conversely, was viewed positively by 40% and negatively by 33%. And with his unsubstantiated claims about Haitian immigrants’ eating pets and his tendency to get ahead of Trump on policy, Vance already has drawn more scrutiny than any vice presidential candidate since another Republican, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, burst onto the scene in 2008.
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