Just over a month out from the US Presidential Election, and vice-presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance are set to face off in their first public debate.
It follows the highly-anticipated debate between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, which took place in mid September, and will be watched by tens of millions across the country, and countless more around the world.
Where to watch the vice-presidential debate in Australia
Australians can stream all the action free-to-air via Channel 9, ABC News, and SBS. The debate will kick off at 11am AEST, and run for 90 minutes.
What are the rules of the vice-presidential debate?
Like the presidential debate, republican candidate JD Vance and democratic candidate Tim Walx will be subject to strict regulations throughout the debate. These include:
- No pre-written notes are allowed
- No props are allowed
- Each candidate has two minutes to answer a question, after which, their opponent will have two minutes to respond.
- After each response, candidates will have one minute for rebuttals
- Neither candidate has been told questions in advance
- There will be no audience
Will candidates' microphones be turned off during the vice-presidential debate?
Microphones have been a hotly-contested topic in the lead up to the election. Before the first debate, then-candidate Joe Biden and the democratic party insisted that only the person who is being asked a question have access to a live microphone, and the other candidate’s microphone should be muted. When Kamala Harris faced off against Donald Trump, this rule stayed in place. However in the vice-presidential debate, both microphones will be kept on. CBS has clarified, however, that the network “reserves the right to turn off candidate microphones,” at any point.
With the action now well underway, keep reading for the biggest takeaways from the 2024 vice-presidential debate.
1. Both candidates honed in on abortion
Abortion and maternal health have been some of the most hotly-debated topics in the lead up to the 2024 election, so it's no surprise they received some air time in this debate.
JD Vance claimed that the republican party won't enforce a total ban on abortion, saying, "Donald Trump has been very clear that [...] we have a big country and it's diverse." He continued, "California has a different viewpoint on this than Georgia, Georgia has a different view point from Arizona, and the proper way to handle this, as messy as democracy sometimes is, is to let voters make these decisions, let the individual states make their abortion policy."
Representing the democratic party, Walz said that they are not "pro-abortion" but rather, "We're pro-women, we're pro-freedom to make your own choice."
2. JD Vance clarified his previous criticisms of Donald Trump
It's well-known that JD Vance was vocal in his doubts about Donald Trump's capabilities before he was elected president in 2016. During the debate, the candidate was asked to clarify his stance on his running mate, to which he said, "I was wrong about Donald Trump."
"First of all, because I believed some of the media stories that turned out to be dishonest fabrications of his record, but most importantly, Donald Trump delivered for the American people," he continued, adding,"And when you screw up and speak, and you change your mind, you ought to be honest with the American people, and one of the reasons I have done so many interviews is to explain to the American people where I come down on the issues and what changed."
3. Both sides addressed their stance on gun control
Vance weighed in on America's gun violence epidemic, blaming "Kamala Harris's open border" policy, and saying that most gun violence is committed using illegal firearms.
Walz responded, by sharing that his teenage son had witnessed a shooting. "I have a 17-year-old and he witnessed a shooting at a community centre, playing volleyball. And those things do not leave you," he said, adding, "but we need to figure this out".
Vance offered his sympathy to Walz, saying "I am so sorry about that, and Christ have mercy."
4. JD Vance was asked about Trump's 'concepts of a plan'
Several moments from the 2024 presidential debate have been memorialised as memes -- chief among them, the moment Trump said he had "concepts of a plan."
Q: So you still don’t have a health care plan?
Trump: I have... concepts of a plan pic.twitter.com/0oEZy6vcWf
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 11, 2024
During the vice-presidental debate, Vance had the opportunity to defend his running mate, admitting, "A lot of people have criticised this 'concepts of a plan' remark."
However, he continued, "I think it's very simple common sense. As Tim Walz knows from 12 years in Congress, you're not going to propose a 900-page bill standing on a debate stage. It would bore everybody to tears, and it wouldn't actually mean anything because part of this is the give-and-take of bipartisan negotiation."
