WASHINGTON – Republican U.S. Sen. JD Vance and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will face off in a vice presidential debate Tuesday night, the last scheduled face-to-face exchanges between the campaigns as polls continue to show a tight race in just over five weeks show election in November.
The debate, moderated by CBS News, is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Eastern Time and last 90 minutes. The event will be broadcast live on local CBS affiliate stations and streamed on the CBS News app, CBSNews.com, YouTube and Paramount+.
The duel between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris brings together two men who both have congressional records and formerly served in the U.S. armed forces.
The debate is also coming to the southeastern United States Roll in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which swept inland as a tropical storm, causing record-breaking flooding and killing more than 100 people – a third of them in North Carolina, a swing state in the 2024 presidential election.
Republican National Committee and Trump campaign officials said Monday that Vance, the junior senator from Ohio, plans to attack Walz on multiple fronts during the debate, including linking Walz to the Biden administration.
“No amount of niceness from Minnesota will make up for the fact that Walz embodies the same catastrophic economic situation, the same openness of borders and the same softness toward crime [record] “Harris has done damage to our country over the last four years,” said Minnesota GOP congressman Tom Emmer, who stepped in as Walz during Vance’s preparation for the debate.
“JD Vance is ready to wipe the floor with Tim Walz and expose him for the radical liberal that he is,” Emmer said in a phone call with reporters Monday morning.
But Jason Miller, senior adviser to the Trump campaign, warned: “Walz is very good at debates.” I want to reiterate that Tim Walz is very good at debates, really good. He has been a politician for almost 20 years.”
Trump posted On Monday, he announced on his platform Truth Social that he would follow the debate “personally, piece by piece.”
The Harris campaign has not revealed details about Walz’s preparation for the debate. CNN reported that Walz is nervous and has been practicing with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as a replacement for Vance.
Walz spent Saturday in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan Wolverines vs. University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football game, where he was greeted by local elected officials and encouraged students about the importance of youth voting, according to the campaign.
Military service, China
Trump campaign officials said debate watchers are guaranteed to see Vance attack Walz over his military service.
Vance credits his own four years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 used In 2005 he went to Iraq as a military journalist.
The Trump campaign claims Walz retired to avoid deployment to Iraq. Trump campaign officials featured two veterans on Monday’s call who criticized Walz as a “renegade.”
“He left his post and his unit after 24 years of military service,” said Tom Behrends, a retired Minnesota National Guard command sergeant major.
Walz, a former six-term congressman who represented the state’s 1st Congressional District, served in the Army National Guard for 24 years before running for office. He deployed to Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, a non-combat post, between 2003 and 2004.
A fact check from PolitiFact found He submitted his application documents in February 2005, a month before the Walz Battalion was informed of a possible deployment within two years. According to the fact check, Walz submitted retirement paperwork five to seven months before the deployment notice.
Walz introduced a U.S. House resolution in 2007 to honor Minnesota military members for their service in Iraq. after to the National Guard.
Walz holds the distinction of being the highest-ranking soldier to ever serve in Congress. after to his congress biography published in 2017.
Walz suffered from hearing loss and tinnitus after specializing in bulky artillery for two decades, according to Department of Veterans Affairs records he shared with reporters during his 2018 run for governor.
In a 2013 benefits application, he wrote that the explosions “knocked us out and I had ringing in my ears after the shooting.” after to records reviewed by Minnesota Public Radio. Eventually, Walz underwent surgery to improve his hearing loss.
Retired sergeant. 1st Class Tom Schilling, who joined the RNC call on Monday, also attacked Walz’s trips to China and how the governor handled “the George Floyd thing,” referring to protests that ravaged Minneapolis after the police killing of Floyd, a black man.
“He had 30 trips to China that really went unanswered. As governor, he let Minneapolis burn,” said Schilling, who served in the Minnesota National Guard.
Walz said he was proud of the way local, state and federal officials handled the protests in Minneapolis and St. Paul. About three days after the protests began, Walz ordered the full mobilization of the National Guard. However, both Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis and Republican officials in the state criticized parts of Walz’s response. after to a review by The Associated Press.
Walz taught for a year in the southern Chinese city of Foshan. Then, as a public school teacher in Minnesota, he took his students on annual trips to China. In the past he said he had visited China 30 times. When urged to document the journeys APM reportsthe Harris campaign said his visits totaled “closer to 15.”
Trump visits Helene’s destruction in Georgia
Trump delivered Remarks Monday outside a damaged furniture store in Valdosta, Georgia, wearing his signature red “Make America Great Again” hat.
“We are here today to stand in complete solidarity with the people of Georgia, with all those suffering from the terrible consequences of Hurricane Helene,” Trump said alongside American evangelist Franklin Graham, who coordinated the delivery of aid.
Trump also said the presidential campaign should take a back seat to responding to the storm. “We’re not talking about politics now, we all need to come together and solve the problem.”
Moments later, he falsely stated that Biden had not answered calls from Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Biden spoke to Kemp by telephone on Sunday.
Journalists traveling with Harris in Las Vegas, Nevada, reported in the early hours of Monday that the vice president was canceling her campaign events to return to Washington. DC to be informed of the response to Helene.
Harris issued a statement Saturday saying, “Her hearts go out to everyone affected by the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.”
“Doug and I are thinking of those who tragically lost their lives, and we keep everyone they loved in our prayers in the difficult days ahead. President Biden and I remain committed to ensuring that no community or state must respond to this disaster alone,” she continued.
At his campaign rally on Sunday in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump criticized Harris for being in San Francisco “at fundraising events with her crazy radical left donors while much of our country has been devastated by this massive hurricane and is flooded with many, many . “People are dead.”
President Joe Biden delivered Remarks from the White House early Monday and promised government support to affected areas. Biden has already spent Emergency declarations for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. He also said he would visit areas devastated by the storm as soon as his motorcade did not impede relief efforts.
Republicans for Harris
The Harris campaign continues to tout growing Republican support.
Former conservative Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona announced his support for Harris over the weekend.
“I served with Kamala in the U.S. Senate. I also served with Tim in the House of Representatives. I know her. “I know firsthand her good character and her love for the country,” Flake says wrote on Xth Sunday.
Anti-Trump Republican voters also announced a novel multimillion-dollar advertising campaign in swing states on Sunday.
The group launched a $5.8 million advertising campaign in the Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh media markets in Pennsylvania. The ad launch is part of a $15 million campaign that will also achieve reach ArizonaMichigan and Wisconsin, a news release said.
“Many swing voters will be making a decision in the coming weeks, and it’s important that we let them know what’s at stake,” Sarah Longwell, executive director of the political action committee, said in a statement.
“You can reject him without giving up your deeply held conservative values. “We are here to help create a permission structure for right-wing swing voters so they can do the right thing and vote according to their conscience,” the statement continued.
Continue with the election campaign
Trump is scheduled for Saturday return to Butler, Pennsylvania – the site of the first attempt on his life, in which he suffered a non-life-threatening ear injury and a bystander was killed by gunfire while two others were seriously injured.
Trump also plans to hold a town hall meeting on Thursday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, far east of the devastation caused by Helene.
