Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told rally goers in Pennsylvania last month, “We can't afford four more years of this,” despite his ticket-mate being in the White House since 2021.
During his speech in Bethlehem, Walz was discussing gun violence when he became distracted by an audience member who appeared to need water. Walz, the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, strayed from his speech to call attention to the rally goer.
"I'll bring her home here quick, folks: Look, Kamala Harris made it clear these guys want to instill fear," Walz said at the rally. "They want to tell you that [you should] just get over it, it's a fact of life. This is the way it is."
"[Harris] simply has said it doesn't have to be this way," he added. "It doesn't have to be this way. We can't afford four more years of this."
Although Walz may have been referring to gun violence or Trump's rhetoric when he cited "four more years of this,” the ambiguity of his statement led conservative commentators to roast the Minnesota governor on social media for what appeared to be a criticism of the Biden administration.
Gov. Tim Walz has been an “outlier” on tax reform in recent years, with Minnesota being one of only a few states to raise taxes.
Twenty-eight states have cut taxes in some form at least once since 2021, but Minnesota under Walz became one of the rare states to raise taxes, including imposing a surtax on long-term capital gain income and other investments, according to an analysis by the Tax Foundation.
The Democratic vice presidential nominee has also signed a new law that will partially phase out standardized and itemized deductions for the state’s high earners and signed another law that expanded the scope of the corporate income tax, allowing the state to capture more international business income.
“These tax increases came against the backdrop of a $17.6 billion budget surplus, suggesting that they were driven less by perceived revenue needs than by their contribution to greater tax progressivity,” the analysis reads.
VP Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a staunch proponent of abortion access, to drive home her platform’s promise of expanding access to abortion in every state.
Walz expanded abortion access during his administration by signing into law a bill that cemented abortion access following the groundbreaking Dobbs ruling in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Walz also passed a shield law to prevent abortion providers and patients from legal backlash in states with more restrictive abortion laws.
Minnesota’s abortion laws have no gestational limit on when an abortion procedure can be done, meaning an abortion is permitted up until birth.
As such, Jeff Evans, CEO of the conservative Minnesota Family Council, called the Harris-Walz campaign ticket as “the most radical on abortion ... in American history,” according to an Axios report.
Walz also supports access to IVF treatment, noting how he and his wife had struggled with infertility for years, he said.
{{#rendered}}Former President Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, is an advocate for pro-life policies, but agrees with the 2022 Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade and leaving the issue up to the states.
The Ohio Republican says he would oppose a federal abortion plan — although in 2022 he said he wanted abortion ‘to be illegal nationally’ — and said if elected, President Donald Trump would veto any proposed national ban.
The Republican Party’s 2024 platform mentions abortion just once, a significant change from previous years’ platforms, and reads in full:
"We proudly stand for families and Life. We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights. After 51 years, because of us, that power has been given to the States and to a vote of the People. We will oppose Late Term Abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments).”
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz pursued a number of liberal policies in Minnesota on immigration.
Walz controversially signed legislation granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. Also during Walz’s time as governor, Democrats passed measures to make illegal immigrants eligible for a tuition-free college program and also expanded access to the state’s MinnesotaCare to include those in the country illegally. In 2018, he appeared to voice support for "sanctuary policies."
"My position on Minnesota becoming a sanctuary state boils down to who has the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws," he told CBS News in 2018.
"Here's what I believe: Congress has given federal agencies the authority to enforce immigration laws in Minnesota, and I support their doing so. Congress has not given local law enforcement that same authority. The role of law enforcement is to enforce state and local laws, not federal immigration laws, and I strongly believe that they should not do so."
Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley spoke to Fox News Digital about Tuesday night's vice presidential debate on CBS and said Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is "absolutely prepared."
"What's on the line is an opportunity for JD Vance to talk directly to the American voters in every single battleground state, frankly, in every state around the country, and deliver the message," Whatley said.
"We want to talk about the issues that really matter to them. Talk about whether America is going to be strong or going to be weak. Are we going to have a strong economy? Are we going to have a strong southern border? Are we going to have a strong standing in the world? That really is what this election comes down to."
Whatley observed that Vance is well-prepared for the debate, noting how the Republican candidate for vice president has done multiple press interviews and visited with voters.
"Look, there's not been an election in our lifetime that's going to be so consequential as this. At every single level. And we're ready for the moment," said Whatley.
{{#rendered}}Republican presidential nominee J.D. Vance has echoed the stance of the Trump administration and the Trump campaign on the question of immigration.
In addition to his hawkish stance on the southern border, Vance has embraced the positions of limiting immigration programs, including Biden-era parole programs.
The Biden administration used a number of protections to bring in hundreds of thousands of migrants using humanitarian parole.
Conservatives, including Vance, say those programs are illegal. Vance recently commented on how the media refers to some migrants as being here “legally.”
"And what they mean is that Kamala Harris used two separate programs, mass parole and Temporary Protected Status. She used two programs to wave a wand and to say, we're not going to deport those people here," he said. "Well, if Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I'm still going to call them an illegal alien. An illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make any alien legal. That is not how this works. "
Tim Walz has echoed Kamala Harris on Israel, namely that “Israel has the right to defend itself, and the atrocities of Oct. 7 are unacceptable, but Palestinian civilians being caught in this … has got to end.”
“We can’t allow what’s happened in Gaza to happen,” he said in September during a radio interview. “The Palestinian people have every right to life and liberty themselves.”
Walz has condemned Hamas as “a brutal terrorist organization” and voted in support of Israel multiple times while a member of Congress, including a condemnation of the U.N. resolution that declared Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal.
He also told the Jewish Community Relations Council earlier this year that “failure to recognize the state of Israel is taking away that self-determination. So it is antisemitic.”
Walz, however, has supported those protesting American support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, claiming they are doing so for “all the right reasons.”
Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee and The Associated Press contributed to this update.
Ohio Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, has followed in former President Trump’s footsteps when discussing Israel and Hamas, taking a strong stance in favor of the Jewish state and insisting upon the total annihilation of Hamas for the good of the region.
“Our goal in the Middle East should be to allow the Israelis to get to some good place with the Saudi Arabians and other Gulf Arab states,” Vance told CNN in May. “There is no way that we can do that unless the Israelis finish the job with Hamas.”
“We want the Israelis and the Sunnis to police their own region of the world,” Vance said in a speech to the Quincy Institute that same month, according to The Hill.
Vance views Israel as a critical piece of U.S. interest and policy in the Middle East, saying during his Quincy Institute speech that “the idea that there is ever going to be an American foreign policy that doesn’t care a lot about that slice of the world is preposterous.”
{{#rendered}}All eyes are on Russia’s war in Ukraine as the conflict persists with no end in sight, U.S. aid continues – though not at a rate Kyiv needs to win – and American voters remain divided on what future aid should look like.
GOP vice president nominee JD Vance continues to turn heads in his opposition to U.S. aid and in a September interview said Donald Trump would establish a “peaceful settlement” by giving Moscow the land it has illegally seized.
He called on Kyiv to give up plans to join NATO – a proposal that critics say would be a win for Putin.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy rejected the plan, calling Vance “too radical” and warning he should not be taken seriously.
Zelenskyy said Vance would set a dangerous precedent and would be “responsible for potentially starting a global war.”
The proposal is unpopular with security experts, European allies and among some in the GOP.
Following the decision by Kamala Harris to name Tim Walz as her running mate, headlines across Ukraine have reflected a more hopeful tone as Kyiv looks to maintain support in its war against Russia.
Headlines proclaiming “Good news for Ukraine” circulated in Ukrainian media and NATO allies signaled a sigh of relief behind closed doors.
As governor of Minnesota Walz has strongly backed Kyiv by meeting with Ukrainian dignitaries, blocking state agencies from doing business with Russia, and naming March 6, 2022 Ukrainian Solidarity Day in Minnesota.
Walz has called Russia’s invasion an “attack on democracy” and Ukraine's Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova in August praised Walz as a “reliable friend of our country."
JD Vance sparked controversy with claims about Haitian migrants, including claims that migrants in a town in Ohio have been eating pets.
Vance fueled viral claims that migrants from Haiti in Springfield, Ohio are eating animals – claims that were also fueled by former President Donald Trump. Officials say they have found no evidence of that happening.
"I trust my constituents more than I do the American media that has shown no interest in what's happened in Springfield until we started sharing cat memes on the Internet, which is disgraceful that the American media ignored this town," Vance told NBC "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker.
He has also said that he will continue to call migrants from Haiti illegal immigrants.
"The media loves to say that the Haitian migrants — hundreds of thousands of them, by the way, 20,000 in Springfield, but hundreds of thousands of them all across the country — they are here legally."
"And what they mean is that Kamala Harris used two separate programs, mass parole and Temporary Protected Status. She used two programs to wave a wand and to say, we're not going to deport those people here," he said. "Well, if Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I'm still going to call them an illegal alien. An illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make any alien legal. That is not how this works. "
{{#rendered}}“Hillbilly Elegy” is Ohio Sen. JD Vance's 2016 memoir that Netflix later made into a movie starring Glenn Close and directed by Ron Howard.
In the book and film, Vance describes growing up in Ohio after his mother's family moved from Appalachian Kentucky after World War II.
Vance writes about a turbulent childhood marked by his mother’s addiction and instability. His grandmother, played by Close in the film, was his guiding force at times -- and despite these challenges, a young Vance later went on to graduate high school, join the Marine Corps, and even attend The Ohio State University and earn a degree from Yale Law School.
The story also delves into other cultural and socioeconomic issues facing the white working class who live in the Appalachian community along the Rust Belt region, such as occasional instances of people lacking work ethic and hope for overcoming hardships at home.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is well-known as having made a living as a high school teacher before hitting the national political scene as a member of the House of Representatives.
Walz was born in Nebraska to a public school administrator and community activist, according to a congressional biography still online from his days in Washington.
He spent a year teaching in China through a program led by Harvard University before returning to his home state of Nebraska for a classroom job there.
After getting married to his wife Gwen, Walz moved to Minnesota where he taught and coached high school football at Mankato West High School. He’s since used the former title to add to his “Midwest everyman” brand, with even Vice President Kamala Harris referring to him as “Coach Walz.”
Walz served 24 years in the Army National Guard, though the details of his deployment and other facts of his service have since been scrutinized for being misleading.
Vice President Kamala Harris liked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's biography, his record of winning tough races, and his progressive record as governor of a swing state.
And equally important, despite having any real relationship with Walz prior to naming him as her running mate on the Democratic Party's 2024 ticket last month, she appeared to quickly click with him.
Walz, a son of the Midwest, was a longtime teacher and coach and served a quarter-century in the Army National Guard, before entering politics. A Democrat in a red congressional district, he had a history of reaching across the aisle to get things accomplished,
Having the plainspoken and energetic Walz on the national ticket not only helps Harris in Minnesota - a reliably blue state in presidential elections that the Trump campaign has flirted with trying to flip - it also benefits the vice president in two crucial Midwestern battlegrounds - neighboring Wisconsin and nearby Michigan.
In naming Walz as her running mate, Harris emphasized that "one of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep."
"It’s personal," she added. "He grew up in a small town in Nebraska, spending summers working on his family’s farm. His father died of cancer when he was 19, and his family relied on Social Security survivor benefit checks to make ends meet. At 17, he enlisted in the National Guard, serving for 24 years. He used his GI Bill benefits to go to college, and become a teacher."
{{#rendered}}Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance had a national profile even before being elected to Congress, having written the hit book, “Hillbilly Elegy : A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” based on his childhood in rural America.
The book was famously turned into a feature film directed by Ron Howard and starring Amy Adams, Glenn Close, and others.
Vance served in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years and was deployed to Iraq, after which he enrolled in Ohio State University using funds granted in the GI bill. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree, Vance enrolled in Yale Law School where he met his wife, Usha.
He briefly worked for Sen. John Cornyn, R–Texas, and clerked for a federal judge after graduating.
After clerking and law school, Vance quickly made his way up the corporate ladder. He lived in San Francisco for a period of time and made a living as a venture capitalist. One of his most notable roles there was as a principal for Peter Thiel’s firm, Mithril Capital.
With an eye toward the future of a Republican Party dominated by Donald Trump and his legions of MAGA supporters, the 78-year-old former president in July named now 40-year-old Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate on the GOP's national ticket.
The former president decided to share the Republican Party ticket with one of his top supporters in the Senate and a one-time Trump critic who has transformed into a leading America First disciple.
Vance grew up in a working-class family in a small city in southwestern Ohio. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating from high school, and served in the Iraq War.
Vance, a former venture capitalist and the author of the bestselling memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," before running for elective office, hails from Ohio, a one-time battleground state the former president comfortably carried in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
But the first-term lawmaker - who was elected to the Senate just two years ago - is on a mission to boost the GOP ticket among working class voters, especially across the Rust Belt, who otherwise might support the Democratic Party ticket.
Trump, in naming Vance, said the senator would be “strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond.”
During the vetting process for the GOP vice presidential nominee, Vance had a major ally in Donald Trump Jr. The former president's eldest son and popular surrogate in the MAGA world is a close friend of Vance.
The Empire State has been a liberal bastion for the last few decades: It has voted Democratic in the last nine presidential elections, six of which were by margins over 20%.
Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by 23% in 2020, but Republicans in the House picked up three seats that were previously held by Democrats.
The state is largely more red than the overwhelmingly more Democratic City of New York. Its congressional delegation has 26 members, 10 of which are Republicans. The State Assembly is made up of 102 Democrats and 48 Republicans, while the state Senate has 42 Democrats and 21 Republicans. New York’s last Republican governor was George Pataki, who served from 1995 to 2006.
In November, New York is set to have six competitive House races, as Republicans fight to hold onto its razor-thin margin in the lower chamber. Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is up for reelection in November, a race she is largely expected to win.
{{#rendered}}The vice presidential candidates agreed to debate in the fall. Originally, sites including Easton, Pa., among others, were considered for a location for the debate. Ultimately, according to an Aug. 14 statement by CBS News, that particular network chose New York City as the site of the debate.
“CBS News invited both vice presidential candidates to participate in a debate in New York City. We provided the campaigns with four dates as options: Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8,” a spokesperson for the network said in a statement.
“We look forward to their responses and providing voters with an opportunity to hear directly from the vice presidential candidates,” the statement concluded.
New York City is also considered the media capital of the U.S. With that in mind, New York City would be a realistic choice for the location for a major broadcast network to conduct a presidential debate. CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and Fox News all have headquarters in Manhattan.
With a second face-to-face showdown between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump unlikely - and with a margin-of-error race with five weeks until Election Day in November - there's a lot on the line in the vice presidential debate.
While debates between the running mates are the undercard of a White House race and have rarely moved the need much in the past, when Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats' nominee, face-off on Tuesday, there will be heightened stakes.
Any major knockout blow - or agonizing misstep - could turn what's traditionally seen as a second-tier event into an impactful showdown.
"Given that we're only likely to have one head-to-head matchup between the principal candidates and this is the last meet up between the two tickets directly before the election, it heightens the importance and significance of this debate," longtime Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams, a veteran of multiple presidential campaigns, told Fox News.
Most political pundits said that Harris bested Trump last month in their first and likely only debate. And flash polls of debate watchers agreed.
So a strong showing by Vance in Tuesday's vice presidential debate could give Trump a boost.
The Oct. 1, 2024 vice presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz will be aired on CBS and CBS News at 9 p.m. ET in New York City. You can catch the live broadcast on CBS and stream it on platforms where CBS News 24/7 and Paramount+ are available.
In New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, the debate will air on channel 2. In the Philadelphia area, it will air on channel 3.
Check your local listings for the CBS affiliate in your area.
The debate will also be available for simulcast across Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox News Digital, Fox News Audio and FOX Nation. Fox News Digital will have up to the minute coverage of the debate available at FoxNews.com.
Follow along as well on Fox News Channel for breaking coverage of the debate, including pre- and post-coverage featuring your favorite Fox News Channel personalities like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino, Bill Hemmer, Martha MacCallum, Bret Baier and Brit Hume.
{{#rendered}}Live Coverage begins here