Vance and Walz face off in crucial vice presidential debate

GOP Ohio Senator JD Vance and Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz are engaged in their first and the only vice presidential debate, taking US election campaign to a key moment.

With just five weeks remaining until Election Day, both candidates face intense pressure to engage voters and solidify their party's positions.

Vance, aligned with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, represents the GOP, while Walz stands as the running mate for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Clash over Middle East crisis

Both Walz and Vance when asked their first question about whether they would support an Israeli strike on Iran did not immediately start their response by addressing the question.

Walz attacked Trump mentioning his age and saying he was close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un.

Vance said he would leave it to Israel to make the choice of how to respond and support US allies as they see fit.

Walz said that Iran was closer to a nuclear weapon than they were before "because of Donald Trump's fickle leadership."

Vance responding by saying, "Look, it is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe, and we should support our allies wherever they are when they're fighting the bad guys. I think that's the right approach to take with the Israel question."

Early in the debate, Vance continually implied that Harris, as vice president, has been a primary decision-maker in the White House on issues such as immigration and the war in Gaza.

Rough patches

Both Walz and Vance tried to explain away past statements that undercut their credibility.

For Walz, it was media reports this week that he was not in Hong Kong in June 1989 during Tiananmen Square incident in China, despite having said several times he was there on a teaching trip. Walz was in Nebraska at the time and did not travel to Hong Kong until August of that year.

Asked about the misleading claim, Walz delivered a meandering answer about growing up in a small town and being elected to Congress.

“I’ve not been perfect, and I’m a knucklehead at times,” Walz said.

'I was wrong about Donald Trump'

Finally, when pressed by the CBS News moderator, Walz said, "I got there that summer and misspoke on this."

Vance was asked to reconcile his past criticism of Trump, including comparing him to Adolf Hitler, with his current position as No. 2 on the Republican ticket.

"I was wrong about Donald Trump," Vance said, adding Trump "delivered for the American people" on a lot of things "that I didn’t think he’d be able to deliver on."

The two candidates sparred over the climate crisis, with Walz touting the Biden-Harris administration funding clean energy projects while Vance called for increased production of energy in the United States to bring jobs back from overseas.

Hosted at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, the 90-minute debate featured moderators Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan, who guided the conversation through pressing questions.

The Republican and Democratic vice presidential candidates received two minutes to respond, and, in an interesting twist, the network had reserved the right to mute their microphones if the exchanges get too heated.

For many voters, this debate was the last opportunity to hear directly from both parties in one place before they head to the polls.