Americans tuned in on Tuesday night to see Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio duke it out over a host of issues, from immigration to abortion to Jan. 6.
Less than half an hour into the policy-heavy showdown, the conversation turned to the threats facing Black migrants that have arisen as Vance and former President Donald Trump have pushed a debunked story about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. Walz laced into Vance over his rhetoric about immigration, arguing that he cares more about promoting himself than keeping vulnerable communities safe.
“By standing with Donald Trump and not working together to find a solution, it becomes a talking point,” Walz said of Vance’s approach to immigration. “And when it becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanize and villainize other human beings.”
That wasn’t the debate’s only memorable exchange.
Vance insisted that we ought to “let individual states make their abortion policy.” Walz disagreed,talking at length about the challenges that women have been confronted with while attempting to navigate states’ restrictive abortion laws.
“There’s a very good chance that if Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota, she’d be alive today,” Walz said, referring to the Black 28-year-old medical assistant who died after she traveled from Georgia to North Carolina to try to get help after she suffered complications from a medication abortion.
This response recalled the fears that many LGBTQ voters have. If something such as marriage equality is left to individual states to decide, the country could have a landscape where some Americans have different rights than others, based on geography.
In Vance’s answer to a question about the fragile state of U.S. democracy, the senator said he saw Harris as a more meaningful threat than misinformation. s“I believe that we actually do have a threat to democracy in this country, but unfortunately, it’s not the threat to democracy that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want to talk about. It is the threat of censorship,” Vance said. “And it’s Kamala Harris saying that rather than debate and persuade her fellow Americans, she’d like to censor people who engage in misinformation.”
Walz also challenged his rival to say whether Trump lost the 2020 election. Vance pivoted to talking about censorship. “That is a damning nonanswer,” was Walz’s reply.
Both campaigns have said that Tuesday night’s debate was a low-stakes affair. Still, it gave the nominees a fresh opportunity to introduce their ideologies to voters. Read on for some takeaways and fact-checks from our friends over at PolitiFact.
Vance and Jan. 6
Vance said that Trump “said on Jan. 6 the protesters ought to protest peacefully.”
Trump used the word “peacefully” once during the speech on Jan. 6, 2021: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
But that ignores Trump’s words and actions that led up to Jan. 6 and his full remarks.
In December, Trump repeatedly encouraged his supporters to fight the election results and gather at the Capitol.
On Jan. 6, Trump used his “Save America” rally to repeat inaccurate claims that he won the election. He continually urged the crowd to “fight” before inviting them to march to the Capitol. “Our country has had enough,” Trump said. “We will not take it anymore, and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.” The crowd later chanted: “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!”
— Amy Sherman, PolitiFact
No, Trump didn’t “salvage” the Affordable Care Act
Vance’s claim is false.
The Trump administration cut millions of dollars in marketing and enrollment aid for the law’s health plans and backed failed congressional and legal efforts to overturn the law. The Trump administration in June 2020 asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the law in a case more than a dozen Republican-led states had brought; the high court rejected it.
Affordable Care Act enrollment declined by more than 2 million people during Trump’s presidency, and the number of uninsured Americans rose by 2.3 million, including 726,000 children, from 2016 to 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau reported; that includes three years of Trump’s presidency.
— Matthew Crowley and Julie Appleby, PolitiFact
Vance: Walz ended protections in Minnesota for babies born alive
This claim is false.
Infanticide, the crime of killing a child within a year of its birth, is illegal in all U.S. states.
In May 2023, Walz, as Minnesota governor, signed legislation updating a state law for “infants who are born alive.” This change did not alter the fact that under state law, these babies are protected.
Previously, state law said, “All reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice, including the compilation of appropriate medical records, shall be taken by the responsible medical personnel to preserve the life and health of the born alive infant.”
The law was updated to instead say medical personnel must “care for the infant who is born alive.” The law’s updated version also kept the provision that said, “An infant who is born alive shall be fully recognized as a human person, and accorded immediate protection under the law.”
Every person who is born has legal protections under federal and state laws, experts told PolitiFact.
— Sara Swann, PolitiFact
Harris didn’t let in 25 million undocumented immigrants
This is false.
During Biden’s administration, immigration officials have encountered immigrants illegally crossing the U.S. border around 10 million times. When accounting for “got-aways” — people who aren’t stopped by border officials — the number rises to about 11.6 million.
But encounters don’t mean admissions. Encounters represent events, so one person who tries to cross the border twice counts for two encounters.
Also, not everyone encountered is let into the country. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates about 4.2 million encounters have led to expulsions or removals.
About 3.9 million people have been released into the U.S. to await immigration court hearings under Biden’s administration, Department of Homeland Security data shows.
— Maria Ramirez Uribe, PolitiFact
Vance and climate change
Vance has grown more dubious of climate change in recent years.
In a 2020 speech at Ohio State University, Vance said, “We have a climate problem in our society.”
But in 2022, he told the American Leadership Forum, “I’m skeptical of the idea that climate change is caused purely by man. … (the climate has) been changing, as others pointed out, it’s been changing for millennia.”
In a 2022 interview with “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,” Vance sounded dismissive about climate change. “And even if there was a climate crisis, I don’t know how the way to solve it is to buy more Chinese manufactured electric vehicles. The whole EV (electric vehicle) thing is a scam.” But later that year, Vance said he had “become persuaded that climate change is certainly happening,” but that “some of the alarmism is a little overstated.”
The League of Conservation Voters gave Vance a “zero” on its 2023 scorecard based on his Senate votes. He opposed the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which includes financial incentives for companies to use green energy. In 2023, he introduced a bill to repeal electric vehicle-related tax incentives. Beyond his votes, Vance has also spoken in favor of hydraulic fracturing, which environmentalists say could worsen carbon pollution and exacerbate climate change.
— Amy Sherman, PolitiFact
This story has been updated.
