Washington, Oct 2 (IANS ) Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz and his Republican rival J.D. Vance traded blame and charges for the escalating crisis in West Asia with Iran unleashing a barrage of missiles on Israel which were, in the words of US officials, "defeated".
They went on to argue about immigration, climate change, abortion, the economy and personal failure. On the last issue, Walz acknowledged that he had misspoken at times and Vance admitted he was wrong.
"Let's keep in mind where this started," Walz said in response to the first question of the debate which was on the Iranian attack. "October 7, Hamas terrorists massacred over 1400 Israelis and took prisoners... Israel's ability to be able to defend itself is absolutely fundamental. Getting its hostages back is fundamental and ending the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but the expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the United States to have the steady leadership there."
"You saw it today, where, along with our Israeli partners and our coalition, able to stop the incoming attack. But what's fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter," he added.
Walz, the Governor of Minnesota, went on to target former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President in 2024. "It's clear, and the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago, a nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need at this moment. But it's not just that. It's those that were closest to Donald Trump that understand how dangerous he is when the world is this dangerous. His chief of staff, John Kelly, said that he was the most flawed human being he'd ever met, and both of his secretaries of defence and his national security advisers said he should be nowhere near the White House," Walz said.
"What we've seen of Vice President Harris is we've seen steady leadership. We've seen a calmness that is able to be able to draw on the coalitions to bring them together, understanding that our allies matter. When our allies see Donald Trump turned towards Vladimir Putin, turn towards North Korea. When we start to see that type of fickleness around holding the coalitions together, we will stay committed. And as the Vice President said today, we will protect our forces and our allied forces, and there will be consequences," he added.
Vance in response said that it was Donald Trump, who "actually delivered stability" in the world by establishing "effective deterrence".
"People were afraid of stepping out of line. Iran, which launched this attack, has received over $100 billion in unfrozen assets thanks to the Kamala Harris administration. What do they use that money for? They use it to buy weapons that they're now launching against our allies and, God forbid, potentially launching against the United States as well," the Republican nominee said.
"Donald Trump recognised that for people to fear the United States, you needed peace through strength. They needed to recognise that if they got out of line, the United States, global leadership, would put stability and peace back in the world," he added.
Vance further said that 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".
Vice-presidential debates are not considered as consequential as the one between the main nominees and are not known to have any bearing on polling numbers. But, given how right the race is between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump, this debate is being closely watched. However, viewership is not expected to match the 67 million who viewed the September 10 debate between Harris and Trump.