The stage is set for the vice presidential debate, scheduled for October 1 in New York City.
The event, hosted by CBS News, will see Democratic Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota and Republican Senator JD Vance of Ohio cross swords in a bid to sway voters.
According to CBS News, the debate will be steered by Norah O'Donnell, the anchor and managing editor of "CBS Evening News," and Margaret Brennan, the moderator of "Face the Nation" and CBS News' chief foreign affairs correspondent. The network had initially proposed four potential dates for the debate, namely September 17, September 24, October 1, and October 8. The Harris-Walz campaign was quick to agree to the October 1 date.
In response to the agreed date, Governor Walz took to social media, stating, "See you on October 1, JD." A campaign official further noted that Walz "looks forward to debating JD Vance if he shows up."
Senator Vance, on his part, accepted the October 1 debate and expressed his desire for an additional debate on CNN on September 18. "The American people deserve as many debates as possible, which is why President Trump has challenged Kamala to three of them already," Vance wrote. "Not only do I accept the CBS debate on October 1st, I accept the CNN debate on September 18th as well. I look forward to seeing you at both!"
In a subsequent interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Vance confirmed his willingness to debate Walz on October 1, albeit without a firm commitment. "We're certainly going to debate Tim Walz. We just heard about this thing three hours ago, so we're going to talk to them and figure out when we can debate," Vance said. He further expressed his desire for a genuine debate, stating, "I strongly suspect we're going to be there on October 1, but we're not going to do one of these fake debates, Laura, where they don't actually have an audience there, where they don't actually set the parameters in a right way, where we can have a good exchange of ideas."
Vance also expressed his desire for multiple debates with Walz. "Hopefully we're going to see him on Oct. 1, but hopefully we're going to see him either before or after that because I think it's important for the American people to actually see us discuss our views," he told Ingraham.
The vice presidential debate has been a topic of discussion since spring when CBS News first extended the invitation to both presidential campaigns. In May, President Biden's campaign indicated that Vice President Kamala Harris was ready to face off against the eventual Republican vice presidential nominee on either July 23 or Aug. 13.
However, the debate was put on hold when former President Donald Trump, who had chosen Vance as his running mate on July 15, declined to commit to a vice presidential debate before the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19. The Trump campaign argued that it would be premature since Harris might end up being the Democratic nominee.
The vice presidential picks for both campaigns were finalized when Harris, who had gathered the support needed to replace Biden atop the Democratic ticket, named Walz as her running mate. This announcement marked the beginning of a race to the November election.
Last week, Trump confirmed that CBS News would host the vice presidential debate and praised Vance for "really stepping up" and "doing a fantastic job." He also expressed his willingness to participate in three debates with Harris in September, hosted by Fox News, ABC News, and NBC News. The Harris campaign had previously committed to one debate, the Sept. 10 meeting on ABC.
This year marks the first election cycle since 1988 where the debates are not being organized by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. In 2022, the Republican National Committee voted to ban GOP nominees from participating in debates hosted by the commission, accusing the organizers of bias in the two 2020 meetings between Mr. Biden and Trump.
As a result, television networks have taken up the mantle of negotiating dates and terms for the debates directly with the presidential campaigns. CNN hosted the first debate of the cycle between Mr. Biden and Trump in June, a much earlier start than in previous election years. CNN allowed other networks to carry the debate on their airwaves, in keeping with the practice for debates hosted by the commission.
Login