Takeaways from the vice presidential debate: Vance and Walz are focusing their attacks on the top of the ticket — not each other

Iran’s missile attack on Israel on Tuesday sparked a contrast between Democratic and Republican foreign policy views: Walz promised “stable leadership” under Harris, while Vance promised a return to “peace through strength” if Trump returns to the White House.

The different ideas about what American leadership should look like overshadowed the stark policy differences between the two parties.

The Iranian threat to the region and U.S. interests around the world opened the debate, with Walz pivoting the topic to criticism of Trump.

“The fundamental thing here is that stable leadership is what matters,” Walz said, then referred to “almost 80-year-old Donald Trump, who speaks to crowds” and responds to global crises via tweet.

Vance, for his part, promised a return to “effective deterrence” under Trump against Iran and dismissed Walz’s criticism of Trump by attacking Harris and her role in the Biden administration.

“Who has been vice president for the last three and a half years and the answer is your vice president, not mine,” he said. He specifically noted that the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 occurred “during the administration of Kamala Harris.”

Vance and Walz punch each other instead of attacking each other

Vance and Walz directed most of their attacks not at their rival on stage, but at their competitors who were not in the room.

Both vice presidential candidates tried to project a friendly face as they criticized Harris and Trump, respectively.

This reflected the fact that most voters do not cast their votes based on the vice president, nor on the historical role of a vice presidential candidate acting as an attack dog for his fellow running mates.

Walz specifically attacked Trump for reneging on his promise to build a physical barrier across the entire U.S.-Mexico border at the expense of the country’s southern neighbor.

“Less than 2% of this wall has been built and Mexico hasn’t paid a dime,” Walz said.

During a back-and-forth over immigration, Vance underscored the focus on the top of the ticket, telling his opponent: “I think you want to solve this problem, but I don’t think Kamala Harris does.”

Both candidates give climate change a domestic political touch

After the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene, Vance answered a question about climate change and gave an answer about jobs and manufacturing, taking a detour from Trump’s previous claims that global warming is a “hoax.”

Vance claimed the best way to combat climate change is to move more manufacturing to the United States, as the country has the cleanest energy economy in the world. It was clearly a domestic variant of a global crisis, especially after Trump withdrew the US from the international Paris climate accords during his time in office.

Walz also continued to focus on climate change domestically, praising the Biden administration’s investments in renewable energy and record levels of oil and natural gas production. “You can imagine that we will become an energy superpower in the future,” Walz said.

It was a decidedly optimistic view of a pervasive and grim global problem.

Walz and Vance each blame the opposing presidential candidate for the immigration stalemate

The two vice presidents agreed that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States is a problem. But everyone blamed the opposing presidential candidate.

Vance joined Trump in repeatedly calling Harris a “border czar” and suggesting that, as vice president, she single-handedly rolled back immigration restrictions that Trump imposed as president. The result, Vance said, is an uncontrolled flow of fentanyl, a strain on state and local resources and rising real estate prices across the country.

Harris was never appointed “border czar” and was never explicitly given responsibility for border security. She was appointed by Biden in March 2021 to address the “root causes” of migration from the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and to press leaders there and in Mexico to enforce immigration laws. Harris did not have the authority to set U.S. immigration policy – only the president can sign executive orders, and Harris did not have the authority to be Biden’s deputy in negotiations with Congress over immigration legislation.

Walz advanced Democrats’ arguments that Trump single-handedly defeated a bipartisan Senate agreement to tighten border security and improve the processing system for immigrants and asylum seekers. Walz noted that Republicans only abandoned the deal after Trump said it wasn’t good enough.