Key events
Walz, on the subject of Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the 2020 election results, says that as a football coach, he has worked with kids long enough to know that “sometimes you really want to win”.
Walz says that he is most concerned about the idea of Trump imprisoning political opponents, and of Trump “laying the groundwork” for not accepting this year’s election results.
“A president’s words matter. People hear that,” he says:
When this is over, we need to shake hands this election, and the winner needs to be the winner. This has got to stop. It’s tearing our country apart.
JD Vance talked in a circle about how, exactly, he and Donald Trump would work to protect access to affordable health insurance coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.
“We currently have laws and regulations in place right now that protect people with pre existing conditions. We want to keep those regulations in place,” Vance said. Those regulations are included in the Affordable Care Act, which Trump had repeatedly tried to repeal.
Vance could not explain any details about an alternative plan proposed by Trump.
The next question is about the state of democracy.
Vance is asked whether he would seek to challenge this year’s election results, even if every governor certifies those results.
Vance notes that Donald Trump said that there were “problems” in 2020, and that he personally believes that “we should fight about those issues … peacefully in the public square”.
He says that the real threat to democracy is “the threat of censorship”, including “big technology companies silencing their fellow citizens”.
Vance accuses Kamala Harris of being engaged in censorship “at an industrial scale”.
Vance avoids saying whether he supports national paid parental leave
Vance is asked whether he supports a national paid leave program.
He says he is married to a “beautiful woman who is an incredible mother” who is also a “brilliant litigator”, and that he recognizes that raising children has been “extraordinarily difficult”.
Vance says there is a “cultural pressure” on young women that “makes it really hard for people to choose the family model they want”, and says that there should be a family care model that “makes choice possible”.
VP candidates asked about childcare crisis in US
The next question is about the childcare crisis in the US.
Walz is asked how long employers should be required to pay workers while they are taking care of their newborns.
He says that Minnesota passed paid family leave that allows parents to stay home for a certain amount of time.
“What we know is that gets a child off to a better start,” he says. “The family works better.”
Fact check: Immigrants and housing prices, cost of living
JD Vance twice implicated immigrants in driving up housing prices, though when pressed agreed that immigration was not the “only” contributor.
A nonpartisan analysis found that Trump’s vow of mass deportation would drive up prices in several sectors, affect the availability of labor. The nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics projects that the policy “is a major shock to the US economy, with substantial disruption across all sectors, especially agriculture, mining, and manufacturing”.
Walz says that under the Biden-Harris administration, more people in the US are covered by healthcare than ever before.
He says that he was there at the creation of the Affordable Care Act, and that Harris will “protect and enhance” it.
Vance is asked about Trump pledge to replace Obamacare
The next question is about healthcare. JD Vance is asked about Trump’s pledge to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Vance says that Donald Trump “salvaged” Obamacare when he could have destroyed the Affordable Care Act. Instead, Vance says, Trump “worked a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care”.
He says that Trump has “earned the right to put in place some better healthcare policies”, adding: “He’s earned it because he did it successfully the first time.”
Vance blames Kamala Harris for “letting … millions” of people into the country and driving up the cost of housing.
Vance says what would change the equation for American citizens would be lowering energy prices and, as Donald Trump says, “drill, baby, drill”.
“If we open up American energy, you will get immediate pricing release relief for American citizens,” Vance says.
He says that there are a lot of federal lands that “aren’t being used for anything” and that they could be places where a lot of housing can be built. Vance adds:
We have a lot of Americans that need homes. We should be kicking out illegal immigrants who are competing for those homes, and we should be building more homes for the American citizens who deserve to be here.
Walz says Harris’s homebuyers pledge will make homes more affordable
Walz is asked about the Harris campaign’s pledges to give $25,000 downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers, to give a $10,000 tax credit, and to build 3m homes.
Walz says the problem is that a lot of people see housing as a commodity that can be bought up and moved around.
“We need to make it more affordable,” he says. Walz says that Harris’s housing policies will not push prices up, and that giving people stable housing will create more stability in the labour market:
People with stable housing end up with stable jobs. People with stable housing have their kids able to get to school. All of those things in the long run end up saving our money.
As the vice-presidential candidates discussed abortion, Donald Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, in all caps: “EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.”
Vance says gun violence linked to ‘mental health crisis’
Vance says that he believes that a big part of the US gun violence problem is because of the “mental health crisis in this country”.
Walz, responding, says that he wants to be “very careful” about stigmatizing mental health.
“Just because you have a mental health issue doesn’t mean you’re violent,” Walz says:
What we end up doing is that we start looking for a scapegoat. Sometimes it just is the guns. It’s just guns, and there are things that you can do about it.
