JD Vance, senator of Ohio and the Republican vice presidential nominee, said Thursday that he has accepted a debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on CBS on Oct. 1, and also challenged Walz to an earlier debate on CNN in September.
“The American people deserve as many debates as possible, which is why President Trump has challenged Kamala to three of them already,” Vance wrote in a post on X. “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!”
CBS News confirmed that both campaigns have agreed to the Oct. 1 debate, which will be moderated by CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell and Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan in New York City.
"See you on October 1, JD," Walz wrote on X.
The Minnesota governor, who had already agreed to the Oct. 1 debate, has not yet committed to the proposed CNN event.
The Harris-Trump debate(s)
Earlier this month, former President Donald Trump agreed to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC on Sept. 10 — an event he had initially agreed to with President Biden and then canceled when Biden exited the race.
“I think it’s very important to have debates,” Trump told reporters gathered at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 after weeks of suggesting he might not agree to the ABC debate.
Trump then challenged Harris to two other debates: one hosted by Fox News on Sept. 4, and the other by NBC on Sept. 25. Harris confirmed that she would face Trump on Sept. 10 and told reporters she would be open to other debates after that. “I am happy to have that conversation about an additional debate after Sept. 10, for sure,” she said.
Confirmed debates
Sept. 10: Harris vs. Trump, ABC News (location yet to be announced)
Oct. 1: Vance vs. Walz, CBS News, New York City
Unconfirmed debates (times and locations TBD)
Sept. 4: Harris vs. Trump, Fox News
Sept. 18: Vance vs. Walz, CNN
Sept. 25: Harris vs. Trump, NBC
The Harris-Walz campaign said Thursday that it would agree to one additional presidential debate in October.
“Assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris, then Governor Walz will see JD Vance on October 1 and the American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October,” Michael Tyler, director of communications for the Harris-Walz campaign, said in a statement.
“Voters deserve to see the candidates for the highest office in the land share their competing visions for our future,” he added. “The more they play games, the more insecure and unserious Trump and Vance reveal themselves to be to the American people. Those games end now.”
What to expect at the Walz-Vance debate
Walz and Vance have each been on debate stages before, though not as high-profile as a vice presidential debate.
In October 2022, Vance took on Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in a contentious debate that “descended quickly into attacks,” the Associated Press reported at the time:
Vance said Ryan had supported policies that led to a 10-year-old girl in Ohio being raped. Ryan said Vance had started a “fake nonprofit” to help people overcome addiction issues. The two accused each other of being beholden to their party, with Ryan echoing a comment from former President Donald Trump in calling Vance an ‘a— kisser’ and Vance saying Ryan’s 100% voting record with President Joe Biden means he’s not the reasonable moderate he says he is.
The same year Walz participated in three gubernatorial debates in Minnesota against Republican challenger Scott Jensen, who criticized Walz’s response to the violent protests that followed the murder of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both Walz and Vance have traded barbs in public this summer, with the Minnesota governor calling Vance “weird” while questioning his “small-town” bona fides.
Vance, a military veteran, and other Republicans have openly questioned the timing of Walz’s departure from the Army National Guard.
During his first solo campaign appearance after being named Harris’s running mate, Walz pushed back.
“I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person’s service record,” Walz said in Los Angeles on Tuesday. “To anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, I just have a few simple words: Thank you for your service and sacrifice.”
Why the debates weren’t set in stone this year
From 1988 through 2020, the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates ran the general election debates, with three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate each cycle. While the moderators included various television news hosts, the debates were not hosted by any specific network, meaning that they ran on an array of cable and network news channels and streamed widely online with no commercial interruptions.
In 2022, the Republican National Committee warned the commission that it would not allow future nominees to participate in CPD debates because GOP voters “have lost trust” in the body. (In 2020, Trump accused the moderators of bias.)
Nonetheless, the commission again proposed three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate for the 2024 cycle. But both the Trump and Biden campaigns refused to participate, saying the proposed dates (in September and October) were too late. The campaigns then agreed to two unsanctioned debates, in June on CNN and in October on ABC.
But Biden's halting performance in the first debate in June in Atlanta raised concerns about his fitness for office and ultimately led to his decision not to seek reelection.
