CBS News
Watch Tim Walz’s closing statement from the 2024 VP debate
In his closing remarks at Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he was “surprised as anybody” at the support Vice President Kamala Harris has garnered from a broad spectrum of political beliefs.
“Support of democracy matters,” Walz said at the end of the debate, which was hosted by CBS News in New York. “I’m as surprised as anybody of this coalition that Kamala Harris has built, from Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney to Taylor Swift and a whole bunch of folks in between there.”
“They don’t all agree on everything, but they are truly optimistic people,” he continued. “They believe in a positive future of this country, and one where our politics can be better than it is.”
He said Harris stands for an “opportunity economy that works for everyone” and “the idea that freedom really means something, not the freedom of government to be in your bedroom or exam room, but the freedom for you to make choices about yourself.”
Walz said voters “know who Donald Trump is,” and GOP Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, his opponent, “made it clear he will stand with Donald Trump’s agenda” during the debate.
Harris provides a different option, he said.
“Kamala Harris is bringing us a politics of joy,” he said. “She’s bringing real solutions for the middle class, and she’s centering you at the heart of that.”
For more than 90 minutes on live TV, the 2024 vice presidential nominees, Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, sparred over a wide range of issues in the first and only VP debate of the campaign, hosted by CBS News. If you missed the debate Tuesday night, you can watch a replay of the full broadcast in the video player above.
The two candidates faced questions from moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan about the economy, immigration, abortion rights, the conflict in the Middle East, climate change, health care, housing costs and more — and offered sometimes sharply different visions for the nation’s future.
Immediately following the debate, CBS News surveyed voters nationwide who reported watching it in order to get their reaction. They were almost evenly divided over who they thought won — 42% said Vance and 41% said Walz, while 17% considered it a tie. A large majority, 88%, said they thought the tone of the debate was generally positive.
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