Everything Donald Trump Said During JD Vance’s Debate Against Tim Walz

Former President Donald Trump feverishly posted on social media as his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, faced off against Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz for the first and only time in the 2024 election season.
Vance and Walz met in New York City Tuesday night and battled over the issues top of voters’ minds ahead of November, including the economy, immigration and escalations overseas. The 90-minute debate, which started at 9 p.m. ET, was hosted by CBS News and took place without a live audience.
Trump promised ahead of the debate to react live over his Truth Social account, a similar method he used during Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ keynote speech at the Democratic National Committee back in August.
The former president wasted no time on Tuesday, posting within the first few minutes of Walz answering the moderators’ first question regarding the conflict in the Middle East that the governor has “been indoctrinated with LIES, thinking he can override his own INCOMPETENCE.”
“He’s as nervous as you can get!” Trump added in the post.
Trump later said that Vance was providing “a great defense of me and the Administration of fake charges made by an obviously not very bright Governor,” an apparent reaction to Walz noting how Trump pulled out of a nuclear deal between Iran and other major powers in 2018.
Trump also repeated Republicans’ favorite nickname for Walz in several posts early into the debate, referring to the governor as “Tampon Tim.”
“JD is steady and strong, Tampon Tim is sweating bullets, he is nervous and ‘weird,'” Trump posted.
The overall tone of the debate was relatively civil, although both candidates had their microphones muted at one point in the night while debating the legality of Haitian migrants in Springfield. Vance and Walz also got into a heated back-and-forth while answering questions on abortion policies, during which Walz accused Vance of not being on the same page as his running mate on one of the top issues this election season.
The Trump-Vance ticket has faced questions about whether their administration would support a national abortion ban if elected to the White House. Vance has said that Trump would veto such a bill, but Trump said during his debate with Harris last month that he “didn’t discuss it with JD.” Vance said on Tuesday that he has “never supported a national ban” on abortion, although the senator said in 2022 that he would “like abortion to be illegal nationally” while running for office in Ohio.
Trump raged about questions about abortion in several posts to Truth Social Tuesday night, including writing in all caps, “EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT, BECAUSE IT IS UP TO THE STATES TO DECIDE BASED ON THE WILL OF THEIR VOTERS (THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!).”
The former president also pushed back on Walz’s comment that Democrats are not “pro-abortion” but are instead “pro-women,” posting to Truth Social, “Democrats are NOT Pro WOMEN, they are letting MEN play in WOMEN’s Sports. Walz can’t even define what a Woman is!”
Trump also joined several other conservative commentators online by homing in on Walz saying that he’s “become friends with school shooters.” The governor made the comment while discussing the issue of gun violence, and it is unclear if the governor misspoke during his answer.
“I sat in that office with those Sandy Hook parents,” Walz said, referring to the mass shooting at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. “I’ve become friends with school shooters. I’ve seen it.”
“Did Tampon Tim just say he has ‘become friends with school shooters?'” Trump wrote. “He isn’t even qualified to be Governor, let alone Vice President. Walz and Kamala DO NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES!”
“Walz made a very big mistake on Gun Shooters,” Trump posted later on. “Does anyone think he knows what he said? Will he have a News Conference after the Debate to apologize to the parents and others who were so horribly hurt?”
Newsweek has reached out to Harris’ campaign for comment Tuesday night.
Trump posted after the debate that his running mate “crushed it” against Walz, adding that the Minnesota governor “was a Low IQ Disaster – Very much like Kamala.”
“Our Country would never be able to recover from an Administration of these two,” Trump added. “Can you imagine them representing us with sharp, fierce Foreign Leaders? I can’t!”
Update 10/1/24, 11:41 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.