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Everything Donald Trump said during the JD Vance vs. Tim Walz debate

Former President Donald Trump feverishly posted on social media about his candidate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, facing off against Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz for the first and only time in the 2024 election season.

Vance and Walz met in New York City on Tuesday evening and argued about the issues affecting voters ahead of November, including the economy, immigration and escalations abroad. The 90-minute debate, which began at 9 p.m. ET, was moderated by CBS News and took place without a live audience.

Trump promised ahead of the debate that he would respond live via his Truth Social account, a similar method he used during Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris' keynote address to the Democratic National Committee in August.

The former president wasted no time on Tuesday, posting within the first few minutes after Walz answered the moderators' first question about the Middle East conflict that the governor had been “indoctrinated with LIES because he thought he could handle his own INCOMPETENCE.” overcome.”

“He's as nervous as can be!” Trump added in the post.

JD Vance
Republican vice presidential candidate U.S. Senator JD Vance speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at the Northwestern Michigan Fair grounds on September 25, 2024 in Traverse City, Michigan. Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald…


Trump later said that Vance represented “a great defense for me and the administration in the face of false accusations from an obviously not very smart governor,” an apparent response to Walz's reference to how Trump withdrew from a nuclear deal between Iran and other major powers in 2011 and 2018.

Trump also repeated Republicans' preferred nickname for Walz in several posts early in the debate, referring to the governor as “Tampon Tim.”

“JD is stable and strong, Tampon Tim is sweating, he's nervous and 'weird,'” Trump posted.

The general tone of the debate was relatively civil, although both candidates' microphones were muted at some point during the night as they debated the legality of Haitian migrants in Springfield. Vance and Walz also got into a heated argument while answering questions about abortion policy, with Walz accusing Vance of not being on the same page as his vice president on one of this election season's top issues.

The Trump-Vance team faced the question of whether their administration would support a nationwide abortion ban if elected to the White House. Vance has said Trump would veto such a bill, but Trump said during his debate with Harris last month that he “didn't talk to JD about it.” Vance said Tuesday that he has “never supported a national abortion ban,” although the senator said in 2022 that he “would like abortion to be illegal nationwide” when he ran for office in Ohio.

Trump raged about abortion issues in several posts on Truth Social on Tuesday evening, writing in all caps, among other things: “Everyone knows that I would not support a federal abortion ban under any circumstances and would in fact veto it because it is in effect.” AN 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 were not “pro-abortion” but “pro-women,” posting on Truth Social: “Democrats are NOT pro-WOMEN, they let MEN play in WOMEN'S sports. Walz can. “I don’t even define what a woman is!”

Trump also joined several other conservative online commentators in lashing out at Walz, saying he had “become friends with school shooters.” The governor made the comment while discussing the issue of gun violence, and it is unclear whether the governor misspoke in his response.

“I sat in this office with these Sandy Hook parents,” Walz said, referring to the mass shooting at Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school in December 2012. “I became friends with school shooters. I saw it.” “

“Did Tampon Tim just say he became friends with school shooters?” Trump wrote. “He’s not even qualified to be governor, let alone vice president. Walz and Kamala don’t have what it takes!”

“Walz made a very big mistake on Gun Shooters,” Trump later posted. “Does anyone think he knows what he said? Will he hold a press conference after the debate to apologize to the parents and others who were so terribly hurt?”

Newsweek Harris' campaign reached out for comment Tuesday evening.

Trump posted after the debate that his vice presidential candidate had “destroyed” Walz, adding that the Minnesota governor “was a low-IQ disaster – much like Kamala.”

“Our country would never be able to recover from a government of these two,” Trump added. “Can you imagine them representing us with sharp, fierce foreign leaders? I can’t do that!”

Update 10/01/24, 11:41 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.

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