JD Vance and Tim Walz prepare for duel in the US vice presidential debate: details here

(Reuters) – Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance will face off next week in the only scheduled U.S. vice presidential debate, a chance for each man to deliver his running mate’s message to voters just weeks before the Nov. 5 election affirm.

Here are some details about the event:

When and where will the debate take place?

The 90-minute debate, moderated by CBS News, will take place on October 1 at 9 p.m. ET (01:00 GMT on October 2) in New York City, a Democratic stronghold that is the former home of Republican President Donald Trump candidate , who is running against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

The debate will take place at the CBS Broadcast Center and will be moderated by CBS “Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan.

HOW CAN YOU WATCH THE DEBATE?

The event will be broadcast on the CBS Network and streamed live on all platforms where CBS News 24/7 and Paramount are available. CBS said it will also be available for simulcast.

The Harris-Trump presidential debate on ABC News on September 10 attracted 67 million television viewers.

WHAT ARE THE BASIC RULES?

There will be no audience. Candidates will stand behind lecterns for the duration of the debate. No props or pre-written notes are allowed on stage. CBS News reserves the right to turn off any candidate’s microphones.

Walz, the Minnesota governor, is likely to use his reputation as a “normal guy” to attract voters, including some independents who think Harris, a former senator from California, is too liberal.

Walz, 60, is a former congressman who won election in a Republican-leaning district before becoming governor.

As governor, he pushed a progressive agenda that includes free school meals, tax cuts for the middle class and an expansion of paid leave for Minnesota workers.

Walz will likely try to poke Vance, as Harris successfully did in her debate with Trump. Walz has questioned Vance’s Midwestern credentials and mocked his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” for its depiction of rural America.

“Like all the normal people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best-selling book that devastated this community,” Walz said at his first rally as Harris’ Election for Vice President. “Come on! This is not Middle America.”

Walz, also a former high school teacher and football coach, dismissed Trump and Vance as “creepy and, yes, strange” – a criticism that was widespread among Democrats.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee has linked Vance to a series of conservative policy proposals called Project 2025, which Trump has tried to distance himself from.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM VANCE

Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio, will have to work hard not to get defensive during the debate as Walz uses Harris’ debate strategy.

Vance, 40, will likely face questions about his inflammatory rhetoric and could hit back with his trademark combative style.

He was criticized for calling Harris and other Democrats a “bunch of childless cat ladies” in 2021 and, more recently, spreading false claims that Haitian migrants in the Ohio city of Springfield were eating pets.

He has also claimed without evidence that the suspect in the recent Trump assassination attempt was responding to Democrats’ inflammatory language.

“The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that … no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last few months, and two people have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last few months,” Vance said in a comment was reprimanded by the White House.

During the campaign, Vance portrayed Walz and Harris as radical liberals.

He has also questioned Walz’s depictions of his military career and his family’s fertility problems.

Vance, who served in the Marine Corps and was a public affairs officer during a six-month stint in Iraq, has accused Walz of leaving the Army National Guard to avoid deployment to Iraq and falsely claiming that he had served in combat.

Walz, who served in the Guard for 24 years, retired to run for Congress. He has defended his record, but the Harris campaign has admitted he misspoke in a 2018 video in which he referred to “weapons of war that I carried to war.” Walz never served in a combat zone.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Deepa Babington and Daniel Wallis)