The VP Debate Spin Room

At the close of the debate, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., defended former President Trump after Gov. Tim Walz blamed Republicans for killing the bipartisan border bill that he authored in the Senate. 

“No one in Congress has worked on stopping illegal immigration more than me and I am absolutely voting for the person who will close the border, Donald Trump,” Lankford wrote on X. 

“The reason I needed to negotiate the border security bill was the dangerous open border policies of Biden and Harris and their unwillingness to secure America.Biden and Harris caused the border crisis, they consistently opposed any efforts to secure it, and now they want to say they can solve it simply to win an election. No one believes it.”

Walz had called the legislation the “fairest and toughest bill on immigration this nation has seen.” 

It was crafted by a conservative senator from Oklahoma. James Lankford I know him. He's super conservative, but he's a man of principle once you get it done. Democrats and Republicans worked on this piece of legislation. The Border Patrol said, this is what we need in here,” Walz went on, referring to the National Border Patrol Council’s endorsement of the bill.  

The campaign for Vice President Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., revealed that its focus group rated Sen. JD Vance's answer on the January 6 Capitol riot the lowest on Tuesday night.

A campaign official said its dial focus group consisting of undecided voters in battleground states rated Vance's answer on certifying the 2020 election the lowest out of the entire night.

House Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas, a national Harris-Walz campaign co-chair, appeared to knock the CBS News debate moderators for a lack of fact-checking on Tuesday night.

CBS News opted not to have the moderators perform real-time fact checks of the candidates during the vice presidential debate.

Escobar's wording, however, suggested she believed it was an active choice - a nod to Harris campaign supporters' accusations that Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance was being misleading through most of the debate.

Andrew Surabian, aide to Sen. JD Vance, claimed that House GOP Whip Tom Emmer was "more impressive" when he imitated Gov. Tim Walz in debate preparations than Walz in the debate.

"Having been at JD's debate prep, Tom Emmer was much more impressive playing Tim Walz than Tim Walz turned out to be himself. This has been one of the one most one sided debates in American political history."

Emmer represents a district in Walz's home state of Minnesota.

"I've known Tim probably since he was first elected almost 20 years ago, and I worked with him directly for four years, I spent the last month just going back, all of his old stuff, to get his phrases down, his mannerisms, that sort of thing," Emmer told ABC News of the debate preparations.

The Trump campaign and its allies are pouncing on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over what appeared to have been a slip of the tongue when discussing gun control during the vice presidential debate.

Walz was asked about his stance on guns becoming more progressive over time, and he noted that the culture around firearms was changing in the U.S. as well.

"I sat in that office with those Sandy Hook parents. I've become friends with school shooters," Walz said.

"I've seen it- Look, the NRA, I was the NRA guy for a long time. They used to teach gun safety. I'm of an age where my shotgun was in my car so I could pheasant hunt after football practice. That's not where we live today," he said.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., wrote on X, "Walz: 'I've become friends with school shooters' did I just hear that?!"

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., also posted the quote, as did the Trump War Room X account.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is taking aim at CBS News debate moderator Margaret Brennan on Tuesday night.

She took to X with photos of Brennan from the vice presidential debate, which appear to have been taken of a screen displaying the head-to-head match-up between Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Greene appeared to suggest that Brennan's smiling face in the photos was her looking at Walz during the debate, and that it was evidence of bias toward the Minnesota Democrat.

Walz's highest rating of the night so far was when he brought up Donald Trump's promise to build a border wall, according to a Harris campaign official. He was "overall outperforming" Vance in the immigration section of the night, according to an official.

"They wanted to build a big beautiful wall and only 2% of it got built," said Walz.

The Trump administration built around 458 miles of wall along the 2,000-mile southern border.

Walz called to mind to social media claims pushed by former President Donald Trump and about Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. "The issue on this is — this is what happens when you don't want to solve it, you demonize it," Walz said.

He went on: “Harris was the attorney general of the largest state. It’s a border state. She is only person in this race who prosecuted transnational gangs for human trafficking and drug interventions.”

David Plouffe, a senior adviser for the Harris-Walz campaign and is a former White House adviser to former President Barack Obama, said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's point about former President Trump's promised border wall was the strongest portion of Tuesday night's vice presidential debate.

Walz said about the border crisis, "Donald Trump had four years. He had four years to do this. And he promised you, America, how easy it would be. 'I'll build you a big, beautiful wall and Mexico will pay for it.' Less than 2% of that wall got built and Mexico didn't pay a dime."

"But here we are again. Nine years after he came down that escalator. Dehumanizing people and telling him what he was going to do as far as a deportation plan," Walz said.

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign revealed that the highest-rated moment of the first 15 minutes of the 2024 vice presidential debate was when Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., referenced former President Trump's "fickle leadership."

According to a campaign official, its dial focus group of undecided voters in battleground states rated this moment the highest within the first moments of the debate.

Walz claimed that Americans need steady leadership, pointing to Harris, and not Trump, who he said is a fickle leader.

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., tore into the Senate border and immigration deal that failed to clear Congress earlier this year, saying it would "codify catch/release" and do "nothing to deport illegals."

Gov. Tim Walz had claimed in the debate Republicans were not serious about fixing immigration issues because they opposed the deal.

After former President Donald Trump himself came out against the measure in March, Democrats accused him of being responsible for its ultimate demise, and he further welcomed their blame. But Republicans insisted the bill was essentially dead on arrival, with or without Trump's input. 

"I believe Sen. Vance wants to solve this," Walz said about immigration during the debate. "But by standing with Donald Trump and not working together to find a solution, it becomes a talking point. And when it becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanize and villainize other human beings."

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a top surrogate for the Harris-Walz presidential campaign, is accusing Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance of lying about U.S. energy production.

When asked about climate change, Vance argued that Biden administration policies have strangled U.S. energy production, which he said led to China dominating the sector.

"When we talk about clean energy, I think that's a slogan that often the Democrats will use here...and the real issue is that if you're spending hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of American taxpayer money on solar panels that are made in China, number one, you're going to make the economy dirtier. We should be making more of the solar panels here in the United States of America," Vance said.

Walz challenged him, pointing out solar panels are produced in Minnesota.

"Some of them are, Tim. But a lot of them are being made overseas in China, especially the components that go into the solar panels. So if you really want to make the environment cleaner, you've got to invest in more energy production," Vance said

Former President Trump's oldest son compared Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to President Biden at the outset of Tuesday night's vice presidential debate.

President Biden's disastrous debate performance against Trump earlier this year was the catalyst that ultimately led him to step aside in the 2024 race.

Donald Trump Jr., who has a close personal relationship with Sen. JD Vance, accompanied his dad's Republican running mate to the debate in New York City.

Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton called Gov. Tim Walz’s answer to the first question of the debate - whether or not he would pre-approve direct Israeli strikes on Iran - “incomprehensible.”