Vice presidential nominees Tim Walz and JD Vance have faced each other in their first televised debate trading blows over taxes, climate change, immigration and reproductive rights.
The two men went head-to head in New York in a 90-minute event hosted by CBS News.
Although the Tuesday night debate has been described as “Midwestern nice” – both men are from the US heartland of the Midwest, shook hands at the start, introduced their wives at the end and remained civil throughout – they did not hold back in their claims and counter-claims about each other’s party policies and statements.
We take a look at some of the key assertions made and the facts behind them.
Was Tim Walz at Tiananmen Square?
Claim: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has previously said that he visited Hong Kong in May 1989 weeks before the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
Facts: Walz told a 2014 hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China that he was “going to teach high school in Foshan in Guangdong, and was in Hong Kong in May of 89”.
When asked about this by the moderators during the televised debate on Tuesday night, he admitted he may have “misspoke” and could be a “knuckle-head” at times.
He said: “I’ve tried to do the best I can, but I’ve not been perfect, and I’m a knuckle-head at times…All I said on this was, I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just – that’s what I’ve said.”
But he added: “I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests… And from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in, in governance.”
As a schoolteacher, Walz regularly organised and chaperoned trips to China.
However, an issue of the weekly newspaper Alliance Times-Herald from 16 May, 1989, is reported to feature a photo of Walz touring a Nebraska national guard storeroom, and a separate article in another publication said he planned to travel to China in August 1989.
Has Trump paid any federal tax in the past 15 years?
Claim: Walz said, “Donald Trump hasn’t paid any federal tax in 10 of the last 15 years, and the last year as president”.
Facts: A 2020 New York Times investigation reported former president Trump had paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and another $750 in 2017 and no income taxes at all in 10 of the 15 previous years.
This was “largely because he reported losing much more money than he made”, the newspaper said.
Before becoming president in 2016, Trump had declined to disclose his tax returns.
In 2022, a release of some of Trump’s tax returns by the House Ways and Means Committee revealed he filed federal income tax returns from 2015 to 2020.
The report stated he paid $641,931 in federal income tax in 2015, $750 in 2016 and 2017, $133,445 in 2019 and none in 2020.
“Trump and his wife, Melania, paid some form of tax during all four years, the documents showed, but were able to minimise their income taxes in several years as income from Trump’s businesses was more than offset by deductions and losses,” Reuters reported.
Was Iran given more than $100bn in unfrozen assets by the current administration?
Claim: Senator Vance said Iran “received over $100bn in unfrozen assets thanks to the Kamala Harris administration”.
Facts: The Iran nuclear deal was negotiated in 2015 while Barack Obama was president.
Under terms of the deal, if Iran completed key stages to reduce its nuclear capability there would be sanctions relief in the form of unfreezing of the nation’s assets thought to be up to the value of $100bn.
Ms Harris was California’s attorney general at the time.
Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018.
Will Trump’s Project 2025 have a registry of pregnancies?
Claim: Walz said, “Their Project 2025 is going to have a registry of pregnancies.
“It’s going to make it more difficult, if not impossible, to get contraception, and limit access, if not eliminate access, to infertility treatments.”
Facts: Project 2025 is a political blueprint, conceived and published by the Heritage Foundation think-tank, promoting conservative and right-wing policies for the next Republican president.
The Project 2025 policy document proposes that the federal government take steps to ensure it is receiving detailed anonymous data from every state on abortions and miscarriages.
And it calls on the Health and Human Services Department to use “every available tool, including the cutting of funds” to ensure this state reporting is conducted.
But it does not call for a registry of pregnancies.
Trump has said: “I have nothing to do with Project 2025”.
Have Biden/Harris invested in climate policy?
Claim: Vance said: “If we actually care about getting cleaner air and cleaner water, the best thing to do is to double down and invest in American workers and the American people.
“And unfortunately, Kamala Harris has done exactly the opposite.”
Facts: The Inflation Reduction Act, brought in by the Biden administration, made $370bn available to American manufacturing for electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines and large batteries.
The policy provided money to expand nuclear energy, hydrogen technology and carbon capture technology.
Some Chinese-backed companies with factories in the US are claiming these subsidies for clean energy manufacturing under the law. But a bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced a bill in July which would block them from claiming the subsidies.
Are there 25 million illegal immigrants in US under Biden administration?
Claim: Vance said during the debate there are “20, 25 million illegal aliens who are here in the country”.
Facts: A 2024 report from Pew Research Centre estimated the undocumented immigrant population in the US grew to 11 million in 2022, using data from the US Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey.
In 2024, the Migration Policy Institute estimated there were about 11.3 million undocumented immigrants in the US by mid-2022.
And the Center for Immigration Studies think-tank estimated there were approximately 12.6 million in May 2023.
