Tim Walz and JD Vance defended their respective candidates during their first and possibly only vice presidential debate.

The event, hosted by CBS News, gave the two a chance to introduce themselves and attack the opposing ticket.

Each man pointed to the current crises as reasons for voters to vote Running mate for president.

Mr. Walz, a two-term Democratic governor of Minnesota, raised questions about whether he would support a preemptive strike against Iran Donald Trump as too dangerous for the country and the world at an unstable moment.

“The fundamental thing here is that stable leadership is important,” said Mr. Walz.

“And the world saw on that debate stage a few weeks ago that an almost 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd size is not what we need in this moment.”

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Mr. Vance argued in his response that Mr. Trump was an intimidating figure whose presence on the international stage had its own chilling effect.

“Donald Trump has actually provided stability,” said the Republican senator from Ohio.

Toward the end of the 90-minute debate, Mr. Walz urged Mr. Vance to abide by the election results and commit to a peaceful transfer of power.

However, when Mr Vance was asked by the 60-year-old Democrat whether Mr Trump had lost the 2020 election, he replied: “Tim, I’m focused on the future.”

“That’s a damn non-answer,” Walz retorted. “That really shocks me. He lost the election. This is not a debate, this is nothing different than in Donald Trump’s world.”

Mr. Walz also accused Mr. Vance and Mr. Trump of denigrating legal immigrants in Mr. Vance’s home state, pointing to Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

The Midwest governor had to send in additional law enforcement to ensure the safety of the city’s schools after Mr. Vance tweeted about Haitians eating pets – and Mr. Trump amplified false claims about it.

“That’s what happens when you don’t want to solve the problem but instead demonize it,” said Mr. Walz.

Mr. Vance said the 15,000 Haitians in the city have caused housing, economic and other problems that BidenHarris The administration ignored.

When debate moderators pointed out that Haitians living there had legal status, Mr. Vance protested that CBS News had said its moderators would not do fact-checking and would leave the responsibility to the candidates.

As Mr. Vance continued and the presenters attempted to continue, his microphone was cut off and neither man could be heard.

Mr. Walz was questioned this week about a report that he was not in China during the violent Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, as he had previously claimed.

“Sometimes I’m a moron,” he said. “I got there that summer and made a mistake.

“So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests and learned a lot about what it means to be in government.”

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Mr. Vance, meanwhile, defended his vice president despite criticizing Mr. Trump before the 2016 election.

“I was wrong about Donald Trump,” he said. “I was wrong, firstly, because I believed some of the media reports that turned out to be dishonest falsifications of his story.

“But most importantly, Donald Trump delivered for the American people.”

The pair struck a much friendlier tone than the duel between Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris.