The Walz-Vance V.P. Debate Rules Are Out—and They Guarantee Chaos

The rules are set for Tim Walz and J.D. Vance’s vice presidential debate on Tuesday, and they promise to give everyone watching a spirited, if not chaotic, contest.

For one, both of the candidates’ microphones will remain on while one of them is talking, although CBS News, which is hosting and moderating the debate, says it reserves the right to hit the mute button. This is a departure from ABC News’s decision to mute microphones during both previous presidential debates.

The V.P. debate will take place at 9 p.m. at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York, and, just like Harris and Trump’s debate in Philadelphia, there will be no audience in the studio. Candidates will have two minutes to answer the questions posed to them, with the opposing candidate also allowed two minutes to respond. Following that, each candidate gets one minute for a rebuttal.

At their discretion, the moderators can give candidates more time to continue a topic. The candidates will have lights on their podiums to indicate how much time they have to speak, and they’ll each have a countdown clock. At the end of the debate, which will last for 90 minutes, Vance and Walz will each get two minutes for a closing statement. Vance won a coin toss held Thursday, and chose to go second and have the final word.

Vance has had a rough time since being named as Trump’s running mate in July, with a number of damaging interviews and statements resurfacing in the weeks since. Walz, on the other hand, helped launch the Democrats’ best attack line in years by calling Republicans and their policies “weird.” Vance has unsuccessfully attempted to attack Walz’s military record, and, along with Trump, egged on a racist lie against Haitian immigrants in Ohio.

It will be interesting to see how the Ohio senator will handle any questions about Haitian immigrants, which will almost certainly be brought up, or if he will try to make personal attacks against the Minnesota governor. Vance does not appear to have any issues of cognitive decline, unlike Donald Trump, so his debate performance might be the clearest articulation of the policies proposed by the Republican ticket. But, judging by Vance’s statements during the campaign, those policies might not sound any better in his words.