Walz shifts the blame for Middle East conflict onto Trump: ‘How dangerous he is when…’
The Tim Walz vs JD Vance debate hosted by CBS News kicked off on October 1 with the VP candidates taking on each other over the Middle East conflict.
Who is responsible for the crisis unravelling in the Middle East? Vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance kicked off the October 1 debate hosted by CBS News with their sparring views on the issue.
Helmed by CBS News moderators Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell, the event began with a confident JD Vance going up against a “nervous” Tim Walz. Instead of directly addressing the question, the Democratic VP nominee shifted the responsibility onto Donald Trump, questioning his cognitive ability. Walz then switched to emphasising that it was Trump who pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal.
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Tim Walz takes aim at Donald Trump for the Middle East conflict
Insisting that steady leadership is the need of the hour, he said earlier, “What's fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter. It's clear, and the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago, a nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd size is not what we need in this moment.”
Further challenging Trump’s position, he said, “It’s those that were closest to Donald Trump that understand how dangerous he is when the world is this dangerous.”
“Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than the were before because of Donald Trump’s fickle leadership.”
JD Vance counter-attacks Kamala Harris
On the other hand, Vance countered Walz’s claims that Trump was responsible for an era of stability, as he “recognised that for people to fear the United States, you needed peace through strength.” He continued, “They needed to recognise that if they got out of line, the United States global leadership would put stability and peace back in the world.”
Senator Vance, in turn, flipped the conversation on Kamala Harris, foregrounding that she was one of the front-running leaders of an administration when Iran got the space to get a nuclear weapon more quickly. “You blame Donald Trump. Who has been the vice president for the past three and a half years?” he said.
The high-stakes October showdown, which sees Trump’s running mate taking on the Democrat VP candidate, is the first and most likely the last vice presidential debate before the November elections. It followed hot on the heels of Iran launching at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday, threatening the escalation of an already yearslong conflict between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies, as reported by the Associated Press.