Vance Whines After Getting Caught in Lie at Debate: ‘You Weren’t Gonna Fact-Check’

CBS News moderators countered Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican nominee for vice president, on his campaign’s lies about immigrants during Tuesday night’s debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. And while Vance didn’t throw the kind of unhinged temper tantrum that running mate Donald Trump did in a similar moment during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris last month, he still vented his frustration.

“The rules were that you guys weren’t gonna fact-check,” Vance complained to Norah O’Donnell, anchor of CBS Evening News, and Margaret Brennan, moderator of Face the Nation as well as the network’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, when they clarified a certain point about a town in his own state.

Walz and Vance were tangling on the issue of the Haitian immigrant population in Springfield, Ohio, which the Trump campaign has sought to cast as a failure of Democrats’ border policy — with racist, utterly false claims that Haitians are stealing and eating other residents’ pets. Trump aired this smear in his showdown with Harris weeks ago, ranting that “they’re eating the dogs — the people that came in — they’re eating the cats.” Vance helped to spread these rumors even while acknowledging there was no evidence back them up. A wave of threats against Haitians in the area and bomb threats to Springfield’s schools and city hall soon followed.

Walz on Tuesday condemned the Trump team for their fear-mongering about immigrants in Springfield. “There’s consequences for this,” he said. “The [Ohio] governor had to send state law enforcement to escort kindergarteners to school.” He added that Vance and Trump had worked to “dehumanize and villainize other human beings” in order to turn immigration into a constant “talking point.”

“Governor Walz brought up the community of Springfield, and he’s very worried about the things that I’ve said in Springfield,” Vance said in his reply, arguing that schools, hospitals, and housing are overstretched because of “millions of illegal immigrants,” calling the situation a “disgrace.” After Walz again accused Trump and Vance of “blaming migrants for everything,” Brennan added: “Just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status — temporary protected status.”

Editor’s picks

At this point, Vance jumped back in, voicing his displeasure about the fact-check of his “illegal immigrants” claim, saying the anchor’s comment went against the agreed-upon rules of the debate. He then brought up CBP One, a smartphone app on which asylum seekers enter lotteries for appointments with Border Patrol agents at designated points of entry. Some 100,000 people daily compete for 1,450 appointment slots each day. The app is specifically for those trying to enter the U.S. at the Mexico border.

After some ensuing crosstalk between Walz, Vance, and the moderators (who expressed a desire to move on in the interest of time), both candidates had their microphones temporarily muted.

Trending

CBS News had announced before the debate that O’Donnell and Brennan would not correct inaccurate statements by the candidates in real time, instead leaving topics to debate between Vance and Walz. Viewers, meanwhile, were offered an on-screen QR code that linked to the network’s fact-checking on its website.

On his social platform Truth Social, Trump echoed Vance’s apparent irritation at being corrected on the immigration status of thousands of Haitians in Springfield. “Margaret Brennan just lied again about the ILLEGAL MIGRANTS let into our Country by Lyin’ Kamala Harris,” he wrote, “and then she cut off JD’s mic to stop him from correcting her!” Trump, who seemed to debate the ABC News moderators at his own debate as much as he did Harris, clearly saw the exchange as yet more evidence of the media’s bias against easily debunked falsehoods.