Gov. Tim Walz got the first question Tuesday night in the only vice presidential debate with Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and came out looking nervous when asked whether the United States should back a pre-emptive military strike by Israel on Iran.

Neither Walz nor Vance answered that question directly, although both agreed the United States must support Israel.

“What’s fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter,” Walz said, saying that former President Donald Trump is seen as “fickle” on the world stage. He brought up last month’s presidential debate, saying that when it comes to stability, a “nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not that.”

In his response to the Israel question, Vance also talked about support for Israel and described Trump as a leader who delivered stability. “I know that a lot of you are worried about the chaos in the world and the feeling that the American dream is unattainable,” the senator said.

Vance and Walz shook hands on the stage before the debate began and, as expected, the freshman senator appeared more comfortable and polished than the second-term Minnesota governor. Whether intentional or accidental, Vance mispronounced the governor’s last name throughout the 90-minute discussion, calling him “Waltz” and occasionally referring to him simply as Tim.

Walz grew more comfortable when the debate turned to domestic issues with a question to Vance about whether and how a Trump administration would carry out the promised mass deportations, separating parents in the country illegally from children born in the United States.

Vance said, “The people that I’m most worried about in Springfield, Ohio, are the American citizens who’ve had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’ open border policy.”

Walz faulted Trump for encouraging his allies in Congress to spike a deal for border patrol reinforcements. “This is what happens when you don’t want to solve it, you demonize it,” he said.

Walz went on the offensive on abortion, noting that women in states that have banned the procedure have died because they couldn’t get an abortion. He faulted Trump for appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.

“These are women’s decisions to make about their health care decisions,” Walz said. “Just mind your own business on this.”

Vance claimed that Walz supports a law that allows a doctor to not intervene when a child is born alive after a botched abortion. Walz said that’s not how the law is written.

The most personal moment came after Vance said schools should be fortified to prevent more school shootings.

Walz responded that his son, Gus, had witnessed a shooting at a St. Paul recreation center while playing volleyball.

In response, Vance took a moment and said to Walz, “I didn’t know that your 17-year-old witnessed a shooting and I’m sorry,” Vance said, adding, “Christ have mercy.”

The governor was asked to respond to recent reports that he falsely claimed he was in Hong Kong in May 1989 during the Tiananmen Square protests. “I got there that summer and misspoke,” Walz said, adding that he was in Hong Kong and China during democracy protests.

He said he’d poured his heart into his community and that, “I’m a knucklehead at times.”

The governor said he does talk a lot and can get “caught up in the rhetoric.”

Pressed to respond further by a moderator as to the discrepancy, Walz declined.

Moderators also asked the two candidates about threats to democracy. Vance was asked about previous statements he made that he wouldn’t have certified the results of the 2020 election, and he responded that the discussion should be forward-looking.

In his sharpest moment of the debate, Walz lamented how Trump is still falsely saying he won the 2020 election and that both Trump and Vance are “already laying the groundwork” for not accepting the results of this election.

”When this is over, we need to shake hands and the winner needs to be the winner. This has got to stop,” Walz said.

”He is still saying he didn’t lose the election,” Walz said of Trump, then turning to Vance and bluntly asking whether Trump lost the 2020 election. Vance didn’t answer the question.

”That is a damning non-answer,” Walz said.

Walz and Vance had traded attacks before the debate while campaigning in battleground states. Walz slammed Vance and Trump as “weird people” who want to take away women’s reproductive rights, while Vance criticized the Minnesota governor’s exit from the military and handling of the 2020 riots.

Both Walz and Vance were picked to help appeal to Midwest voters. A New York Times poll published before the debate found that Walz is viewed more favorably than Vance in the three Midwestern states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio.

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