Why Tuesday's vice presidential debate could matter more than history suggests
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Tim Walz and JD Vance might have the chance to reshape the political landscape Tuesday in their first and only debate.
Tim Walz and JD Vance might have the chance to reshape the political landscape Tuesday in their first and only debate.
Vice presidential picks have traditionally taken on the role of political attack dog, laying into opponents so that their running mate can appear above the political fray. That's generally been less true since former President Donald Trump scrambled political norms.
But Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, made it to national prominence by labeling rival Republicans “weird.” Vance, the Republican junior senator from Ohio, has torn into U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris ' party on immigration, notably by spreading a false story about Haitian immigrants in his home state that Trump then cited during his own debate with Harris.
Here's a look at past vice presidential debates — and the larger role of the office Walz and Vance are both seeking.
The vice president presides over the Senate and is empowered to break ties, as Harris has done a record 33 times. She exceeded the previous high mark last year, which had held since John C. Calhoun was vice president from 1825 to 1832. The officeholder also presides ceremonially in Congress over the certification of electoral results, which then-U.S. vice president Mike Pence did even after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to halt the process and transition of power, with some chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!”
But the vice president's main job is to be ready to take over if something happens to the president. Nine have done so following a president’s death or departure from office — the last being Gerald Ford, who became president when Richard Nixon resigned in 1974.
The Constitution’s 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, spelled out the succession rules, stating that the vice president becomes president “in case of the removal of the president from office or of his death or resignation.” It also allowed the president and Congress to nominate and approve a new vice president if that office is vacated.
Shaquille O’Neal is offering to pay for the funeral of a 12-year-old Georgia girl who died a few days after she collapsed following a fight after school.
Both parties on Capitol Hill remain unmoved in their fight over U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, threatening to drag out the U.S. Department of Homeland Security shutdown for days – if not weeks – more.
Closing arguments are set to kick off Tuesday in a trial pitting Elon Musk against Twitter shareholders who say the world’s richest man engaged in a pattern of deceptive behavior that misled investors as he attempted to back out of his US$44-billion deal to buy the social media platform in 2022.
A Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about coping with grief after her husband’s death was convicted of aggravated murder in his death by poisoning him with fentanyl.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly taken aim at Democratic rival and possible 2028 presidential candidate Gavin Newsom. But lately, he’s become fixated on saying the California governor cannot be president due to his “learning disability.”
More than 10,000 U.S. flights were delayed or cancelled Monday amid a series of storms affecting several major airports along the East Coast and some other locales.
The man who attacked a Michigan synagogue was the brother of a Hezbollah commander killed earlier this month in an Israeli airstrike, Israel’s military claimed Sunday.
Taiwan saw a surge of Chinese military planes near the island, its defence ministry said Sunday, after a sharp drop in flights over the past two weeks had sparked discussions among observers.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by his teenage daughter, observed a live-fire test of multiple rocket launch systems, state media reported Sunday, a likely response to ongoing U.S.-South Korean military training that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
North Korea on Saturday fired about 10 ballistic missiles toward the eastern sea, South Korea’s military said, staging its own show of force as the rival South conducts a joint military exercise with the United States.
A Georgia prosecutor has dropped the charges against a teenager who police say was driving the truck that struck and killed a beloved high school teacher when a prank turned deadly, the teen’s lawyer said. The victim’s family had asked authorities to drop the charges.
Investigators worked Friday to determine the exact reason a man with a rifle crashed into a large Michigan synagogue in what federal officials are saying was an attack carried out by a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon.
Warsaw’s city council on Thursday voted almost unanimously to ban night-time alcohol sales in the capital of Poland, which ranks among the EU countries with the highest drinking-related mortality rates.