Tim Walz Is Gung Ho to Debate—but Vance Hasn’t Agreed (Yet)

CBS News proposed four new dates in September and October for a vice-presidential debate between Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz —and Walz has immediately accepted one.

“See you October 1, JD,” Walz posted on X in response to the CBS dates, which include Sept. 17, Sept. 24, and Oct. 8.

It is unclear who will moderate the CBS News debate.

When asked by Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday whether he would agree to face Walz in early October, Vance didn’t say definitively one way or the other.

“I strongly suspect we’re going to be there on Oct. 1,” he said , but added that he would need to approve the conditions and the moderators.

“We’re not going to do one of these fake debates, Laura, where they don’t actually have an audience there, where they don’t actually set the parameters in the right way where you can have a good exchange of ideas,” he said. “In other words, we’re not going to be walking into a fake news garbage media debate. We’re going to do a real debate, and if CBS agrees to it, then certainly we’ll do it.”

CBS had previously planned on a debate between Vance and Vice President Kamala Harris, scheduled for either July or August, though those plans were scuttled when Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Vance said at an event last month that he was “kind of pissed off” he would not get the chance to debate Harris, though he told CNN in an interview that aired Sunday he would debate Walz.

“I think it’s really important,” Vance told anchor Dana Bash. “I mean, look, I’m asking the American people to make me their vice president. It’s really important to stand before the American people to make that case.”

The news comes a week after former President Donald Trump re-confirmed his appearance at a Sept. 10 debate between he and Harris on ABC. That debate will be held in Philadelphia and is set to be moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis.

Read more at The Daily Beast.