Vance, Walz Defend Their Bosses in Policy-Heavy Debate
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J.D. Vance and Tim Walz face off at their first and only vice presidential debate. For the most part, Walz was able to articulate the Democratic ticket's positions, attack Vance on issues related to democracy on January 6th. Vance, he not only defended democracy,

But he also supported him and his policies in a way that Trump himself has not been able to do. Plus, Israel weighs its response to Iran's volley of missiles. And a Saudi minister warns of $50 oil as OPEC Plus members flout production curves.

It's Wednesday, October 2nd. I'm Kate Bullivant for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for Luke Vargas. And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz wrapped up their vice presidential debate in New York last night, less than five weeks before Election Day.

The CBS News vice presidential debate saw both candidates defend their bosses and try to present their rivals as extreme. However, journal White House reporter Tarini Party, who was monitoring the debate, says the tone wasn't overly combative.

What we saw was a fairly cordial debate between the vice presidential nominees that focused on substantive policy discussions. We saw both had some moments where they were able to offer their talking points. And in Vance's case in particular, he was able to really talk about Trumpism and articulate the former president's policies in a way that sometimes Trump himself has struggled to do.

One area where Vance was able to do this in particular was when talking about immigration, with the Republican shedding light on how Donald Trump would carry out his promised mass deportation plan. I think the first thing that we do is we start with the criminal migrants. About a million of those people have committed some form of crime in addition to crossing the border illegally. I think you start with deportations on those folks.

And then I think you make it harder for illegal aliens to undercut the wages of American workers. A lot of people will go home if they can't work for less than minimum wage in our own country. And by the way, that'll be really good for our workers who just want to earn a fair wage for doing a good day's work.

In response, Walz accused Trump of blocking a bipartisan deal that was before Congress earlier this year, but ran into opposition from both conservatives and Trump. Donald Trump said no, told them to vote against it because it gives him a campaign issue. It gives him, what would Donald Trump talk about if we actually did some of these things? And they need to be done by the legislature. You can't just do this through the executive branch.

Another big topic at the debate was abortion, an issue that Trump chose to weigh in on while Walls and Vance were on stage. Trump said on social media that he would veto a national abortion ban. This is the first time he has clearly committed to this position. He has bragged about playing a role in Roe being overturned.

But then also, as he's seen polls show that this is an issue that he is vulnerable on. So we saw him try to take up a more foreign position as he's trying to win back suburban women voters in particular. We also saw J.D. Vance speak of the issue in a way that we haven't really seen many Republicans do. My party, we've got to do so much better of a job at

earning the American people's trust back on this issue where they frankly just don't trust us. Walls, meanwhile, defended his record as Minnesota governor, seeking to capitalize on what's one of the Democrats' strongest issues heading into November's election. This is basic human right. We have seen

Maternal mortality skyrocket in Texas, outpacing many other countries in the world. This is about health care. In Minnesota, we are ranked first in health care for a reason. We trust women. We trust doctors. The two also sparred on the economy, attacking each other's boss. Some of it, I'll be honest with you, it even sounds pretty good. Here's what you won't hear.

is that Kamala Harris has already done it because she's been the vice president for three and a half years. And here was Walls criticizing Trump's record. Donald Trump made a promise, and I'll give you this, he kept it. He took folks to Mar-a-Lago, said you're rich as hell, I'm going to give you a tax cut. He gave the tax cuts that predominantly went to the top class.

Walls also succeeded in attacking Vance on issues related to democracy and the storming of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. This was a threat to our democracy in a way that we had not seen. And it manifested itself because of Donald Trump's inability to say he is still saying he didn't lose the election. I would just say that. Did he lose the 2020 election?

Tim, I'm focused on the future. Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 COVID situation? That is a damning non-answer. It's a damning non-answer for you to not talk about censorship. Obviously, Donald Trump and I think that there were problems in 2020. We've talked about it.

And Torini says this was one of the big moments in the debate. This is an issue that both Trump and now Vance have given answers that for voters who care about democracy and were concerned about January 6th and still have lingering concerns about how Trump would react if he lost the election. This is a response that voters would not be satisfied with.

Overall, however, Vance spoke confidently throughout the debate, whereas Walls had a tougher time finding his footing. And if you want to read more analysis and breakdown of key moments in the debate, you can head over to our live coverage at WSJ.com. Coming up, Israel weighs how to respond to Tehran's missile barrage and Saudi Arabia warns of $50 oil. Those stories and more after the break.

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That's Techfluential, a podcast from Deloitte and custom content from WSJ. Last night's presidential debate took place shortly after Iran launched a barrage of about 200 missiles at Israel. That's left the world on edge over how Israel will respond and whether tensions in the region will further spiral, a scenario that the US has been trying to avoid.

Asked if they would support or oppose a pre-emptive strike on Iran by Israel in the wake of yesterday's attack, both J.D. Vance and Tim Walls cited Israel's right to defend itself without directly answering the question.

As journal reporter Suna Rasmussen reports, the Biden administration wants Israel to refrain from hitting back at Iran too forcefully, but it has little ability to influence its ally. Israel will seek to reinforce its technological superiority, its intelligence superiority against Tehran and show in the Middle East that Israel is the superior military power here.

But at the same time, Israel knows that if it were to enter into a broader war with Iran, it would need the backing of the US, political backing, military backing.

And in Israel, they know that the Biden administration is not interested in this kind of war, especially leading up to an election. Suner says Iran is aware of these calculations and is looking for a way to hurt Israel without igniting a fully-fledged regional war. Iran's missile attack on Israel last night was an escalation in the sense that it was a larger missile barrage than what we saw in April last

And it is only the second time ever that Iran has directly targeted Israel. But it was also restrained in the sense, and this could probably seem a bit paradoxical, in the sense that Iran caused limited damage. So there's still space for Israel and the other parties of this war to sort of de-escalate if that's what they choose to do. And I think it's important to see this attack sort of in the context of Iran's strategy over the past four decades.

Iran has supported this alliance of militias across the region, which it calls its axis of resistance. And the whole point of these militias is to fight on behalf of Iran, pressure Israel, extend Tehran's footprint in the Middle East, but without drawing any aggression or any military strikes against Iran's own soil.

We are exclusively reporting that Saudi Arabia's oil minister has warned oil prices could drop to as low as $50 a barrel if so-called cheaters among OPEC and its allies don't stick to agreed-upon production limits.

According to delegates in the cartel, the minister's statements, which singled out Iraq and Kazakhstan, were interpreted by other producers as a veiled threat that Saudi Arabia is willing to start a price war in order to hang on to its market share.

The Saudi oil ministry didn't respond to a request for comment. Oil is trading more than 2% higher this morning after Iran's missile attack on Israel amid fears that a wider war could choke oil exports from the Gulf and push prices higher.

On the whole, though, the past few months' geopolitical tensions have had little effect on oil prices, which has frustrated Saudi officials. Some analysts say the country needs prices at $85 per barrel to help fund its economic transformation, while prices remain at their lowest level in nine months, around the $75 mark. Later today, OPEC and its allies are set to discuss whether to ease production curbs in December.

Let's take a quick look at what else is moving markets today. Nike shares have dropped in off-hours trading after the sneaker company posted a big dip in revenue and profit. And among today's stocks to watch is Tesla, which is expected to issue an update on vehicle production and deliveries for the third quarter.

And that's it for What's News for Wednesday morning. Today's show was produced by Daniel Bark with supervising producer Christina Rocker. And I'm Kate Bullivant for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for Luke Vargas. We'll be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.

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