(The Hill) – CBS cut the microphones of both Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) during Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate after moderator Margaret Brennan offered a fact check of Vance’s comments on immigration in Springfield, Ohio.
The sparring started when Brennan clarified for debate viewers that Springfield “does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status.”
She did so after remarks by Vance, who then brought up the fact-checking issue and said he wanted to speak. As Brennan and the other CBS moderator, Norah O’Donnell, tried to move on, Vance repeatedly sought to make his point.
“The rules that you were not going to fact-check, and since you’re fact checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on,” Vance said before criticizing Vice President Harris for the amount of asylum claims at the southern border.
“Thank you senator for describing the legal process,” Brennan then said as Vance continued to talk.
“Kamala Harris opened up that pathway,” Vance said, to which Walz interjected “those laws have been on the books since 1990.
“The CBP One app has not been on the books since,” Vance began to say as co-moderator O’Donnell could be seen muting both mics.
Vance could still be heard saying “it’s something Kamala Harris created,” in the background of the debate hall in New York City.
“The audience can’t hear you because your mics are cut,” Brennan said. “We have so much we want to get into. Thank you for explaining the legal process.”
The moderators said at the start of the debate they reserved the right to mute both microphones in order to hold a more productive and civil discussion. The anchors said they would not offer fact checks of the candidates in real time, as CBS directed viewers to an online fact-checking blog.
Former President Trump offered real-time criticism of the CBS moderators, writing on Truth Social it was “another repeat with the Fake News being unfair to the Republican Candidate, and trying to get the pathetic Democrat across the finish line.”