Ohio Senator J.D. Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz participate in VP debate

NEW YORK CITY (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - On Tuesday, all eyes were on the first and only Vice Presidential Debate on the 2024 election season.

With only five weeks out from Election Day, Republican Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio and Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz took center stage in New York City to make the case for why they, and their running mates, should be voted in as the next leaders of the United States.

The two running mates shook hands before the debate got underway.

While their were no opening statements, CBS moderators Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan kicked things off with the critical topic of the Iranian missile strikes against Israel, asking both men whether they would support or oppose a pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran.

"But the expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the United States to have the steady leadership there you sought experience today where, along with our Israeli partners and our coalition, able to stop the incoming attack. But what's fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter. It's clear, and the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago, a nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment.

What we've seen out of Vice President Harris is we've seen steady leadership. We've seen a calmness that is able to be able to draw on the coalitions to bring them together, understanding that our allies matter. When our allies see Donald Trump turn towards Vladimir Putin turn towards North Korea, when we start to see that type of fickleness around holding the coalitions together, we will stay committed. And as the Vice President said today, is we will protect our forces and our allied forces, and there will be consequences."

Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), Vice Presidential Nominee

"We have to remember that as much as Governor Walz just accused Donald Trump of being an agent of chaos. Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world, and he did it by establishing effective deterrence. People were afraid of stepping out of line. Iran, which launched this attack, has received over $100 billion in unfrozen assets thanks to the Kamala Harris administration. What do they use that money for? They use it to buy weapons that they're now launching against our allies and, God forbid, potentially launching against the United States as well. Donald Trump recognized that for people to fear the United States, you needed peace through strength.

It is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe, and we should support our allies wherever they are when they're fighting the bad guys. I think that's the right approach to take with the Israel question."

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Vice Presidential Nominee

During the debate, Vance and Walz shared their opinions on the following topics: Climate change, immigration and the economy.

"And I'm sure Governor Walz joins me in saying - Our hearts go out to those innocent people, our prayers go out to them, and we want as robust and aggressive as a federal response as we can get, to save as many lives as possible. And then, of course, afterwards to help the people in those communities rebuild. I mean, these are communities that I love, some of them I know very personally, in Appalachia, all across the southeast, they need their government to do their job.

We have to stop the bleeding. We have a historic immigration crisis, because Kamala Harris started and said that she wanted to undo all of Donald Trump's border policies, 94 executive orders, suspending deportations, decriminalizing illegal aliens, massively increasing the asylum fraud that exists in our system that has opened the floodgates, and what it's meant is that a lot of fentanyl is coming into our country. I had a mother who struggled with opioid addiction and has gotten clean."

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Vice Presidential Nominee

"Donald Trump had four years. He had four years to do this, and he promised you, America, how easy it would be. I'll build you a big, beautiful wall, and Mexico will pay for it. Less than 2% of that wall got built, and Mexico didn't pay a dime. But here we are again, nine years after he came down that escalator, dehumanizing people and telling him what he was going to do, as far as a deportation plan. At one point, Senator Vance said it was so unworkable to be laughable. So that's where we're at. Pass the bill. She'll sign it.

Kamala Harris has said, to do the things she wants to do, we'll just ask the wealthiest to pay their fair share. When you do that, our system works best. More people are participating in it, and folks have the things that they need."

Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), Vice Presidential Nominee

Another topic Vance and Walz shared their opinion on is abortion.

"Donald Trump put this all into motion. He brags about how great it was that he put the judges in and overturned Roe versus Wade, 52 years of personal autonomy, and then he tells us, oh, we send it to the States. It's a beautiful thing.

But look, this is not where - if you don't know Amanda or a Hadley, you soon will. Their Project 2025 is going to have a registry of pregnancies. It's going to make it more difficult, if not impossible, to get contraception and limit access, if not eliminate access, to infertility treatments. For so many of you out there listening, me included, infertility treatments are why I have a child. That's nobody else's business. But those things are being proposed. And the catch all on this is, well, the states will decide. What's right for Texas might not be right for Washington.

How can we as a nation say that your life and your rights, as basic as the right to control your own body, is determined on geography? There's a very real chance, had Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota, she would be alive today."

Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), Vice Presidential Nominee

"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. And I think that's one of the things that Donald Trump and I are endeavoring to do. I want us as a Republican Party, to be pro family in the fullest sense of the word. I want us to fertility treatments. I want us to make it easier for moms to afford to have babies. I want it to make it easier for young families to afford a home so they can afford a place to raise that family.

As messy as democracy sometimes is, is to let voters make these decisions, let the individual states make their abortion policy. And I think that's what makes the most sense in a very big, a very diverse, and let's be honest, sometimes a very, very messy and divided country."

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Vice Presidential Nominee