‘Your mics are cut’: Moderators forced to mute Vance and Walz

Both vice presidential candidates found their microphones cut less than half an hour into Tuesday night’s first and only debate between Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) during a tense exchange about immigration – that also included both CBS moderators.

“The rules were that you guys weren’t gonna fact check and since you’re fact checking me I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on,” Vance said when refusing to move on after moderator Margaret Brennan clarified for viewers that Springfield, Ohio, “does have a large number of Haitian migrants that have legal status, temporary protective status.”

That prompted Vance to insist he continue to explain his view of the immigration legal process.

“Thank you senator for describing the legal process but we have so much to get to…”Brennen said.

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Both Vance and Walz jumped in before their podium mics inside CBS Broadcast Center in New York City were cut.

“We have so much we want to get to, thank you for explaining the legal process,” Brennan, moderator of Face the Nation and a chief foreign affairs correspondent, again said. CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell joined Brennan as moderator.

"The audience can't hear you because your mics are cut," she added.

Vance, elected in 2022, is a first-term Republican senator from Ohio and author of “Hillbilly Elegy.” Walz, the two-term governor of Minnesota, formerly served in the U.S. House and is a former teacher and football coach.