Tim Walz - JD Vance VP debate: Do the candidates know the questions and topics in advance?

Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz faces his Republican counterpart JD Vance in the only vice-presidential debate on Tuesday, October 1 and both candidates will be coming in to the debate with no knowledge of the questions and topics.

Only moderators know and ask the questions in VP debate

CBS, who are hosting the debate at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York have stipulated that only the moderators, Norah O’Donnell, CBS Evening News anchor, and Margaret Brennan, Face the Nation moderator, can ask the questions and they will not be revealed in advance, either to the public or the candidates.

VP debate rules

Each question will go to one candidate, who has two minutes to answer. Their rival will then be given two minutes to give their answer to the same question, or attack the initial answer given by their opponent. After the response, the original recipient of the question will have a further minute for rebuttals. The moderators then have the power to authorise a further minute each per candidate to keep the debate going on that issue.

Note that both microphones will be live at all times, meaning we’ll hear grumblings and rebuttals in real time from the non-speaking candidate, though the moderators have the right to mute mics, to ensure fair debate.

That’s different to the two presidential debates we’ve had so far, in June between Biden and Trump, before the current president dropped out of the race, and in September, between Harris and Trump, where the mics were muted unless it was the candidates turn to speak.

There will be no live audience present at the debate.

Can the candidates bring prepared notes with them for possible topics?

Vance and Walz are not allowed to bring any prepared notes with them into the debate. All they will be allowed is a pen and a pad of paper so they can take note of ideas as their opponent is talking.

The debate starts at 9 p.m., Tuesday, October 1, on CBS.