Fact checking VP debate claims from Walz and Vance’s 2024 showdown

The CBS News Confirmed team is fact checking the biggest claims made by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance in tonight’s 2024 vice presidential debate in New York City. 

CBS News is hosting the only planned vice presidential debate between Vance and Walz on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 9 p.m. ET on CBS and CBS News 24/7. Download the free CBS News app for live coverage, post-debate analysis, comprehensive fact checks and more. 

The debate moderators are “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” moderator and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan. 

CBS News’ live coverage of the vice presidential debate can be found here. 

True: Walz claims former Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly called Trump “the most flawed human being he ever met.”

Walz: “It’s those that were closest to Donald Trump that understand how dangerous he is when the world is this dangerous. His chief of staff, John Kelly, said that he was the most flawed human being he ever met.”

Details: John Kelly, a retired Marine general and former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, told those close to him in 2020 that Trump “is the most flawed person” he’s ever known, according to CNN. 

Kelly confirmed to CNN several stories that leaked out of the Trump administration during his presidency, among them, Trump’s inflammatory comments about service members, calling them “losers” and “suckers.” Kelly said, “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.'” 

Trump denies making the comments. 

By James LaPorta

This article will be updated with additional fact checks as the debate continues.