Walz-Vance debate updates: VP candidates tangle on abortion, immigration and Jan. 6

Walz referenced the death of Amber Thurman, one of two Georgia women featured in a recent ProPublica report whose deaths the publication said were a direct result of the state's six-week abortion ban, as the debate pivoted to reproductive rights.

"There's a young woman named Amber Thurman. She happened to be in Georgia, a restrictive state. Because of that, she had to travel a long distance to North Carolina to try and get her care. Amber Thurman died in that journey back and forth," Walz said. "The fact of the matter is, 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 at Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota, she would be alive today," he continued.

Harris met with the family of Thurman last month while participating in a livestream event with Oprah Winfrey.

Vance said he agreed that Thurman should still be alive.

"I certainly wish that she was," he said.

Fact-check: False

Trump's tax records since 2020 have not been made public. A congressional committee released portions of Trump's tax records from 2015-20. In some years, Trump paid no federal income tax. But not in every year.

Trump's 2018 return declared total income of $24.4 million, with taxable income of $22.9 million. Trump and his wife Melania paid $999,466 in federal income taxes. In 2019, the Trumps paid $133,445 in federal income taxes.

The New York Times reported in 2020 that Trump often paid no income taxes before being elected president, largely, they wrote "because he reported losing much more money than he made."

—PolitiFact's Aaron Sharockman

Fact Check: False

Vance’s attempt to correlate the CBP One App process with Temporary Protected Status is incorrect, as is his assertion that it’s akin to “the wave of a Kamala Harris open-border wand” and would "facilitat[e] illegal immigration."

The CBP One App was created and launched under the Biden-Harris administration as a way to provide some migrants the ability to apply for an appointment at a port of entry to potentially file an asylum claim and seek other lawful pathways into the country. It is not a guarantee that those migrants will be allowed into the country, but it is a legal process through which they can request an opportunity to make their claim.

Separately, the Department of Homeland Security designates some countries Temporary Protected Status when they are deemed too dangerous for migrants to return to. TPS is a program that began in 1990 and was extended to Haitian migrants in 2010 under then-President Barack Obama after a devastating earthquake. The protections were extended by Department of Homeland Security under the Trump administration, although he subsequently tried to end protections, prompting court challenges. Biden most recently extended TPS this past June through Feb. 3, 2026. In order to be eligible for TPS migrants from those specific countries must already be residing in the United States at the time it’s authorized.

—Armando Garcia

Walz talked about the dangers that women have faced since Roe. v Wade was overturned and claimed that one of Project 2025's policies was 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," he said.

Vance denied the claims and reiterated his claims that he wanted to make America "pro-family."

"And I want to talk about this issue because I know a lot of Americans care about and I know a lot of Americans don't agree with everything that I've ever said on this topic," he said.

When asked about his past comments on a national abortion ban, Vance denied that he was pushing for it, and again claimed that the Trump administration is trying to help families including "making childcare more accessible, making fertility treatments more accessible."