Brandon Livesay
Reporting from the debate in New York

That's a wrap on the only vice-presidential debate of this US election.

And while Tim Walz and JD Vance are finished battling each other on the debate stage, the night is not over.

The focus now shifts to what is known as the spin room - where surrogates for both men are gathering to loudly proclaim to journalists why they think their colleague won the debate.

We have heard Vance himself might show up in the spin room, just like Donald Trump did after the presidential election.

We can also expect to hear from key politicians and close allies of Kamala Harris and Trump.

We're going to bring you our interviews from inside the spin room as well as more analysis, reaction and key takeaways from the debate, so stay with us.

In his closing statement, Vance made the case that life has become harder under the Biden-Harris administration.

He argued costs for things like energy, groceries and homes have become more expensive. He says Harris has had nearly four years to show why she should lead the country.

Vance argues people won't be able to achieve the American dream with the current leadership and "we need change" and "a new direction".

"We need a president who has already done this before and did it well."

Walz has just delivered his closing remarks, during which he pointed to the coalition that has supported Harris's campaign ranging from Bernie Sanders to Taylor Swift.

He also pointed to what he called a sense of optimism surrounding the Harris campaign, and the focus on freedom for the American people.

"We all know who Donald Trump is, he's told us," he said, adding that Vance will continue to stand with Trump's agenda.

"Kamala Harris gives us a different option," he said.

"Kamala Harris is bringing us a new way forward. She's bringing us a politics of joy."

Ana Faguy
Reporting from Washington DC

I've been texting with 27-year-old Dominic Bashford, a Florida resident, throughout the debate.

He's been impressed with Vance, who he says has had a "comfortable yet confident demeanour".

"Tim Walz has appeared awkward and nervous," he said.

"I think this debate will be remembered similarly to Nixon v Kennedy", he says, referring to the infamous 1960 showdown in which many viewers of the first televised US presidential debate thought the ultimately victorious Kennedy appeared self-assured while Nixon seemed skittish.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from a watch party in Las Vegas

Before we bring you the closing statements from both candidates, let's bring you some thoughts from this watch party in Las Vegas.

Phoenix Adamson, 19, moved to Nevada as a child from Modesto, California.

Adamson tells me that she's undecided, but wants to hear both tickets - and their VP candidates - talk more about "minority issues" and everyday economic concerns like inflation ahead of the 5 November election.

"You hear about that a lot here in Nevada, and everywhere," she said. "A lot of people have poverty issues. Even in my complex, my rent has gone higher and higher."

She hasn't decided who she'll vote for, but said that she doesn't trust either side.

"I feel like they're just telling people what they want to hear," she adds. "I'm not really sure."

Phil McCausland
Reporting from the debate in New York

The debate has grown its most heated in a discussion of the peaceful transfer of power, the Capitol Hill riot and Donald Trump.

Vance has said that Walz will "have my prayers, he'll have my best wishes and he'll have my help" if the Democrats win the election.

But that led to some scepticism, since Vance has said he would have challenged the outcome of the 2020 election, when Donald Trump repeatedly refused to acknowledge he had lost to Joe Biden.

Walz said that he and his opponent are "miles apart" on the issue of 6 January and election integrity.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from the debate in New York

Walz had a tough time early in the debate, but he seems to have found his footing when talking to issues he's more familiar with, such as healthcare, child care policy and other domestic issues.

These are issues that he has had to contend with as a state governor, and he largely struggled when talking about foreign policy and aspects of immigration.

Vance is now being asked about the 2020 election and his comments that he would not have certified the results of Trump's defeat if he had been vice-president then.

He argues Trump asked demonstrators on 6 January to protest peacefully before the riot at the Capitol by Trump supporters, and says Trump left the White House peacefully as part of the normal transition of power, despite Trump's continued false claims that he had not lost to Joe Biden.

Vance cites a key Democratic line about Trump being a threat to democracy given his actions on 6 January and instead argues the biggest threat to democracy is "the threat of censorship".

He argues that rather than debating, Harris would rather have detractors silenced through censoring misinformation.

The moderators ask Vance to clarify Trump's plan to pay for his childcare proposals.

"We're going be taking in a lot of money for penalising companies for shipping jobs overseas” and punishing countries who employ slave labour, Vance replies. He says Trump would also “cut taxes for American workers and American families".

After another question from moderators, Vance says that there are not enough people providing childcare services, and that the country needs to "induce more people to provide more childcare options for American families".

The debate now moves on to childcare, and Walz says it's "negotiable" how long employers should pay workers while they are looking after newborns.

The Democratic VP candidate emphasises that Harris has made it a priority to get parents paid leave.

Vance is then asked about paid family leave and whether he supports it.

He says there is a bipartisan solution to this problem, and there is a cultural pressure on young families, along with a big pressure on young women. Vance says the US should have a family care model that helps families.

Image source, Reuters

Walz is now talking about healthcare and the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

He argues Trump wants to go back to square one and tried multiple times to get rid of Obamacare. He says that would mean millions would lose access to healthcare and those with pre-existing conditions could pay much more or not qualify for coverage.

Walz says Trump's comments in which he said he had "concepts of a plan" that would replace Obamacare "cracked me up as a fourth grade teacher".

He argues the Vance wants to go back to "pre-Obamacare" where healthy people pay little and those who are older or have any pre-existing conditions would either not have coverage or pay much more money.

Trump, who has criticised the ACA for years, has said he would not renew his attempts while president to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which extended insurance to millions more people.

Republican JD Vance is next asked about the high cost of healthcare in the US.

"Of course we're going to cover Americans with pre-existing conditions," he says, referencing one of the major tenets of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, which was passed in 2010 under Democrat Barack Obama.

Vance claims Trump salvaged Obamacare during his time as president and ensured Americans had the protections they needed.

The legislation has frequently come under intense criticism from Republicans - including from Trump - in the 14 years since it was passed.

Republican lawmakers had tried to roll back the ACA during the Trump presidency, though the effort failed.

Trump has said he will not renew his attempts while president to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which extended insurance to millions more people.

While running for the Democratic nomination in 2020, Harris said she supported a nationalised Medicare for All proposal, but now says she no longer supports a single-payer healthcare system.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from the debate in New York

Perhaps it says something about the state of political rhetoric in the United States, but this debate's tone has felt like it is from a different era.

It's been fairly cordial so far, and Vance has even said, "I actually agree" with Walz several times - though he'll often go on to make his own point.

After the past few election cycles in the US, however, even that small acknowledgment feels like a significant shift in a fairly polarising time.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from the debate in New York

Image source, Reuters

No matter the subject, Vance tries to bring the subject back to immigration. It is one of Trump's strongest issues.

When he was asked about gun safety, Vance pivoted to saying guns were being illegally brought across the US southern border.

When the moderators asked Vance about the Trump campaign's housing policy, Vance began by saying "we don’t want to blame immigrants for higher housing prices" but that they should blame Harris for allowing "millions" of undocumented immigrants into the country.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from a watch party in Las Vegas

As the debate grinds on, I've been working the room, asking attendees at this watch party about the issues that matter to them. A little while earlier, I spoke to Gerard Aguilar, a member of student government who studies at another College of Southern Nevada campus in West Charleston, Nevada.

"The biggest [thing] students are concerned about is student debt, student loans and basic needs," he says. "A lot of them have issues and insecurities that need to be addressed, and that gets difficult when there's a political climate that's not fostering that kind of environment for education."

In Aguilar's view, both parties have "absolutely different views that are counter-progressive to our country". "Especially our students that look up to them," he adds.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from the debate in New York

Trump is clearly watching the debate: He has been posting on Truth Social about it for the past hour. Most of the posts are either attacking Walz or the moderators.

"Both young ladies have been extremely biased anchors!" the former president alleged about the CBS moderators.

Walz is now responding to a question about housing.

The Harris campaign has promised $25,000 of assistance to first-time homebuyers.

Walz says he himself has bought and owned only one house in his life.

Vance responds with a claim that high levels of undocumented immigration is driving up housing prices.

The cost of housing is one of voters' top concerns in this election.

The moderators have asked both candidates about parents of children who have carried out mass shootings being charged.

They reference the case of Ethan Crumbley, an Oxford, Michigan high school student who killed four of his peers when he was 15. His parents gifted him the gun he used in the shooting for Christmas.

Both of Crumbley's parents were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

They are not the only parents to face legal ramifications over their children's actions. In September, the father of a 14-year-old boy accused of killing four people at a high school in Georgia was arrested and charged with second-degree murder - the most severe charges a parent has faced over a child's mass shootings.

You can read more here about how prosecutors are attempting to hold parents responsible in a developed nation with one of the highest rates of gun violence.

We are back from a short break and the moderators are shifting gears to the subject of guns in the US.

Vance is asked whether parents should be held responsible for mass shootings committed by their minor children - an issue that has been tested in the US courts system recently.

Vance answers by bringing up illegal immigrants and their access to guns and argues that more security is needed in schools.

He argues we need "common sense" policies because "the idea that we can magically wave a wand and take guns out of the hands of bad guys" does not work.

Walz responds by saying that Vance's proposals are "not far enough, when we know there are things that work".

He says he has met with the families of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, and toured schools in Finland who did not require the same amount of security as American schools.

Walz says there are "reasonable things we can do to make a difference". He says that Americans can keep their firearms, but the country can still reduce gun violence.

Harris and Biden have been vocal supporters of stricter gun control laws in the US, a country with far more mass shootings than any other developed nation. Trump, like many other Republican politicians, has pitched himself as a defender of the Second Amendment, telling National Rifle Association members earlier this year that if he won, “no one will lay a finger on your firearms”.

Ana Faguy
Reporting from Washington DC

I've been texting with American voters from across the country throughout the first half of the debate.

Melina LaPlante, an 18-year-old from Virginia, has been frustrated that Vance hasn't been explicitly answering the moderators' questions, particularly about immigration.

"Vance [was] asked the same question twice and he still isn't answering and instead pushing that children are drug mules," she said.

LaPlante was also frustrated by Vance making false claims about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

"It has already been confirmed by officials in Springfield multiple times that Vance's and Trump's accusations about immigrants in Springfield are absolutely false," she said. "Even more so citizens of that area have spoken up about how supportive the immigrants are in that area to the economy and overall community."

"I am so tired of hearing the false information over and over," she adds.

Springfield residents have differing views on the new additions to their community - some have praised their arrival while others have expressed concerns over strained resources. You can read the BBC's report from the city here.