US elections: Tim Walz and JD Vance to face off in VP debate – live updates

Joe Biden said entire communities have been “wiped out” by the “catastrophic” impact of Hurricane Helene which has left about 600 people missing or unaccounted for, according to White House estimates.

In a video clip of Biden speaking with North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, the US president said thousands of federal personnel are being deployed to help support search and rescue missions and remove debris from collapsed buildings.

The other priorities are getting cell networks back online and power restoration, Biden said, adding that recovery is “going to take a while” as the destruction of roads poses a huge logistical challenge to relief efforts.

He said:

I want to express condolences to all the families, to all the families whose loved ones have died or are missing.

Matter of fact, it’s almost equally as bad missing, not knowing whether or not your brother or sister, husband, wife, son or daughter are alive.

And to the survivors, I want you to know the administration is going to be there til we finish the job.

Helene made landfall last Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend region as a category 4 hurricane. Even though it weakened to a tropical storm before moving through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, the storm’s winds, rainfall, storm surge and flooding ravaged entire communities in its path and has left over 1 million Americans without power. More than 120 people are reported to have been killed across several states.

The Biden administration and local officials have struggled to deliver support to the most heavily impacted states areas, where many survivors have been stranded with no electricity or running water.

Biden will visit North Carolina, where the western part of the state has been devastated by flooding, tomorrow. Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have expressed condolences to those impacted by the hurricane and are receiving recovery briefings from Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).

Democratic US vice-president Kamala Harris and former Republican president Donald Trump are expected to watch the VP debate tonight, and Trump has said he would offer a play-by-play commentary of the event on social media.

Harris was viewed by many as the winner of her debate with Trump on 10 September in Philadelphia, which was watched by an estimated 67 million people. Most of the national polls carried out in the week after indicated that her performance had helped her make small gains in the race.

Her lead over Trump rose from 2.5 percentage points on the day of the debate to 3.3 points just over a week later. However, the battleground states – where the election will be decided – remain too close to call. Only one or two percentage points are separating the presidential candidates.

According to Reuters/Ipsos polling, 51% of registered voters say they view JD Vance unfavorably, compared with 39% who view him favourably. That’s a contrast with Tim Walz, who 44% of registered voters view favourably, with 43% reporting an unfavorable view. These results came from a poll conducted between 20 and 23 September.

Kit Maher, a campaign producer with CNN’s political unit, has been told by two sources that these are the surrogates for JD Vance who will be in the spin room for him tonight at the debate:

• Jason Miller, senior adviser to Donald Trump

• Donald Trump Jr, Donald Trump’s son

• Tom Cotton, Arkansas senator

• Katie Britt, Alabama senator

• Elise Stefanik, a congresswoman representing New York’s 21st district in the House of Representatives and serves as the House Republican conference chair

• Byron Donalds, a Republican Florida congressman

• Howard Lutnick, the longtime chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP

The 90-minute debate between Vance, 40, a senator for Ohio, and Tim Walz, the 60-year-old governor of Minnesota, will kick off at 9pm New York time and can be viewed on host network CBS News. We will be bringing you the latest updates in our live blog.

My colleague Rachel Leingang took a look at what we know so far about Vance and Walz’s debate style. She writes:

Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, and Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, have been honing their public speaking skills – and their pointed barbs at each other – in TV appearances and at events around the country in the past few months.

Their experiences in electoral debates haven’t reached the levels or notoriety that come along with a presidential campaign, but both have faced opponents in public debates in past elections.

And given the tightness of the presidential race, and how poorly the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump went, there will probably be more people tuned in to the vice presidential debate than in past cycles.

While VP debates don’t usually tip the scales much, they could matter in a close race – and they build profiles for lower-profile politicians who will probably stay on the national scene for years to come.

You can read the full story here:

Good morning, US politics readers.

It’s the day of the vice-presidential debate and Tim Walz and JD Vance are preparing to go head to head in New York City.

The debate will start at 9pm ET and, like the Harris-Trump debate, it will be held in a studio without an audience. Unlike the main presidential debate, the candidates’ microphones will not be muted when it is not their turn to speak – but moderators can mute mics throughout the event.

To practice before Tuesday’s VP debate, Walz has used Pete Buttigieg, transportation secretary and frequent TV news interviewee, as a Vance stand-in – both Buttigieg and Vance are Ivy Leaguers from the midwest and roughly the same age.

Vance has been preparing for the debate with Minnesota Republican congressman Tom Emmer as a stand-in for Walz. On Monday, Emmer gave an insight into how debate practice has been going, telling reporters about portraying Walz: “Quite frankly it’s tough because he is really good on the debate stage.”

Republicans are seeking to frame Walz, the folksy Minnesota governor who has proved to be the most popular figure in the presidential race, as a mean-spirited, ogreish figure. Emmer, who ran unsuccessfully for Minnesota governor in 2010, said: “[Walz] is going to stand there and he lies with conviction, and he has these little mannerisms where he’s just, hey, I’m the nice guy, but he’s not nice at all.”