A focus group of Democrats, independents and Republicans reacted to the moment when Gov. Tim Walz called himself a “knucklehead” for claiming to have been in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Moderators confronted Walz on the claim during the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate Tuesday night. Walz admitted that he only traveled to Asia in August 1989, several months after the April 15 massacre. The focus group found that voters were initially skeptical of Walz’s answer, but he eventually recovered.

“Can you explain that discrepancy?” a moderator asked, as the focus group remained neutral.

“Look, I grew up in small rural Nebraska, a town of 400. A town that you rode your bikes with your buddies until the streetlights come on, and I’m proud of that service. I joined the national guard at 17, worked on family farms, and then I used the GI bill to become a teacher. Passionate about it. Young teacher. My first year out, I got the opportunity in the summer of ’89 to travel to China–35 years ago, to be able to do that,” Walz said.

ABC DEBATE MODERATORS SPARK FURY FOR AGGRESSIVE FACT-CHECKING OF TRUMP, EASY TREATMENT OF HARRIS

“I came back home and started a program to take young people there. We would take basketball teams, we would take baseball teams, we would take dancers, and we would go back and forth to China,” he added.

JD VANCE REMINDS CBS MODERATORS OF DEBATE RULES AFTER THEY TRY TO FACT-CHECK HIM

The focus group showed support from Republicans, independents and Democrats all going down for Walz during the first portion of his response.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, right, delivered a rambling response when debate moderators pressed him on his claims about traveling to China. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

However, Walz recovered among independents and Democrats when he went on to admit that he can be “a knucklehead at times.”

“Many times I will talk a lot. I will get caught up in the rhetoric,” he said, as support from independents rose above 50% in the focus group.

WATCH: TOP 5 MOMENTS FROM THE DEBATE:

Walz’s support among Republicans dipped to its lowest point – under 10% – when he said former President Donald Trump would have benefited from participating in one of his China trips, arguing Trump would never have befriended Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Though mass deportation of immigrants in the country illegally has been a central talking point of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, on the national debate stage both the former president and his Republican running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have offered few details about how it would work.

Asked to explain during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate how a Trump administration would carry out what he has called “the largest deportation operation in American history,” Vance said he would start with deporting those who have committed some crime beyond illegally crossing the border. He also said he would make it more difficult for those lacking legal status to obtain jobs in the U.S., claiming that “a lot of people will go home if they can’t work for less than minimum wage in our own country.”

But he repeatedly dodged a question about whether he would separate children who are U.S. citizens from their parents, and incorrectly stated that there are “20, 25 million” immigrants in the U.S. without legal status (the widely accepted number is about 11 million).

Much like the presidential debate last month, Tuesday’s face-off between Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, yielded more rhetoric on immigration than new policy prescriptions.

Unlike at the presidential debate, in which the commentary on immigration devolved into sound bites and verbal jabs, Walz and Vance presented their respective campaign’s message with a congenial tone. For Vance, that meant blaming a host of problems — from crime to housing costs — on immigrants who are in the country illegally. For Walz, it meant blaming Trump for the failure of bipartisan border security legislation, while working to appeal to moderate voters.

Immigration is a central issue in this year’s election, and polls have shown a majority of voters want to see immigration levels reduced.

Last month, Vance stoked lies about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, stealing and eating other residents’ pets. In an interview with CNN, he defended amplifying the rumors, saying he was willing to “create stories” to get his message across.

On Tuesday, Walz brought up Vance’s comments on Haitians, most of whom live and work in the U.S. legally under temporary protected status.

“The consequences in Springfield were the governor had to send state law enforcement to escort kindergartners to school,” Walz said. “When it becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanize and villainize other human beings.”

Vance pivoted to talking about broader immigration policy.

“The people that I’m most worried about in Springfield, Ohio, are the American citizens who have had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’ open border,” he said. “It is a disgrace, Tim, and I actually think I agree with you. I think you want to solve this problem, but I don’t think that Kamala Harris does.”

During the presidential debate, Trump repeatedly returned to the topic of immigration, including when asked about the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, the economy and why he refused to accept that he had lost the 2020 election. Trump and Vance repeated false claims about Haitians in Springfield, which have been denounced by Ohio leaders including Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

Walz‘s argument for solving immigration centered on his support for the failed bipartisan border bill, which would have added 1,500 border agents and resources to stem the flow of fentanyl and speed up asylum adjudications. Trump pressured House Republicans to abandon support for the bill this year.

“We had the fairest and the toughest bill on immigration that this nation’s seen,” Walz said. “It was crafted by a conservative senator from Oklahoma, James Lankford. I know him. He’s super conservative, but he’s a man of principle. Wants to get it done.”

Harris and Walz pinning their debates on the failure of the bipartisan border security bill leaves out that “in reality, presidents have an amazing amount of existing power on immigration,” said C. Stewart Verdery Jr., who was assistant secretary for Homeland Security during the  George W. Bush administration.

Verdery, now a member of the Council on National Security and Immigration, had hoped to hear from Walz what he thinks about the vast expansion under the Biden administration of temporary legal status, such as the program that has allowed more than 500,000 Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Cubans and Haitians to fly to the U.S. if they have a financial sponsor. Trump has vowed to deport many of those immigrants with temporary status.

As for Vance, Verdery said he had hoped the senator would be pressed on his apparent belief that immigration is a net bad — which, he said, is contrary to the research of most economists, the traditional Republican Party and moral values. He questioned, for example, whether Vance understands that mass deportations would unleash chaos on the economy and on American communities.

“You really wish they could get some more nuance on what they want to do,” Verdery said. “Especially since neither Walz nor Vance have had federal executive privilege.”

Brad Jones, a political science professor at UC Davis who studies immigration policy, said the exchange between Vance and Walz on immigration was largely nonsubstantive.

He said Trump and Vance have been good at controlling the narrative around immigration, so Tuesday’s debate offered Walz the last chance in that type of forum to explicitly address his and Harris’ plans — and Walz missed.

“Walz did not address the false narratives of immigration propagated by the Trump campaign and instead wanted to strike a middle ground, but there is not a middle ground on an issue where the other side has zero interest in common ground,” he said. “I think Walz’s desire to attempt to appeal to possible uncommitted voters fell on deaf ears.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz kicked off his debate against Ohio Sen. JD Vance on shaky footing when he was first asked about his foreign policy platform in the Middle East. 

“Governor Walz, if you were the final voice in the Situation Room, would you support or oppose a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran?” CBS’ Margaret Brennan asked Walz on Tuesday evening in New York City during the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate. 

Walz thanked the moderators for hosting him before delivering a halting and stammering answer while calling for “steady leadership.”

“Iran, our I, Israel’s ability to be able to defend itself is absolutely fundamental. Getting its hostages back, fundamental. And ending the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But the expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the United States to have to steady leadership there. You saw it experienced today where along with our Israeli partners and our coalition, able to stop the incoming attack,” Walz responded, taking a few pauses between words. 

ISRAEL UNDER ATTACK: IRAN LAUNCHES MISSILES, GUNMEN KILL AT LEAST 8 NEAR TEL AVIV

Earlier Tuesday, Iran launched more than 100 ballistic missiles at Israel. War broke out in Israel nearly one year ago on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched attacks on the nation.

“What’s fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter. It’s clear. And the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago, a nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment,” Walz continued. 

GOP LEADER SAYS VANCE ‘ABSOLUTELY PREPARED’ FOR VP DEBATE SHOWDOWN WITH WALZ

Walz continued his response by taking shots at former President Donald Trump and his former administration officials. 

Republican vice presidential candidate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), and Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, participate in a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center on October 1, 2024 in New York City. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“His chief of staff, John Kelly, said that he was the most flawed human being you’d ever met. And both of his secretaries of defense and his national security advisers said he should be nowhere near the White House. Now, the person closest to them… said he’s unfit for the highest office. That was Sen. Vance,” Walz said, referring to Vance’s previous criticisms of Trump before he was elected to the White House in 2016.

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Walz summed up his first response by arguing Vice President Kamala Harris has shown “steady leadership” on the world stage. 

Tim Walz expressed support for single payer healthcare in a 2018 debate (C SPAN )

“What we’ve seen out of Vice President Harris is we’ve seen steady leadership. We’ve seen a calmness that is able to be able to draw on the coalitions, to bring them together understanding, that our allies matter. When our allies see Donald Trump turn towards Vladimir Putin, turn towards North Korea, when we start to see that type of fickleness around holding the coalitions together, we will stay committed. And as the vice president said today, we will protect our forces and our allied forces, and there will be consequences,” he continued. 

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