WATCH: Vance, Walz argue over who's the bigger threat to democracy | CBS Vice Presidential Debate

In their Tuesday night debate, vice presidential candidates Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz argued about threats to democracy, with Vance claiming censorship as paramount and Walz arguing that former President Donald Trump is himself a democratic threat.

Vance claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris censored people from discussing COVID-19 on social media. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in an August letter to a Republican House member that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to remove some misinformation or satire during the pandemic.

Democrats “attack us for not believing in democracy -- the most sacred right under the United States democracy is the First Amendment,” Vance said.

He added, “Kamala Harris wants to use the power of the government and big tech to silence people from speaking their minds. That is a threat to democracy that will long outlive this present political moment."

Walz argued that a greater threat to democracy is Trump’s pick of Vance as his running mate. The former vice president, Mike Pence, refused to impede the certification of the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021.

Walz called Pence a “firewall” against Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, and suggested that Vance would not serve as that same barrier should Trump try something similar in the future.

“So America, I think you've got a really clear choice on this election of who's going to honor that democracy and who's going to honor Donald Trump,” Walz said.

With just more than a month to go before Election Day, Vance and Walz met for their first and only vice presidential debate on Oct. 1, hosted by CBS in New York.

For more context, our partner PolitiFact is live factchecking the debate

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