EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance surprised reporters Wednesday by trying to confront Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz on the tarmac here as their planes arrived at roughly the same time
“I thought I'd come and one would just take a good look at the plane because I hope it's going to be my plane in a few months,” the Ohio senator told campaign reporters after approaching Air Force Two.
“I also thought you might be alone because the vice president isn't answering reporters' questions and hasn't for 17 days.”
The unexpected stunt caught the attention of a large rally nearby featuring Harris, 59, and Walz, the 60-year-old Minnesota governor who joined the Democratic ticket on Tuesday.
Harris and Walz posed for photos with Girl Scouts Troop #3307 on the tarmac shortly before Vance eclipsed their first joint Midwest campaign stop.
The Democratic candidates appeared to have left seconds before their challenger closed in.
Harris campaign tried to mock Vance by posting video of his plane landing at Eau Claire airport with TikTok-style spoken captioning“Suddenly, I hear this agitated, creepy voice.”
“Make sure AF2 is thoroughly cleaned because Lord only knows what @KamalaHarris and her team have done there,” Trump-Vance campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said. he tweeted back
“The smell alone on that plane must be crazy.”
Vance's approach seemed to be a spur of the moment decision, after him accused Walz of “stolen value” and blasted Harris' performance as President Biden's appointee to reduce illegal immigration at a Michigan event earlier in the day.
“Have you been given an explanation as to why you are not taking questions from reporters?” Vance, 40, asked the press.
He said it was “insulting” to Americans that Harris has not been giving interviews.
“I'd love for him to just answer what he wants to do and also explain why he's changed every position he's in,” Vance said.
“She's supposed to be a tough-on-crime prosecutor, and yet here she wants to defund the police. She's the border czar, but she's opened up the American southern border.”
Vance concluded: “This is a person who has to answer questions from the media and it's a shame that he's running away from you, and it's also insulting to the American people.”
Vance drove home similar themes at his Michigan event earlier Wednesday.
“I'm the father of a 2-year-old girl. I can't imagine having a government that cares so little about you that they let people who come into our communities get deported and come back in and then rape our children,” she said. said Vance.
“This is a political choice by Kamala Harris.”
Vance also ripped Walz after the Minnesota governor ridiculed him at his first rally as Harris' running mate Tuesday night in Philadelphia.
At that rally, Walz mocked Vance for promoting ties to Appalachia despite attending Yale University and even alluded to a debunked Internet claim that the senator admitted to having sex with a couch in his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Follow The Post's coverage of Kamala Harris' running mate Tim Walz:
“What bothers me about Tim Waltz is the stolen value garbage,” Vance said of Walz, who left the National Guard in 2005 shortly after his battalion was ordered to deploy to the Iraq war.
Vance, who served in the Iraq War, said, “Don't pretend to be something you're not. And if you want to criticize me for getting an Ivy League education, I'm proud of the fact that my mom he was supportive, that I could make something of myself. I would be ashamed if I were him and lied about my military service.”
In a video that went viral on Wednesday, Walz is heard promoting gun control by referring to “the weapons of war he carried to war.”
Harris' decision to avoid early interviews has helped prolong the “honeymoon” phase of his candidacy, which has seen surging donations from newly enthusiastic Democrats and very little negative coverage.
Although Harris has given few on-the-record responses to reporters since Biden, 81, dropped his re-election bid on July 21 and endorsed her as his successor, he has often sparred with reporters on Air Force Two.
Harris spoke off the record to the press for four minutes Tuesday afternoon and five minutes Wednesday aboard his vice presidential plane, answering questions on a variety of topics but not allowing those answers to be released.
A reporter from the Post was part of Tuesday's band, and a reporter from the New York Times was the lead representative of the press corps on Wednesday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.
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