In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Senator JD Vance (R-OH), the running mate of former President Donald Trump, seized an opportunity to confront the media as Vice President Kamala Harris arrived aboard Air Force 2. Vance, fresh from his own campaign rally in the city, boldly walked over to the crowd of reporters who had been covering Harris’s arrival.

“Hopefully it’s going to be my plane in a few months, but I also thought you guys might get lonely because the Vice President doesn’t answer questions from reporters and hasn’t,” Vance said. “Have they given you guys an explanation for why she won’t take questions from reporters?” Vance asked, only to be met with silence.

“It would be good for the American people and I think it would be good for you all if she actually ran a real campaign instead of one from a basement with a teleprompter.” Vance also seized the moment to critique Harris’s policy positions, particularly on crime and border security, areas where he claimed her stance has seen significant shifts.

“She pretends to be tough on crime prosecutor, and yet here she is, wanting to keep on the case. She’s the border Czar, yet she’s opened up the American southern border,” he argued. “This is a person who has to answer questions from the media. It’s disgraceful that she works for you guys. It’s also insulting to the American people,” Vance concluded, before heading off to continue his campaign activities.

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While Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, continued their push across key battleground states, presenting themselves as the best choice for Midwest voters, Vance’s unscheduled appearance on the tarmac was a strategic move to challenge the narrative being set by his opponents. The Harris-Walz campaign raked in $36 million within 24 hours of announcing their running mate, according to a campaign official. The surge in donations comes on the heels of a stellar July for the Harris campaign, which boasted a $310 million haul.

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Meanwhile, Trump has hinted at an impending debate with Harris while speaking off the campaign trail. In a morning interview, he expressed his anticipation for a debate “in the near future,” also suggesting that the venue might extend beyond Fox News, leaving the door open for other networks to host the event. Vance has also expressed a willingness to debate Vice President Harris next week, saying he’s ready to engage if she agrees to the matchup.

“Here’s my offer to Kamala Harris: If she’d like to do a debate with me on August 13, I’ll do it, right? We should do that, right? I don’t think she wants to anymore, because one, she probably doesn’t even know that she’s going to be the Democratic nominee,” Vance said during his stop in Eau Claire today.

“And two, two, we don’t know who the vice presidential nominee is going to be either — he’s got a lot of skeletons that are coming out of the closet today, and we’ll see if the Democrats pull a bait and switch on Tim Walz or on Kamala Harris, just like they did with Joe Biden.”

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