As Vice-President Kamala Harris and her newly announced running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, set off on their first joint battleground-state tour across the country, they’ve been shadowed on the campaign trail by one-half of their rival ticket: Republican vice-presidential hopeful J.D. Vance, who has scheduled a dueling series of events in the same areas.
Hours before Harris and Walz appeared at their first rally together Tuesday evening in North Philadelphia, the Ohio senator held an event at the 2300 Arena in South Philadelphia. And on Wednesday, the two tickets nearly crossed paths when the Trump-Vance campaign plane arrived shortly after Air Force Two on the airport tarmac in Wisconsin ahead of events in Eau Claire for both candidates.
Then things got a little awkward. Vance made a show of leaving his own plane and making his way toward Harris’s, prompting speculation that he was trying to speak to the vice-president or Walz. Instead, Vance headed to Harris’s assembled press pool to knock the vice-president for her lack of media appearances since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket.
“I figured I’d come by and, one, just get a good look at the plane because 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 for 17 days,” he said.
In a brief exchange with reporters, Vance accused Harris of changing her political positions and referred to her as the Biden administration’s “border czar,” a label that the vice-president has pushed back against. “I hope that she changes her mind because 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,” he said.
Vance seemingly made no attempt to talk to Harris directly, telling his own press pool that he did not speak with the vice-president as her motorcade left the tarmac. But the Republican nominee did boast about the moment, sharing a photo of him and his team in front of Air Force Two with a reference to the HBO show Entourage. (It’s unclear who the Turtle is in this situation.)
