JD Vance, Kamala Harris Take Campaign Fight to Airport Tarmac

Vice President Kamala Harris and GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance landed on the same Wisconsin tarmac shortly after each other for separate rallies on Wednesday, and Vance took a jab at Harris for not speaking to the media. That, in turn, sparked a quick clapback from her team.

Harris, now the Democrats’ nominee, arrived in the western Wisconsin town of Eau Claire along with her recently announced running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. It was the Harris-Walz team’s first appearance together.

The heavily coveted state, which carries 10 electoral votes, is part of the Democrats’ “blue wall,” and the Democratic campaign is making a significant push there to build support. Last month, Harris held her first rally in the state. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump announced that Ohio Senator JD Vance would be his running mate at the Milwaukee-based Republican National Convention.

Following an appearance in Michigan earlier Wednesday, Vance was also in Eau Claire in the afternoon, hosting a campaign event. His plane landed on the tarmac shortly after Harris’ Air Force Two.

In a video shared on Vance’s X (formerly Twitter) account, he walked over to a group of reporters who were lined up to speak with Harris and said, “I figured I would come by and, one, just take a good look at the plane. Hopefully, it’s going to be my plane in a few months. But I also thought you guys may get lonely because the vice president doesn’t answer questions from reporters.”

He added that he hoped Harris would talk to the reporters because “I think it’d be good for you all if she ran a real campaign instead of one from the basement with a teleprompter.” He also called her silence toward reporters “disgraceful.”

Vance has repeatedly posted on his X account a tally of the number of days Harris has been the presumptive nominee, adding, “She still hasn’t sat for a single interview with the media. #WheresKamala.”

Wednesday is the 17th day since President Joe Biden exited the presidential race and endorsed Harris.

A reporter asked Vance what he would want Harris to say. “I’d just love her to answer what she wants to do and also explain why every single position she has has changed,” he replied.

Newsweek reached out via email to Vance’s and Harris’ campaign teams for comment.

Vance also repeated the line, circulated by Trump and other Republicans, that Harris was the Biden administration’s “border czar,” a title she has never held. In 2021, Biden tasked her with leading the administration’s diplomacy with Central American countries to address the root causes of migration. The surge of border crossings during the Biden administration has led politicians, mostly Republicans, to criticize her approach to the immigration issue.

The press pool report, which is compiled by multiple reporters from different news outlets, said that “before takeoff, VP [Harris] spent about five minutes OTR [on the record] with pool.” The report also said Harris and Walz did not respond to reporters’ questions upon landing.

Minutes after Vance’s X post and comments, Harris’ campaign responded on its X account, posting a video of her and Walz exiting the plane and greeting Girl Scouts. The clip’s audio said, “And now I want to sit back and relax and enjoy my evening.”

The video then cuts to footage of Vance’s plane taxiing, with the audio saying, “And all of a sudden I hear this agitating, grating voice.”