EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance stunned reporters Wednesday by attempting to confront Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, on the tarmac when their planes arrived here at similar times.
“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,” Vance told traveling campaign reporters.
Vance, who spoke to the press after approaching Air Force Two, asked: “Have they given you guys an explanation for why she won’t take questions from reporters?”
The Ohio senator went on: “I’d love her to just answer what she wants to do and also explain why every single position she has has changed. She pretends to be a tough-on-crime prosecutor and yet here she is wanting to defund the police. She’s the border czar, yet 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 disgraceful that she runs for you guys, and it’s also insulting to the American people.”
Although Harris has given few on-record answers to reporters since President Biden dropped his re-election bid on July 21 and endorsed her as his successor, she has frequently gaggled off the record with reporters on Air Force Two — answering questions about various topics but not permitting those answers to be reported.
Harris spoke with the press for four minutes Tuesday afternoon in one such off-the-record engagement aboard her vice presidential jet.
The vice president and Walz, the Minnesota governor whom Harris announced Tuesday as her running mate, seemed to have peeled out of the Eau Claire airport shortly before Vance approached Air Force Two.
Harris and Walz posed for pictures with Girl Scouts upon their arrival before motorcading to a nearby rally venue.
This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.
