AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – It’s not “Midwest beautiful” anymore.
Sen. JD Vance of Ohio is back on the campaign trail after facing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. their relatively cordial meeting and the attack returned on Wednesday.
It “reaffirmed” his choice of running mate after a debate performance former President Donald Trump called “fantastic.” Fox News interviewVance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, reviewed the debate summary minutes after beginning his campaign remarks at the Auburn Hills campus, north of Detroit, on Wednesday afternoon.
“Now, of course, we had a debate last night — the vice presidential debate. I thought it went really well,” Vance said. He later told the crowd at the aerospace company’s warehouse that he spoke with Trump after he got off the stage on Tuesday.
“He said that Tim Waltz said twice that he was friends with school shooters, and that’s actually something I didn’t notice, Tim Waltz said that on the debate stage,” Vance said, describing the conversation. From there, the story quickly turned into a new attack on his fellow Democrat: “That was probably the third or fourth dumbest comment Tim Waltz made that night.”
It was a far cry from the litany of times Vance emphasized his agreement with Walz onstage in New York. Walz wasn’t the only member of the Democratic ticket to take barbs from Vance, as he relished the traditional VP role of attack dog on Wednesday.
He also aimed his fire at Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her an “absolute disgrace” and accusing her of “hatred” in national politics. Without naming names, he argued that many in Washington described Harris as “safe.”
Vance, who often accepts the role of shooting-them-up base The messenger for the Trump campaign has previously been sent to translate MAGA to the median voter before other crowd types — apart from the often polarizing Trump. For example, in a speech before the International Association of Fire Fighters convention in Boston, Vance wove his family’s struggles with addiction into a pitch that sought to paint the Trump-Vance Republican Party as “the party of the American worker.” (The IAFF has not yet endorsed the presidential race.)
Vance brought the same strategy the debate stage: trying to defend and share Trump’s agenda without seeming too combative to an audience more ideologically mixed than those at campaign rallies, where he often headlines. He sometimes agreed with Walz on issues like tackling gun violence, and later expressed sympathy Walz said his his teenage son Gus witnessed the shooting in a While playing volleyball at the Minneapolis community center.
In the second event on Tuesday at the racetrack in suburban Grand Rapids, Vance opened his speech by addressing the debate again — this time with a twist.
“In a way, I’ve had the easiest job in American politics,” said Vance, likening the role of assistant to the vice president to that of a campaign salesman.
“You know, I’ve never worked in sales, but when you’re in sales, it’s always good to have a good product to sell,” he continued, before taking aim at the Democratic ticket: “Unfortunately, Tim Walz, he’s got the worst product to sell in the entire United States of America.