Newly minuted vice presidential candidate Tim Walz issued a string of fierce attacks against his Republican counterpart, Sen. JD Vance, during his first appearance alongside Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris on Tuesday.
The Minnesota governor appeared with Harris in Pennsylvania, marking their first appearance together as running mates, stepping out in a packed arena to raucous cheers. The governor, a former teacher and football coach who grew up in rural Nebraska, quickly moved to cast himself as a true representative of Middle America, and he criticized Vance for claiming the same credentials.
“Like all people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale,” Walz said. “Had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires and then wrote a bestseller trashing that community.”
“Come on! That’s not what Middle America is.”
He then issued a crack about the now-infamous but debunked story about Vance and furniture.
“I gotta tell you, I can’t wait to debate the guy,” Walz said. “That is if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.”
“See what I did there.”
The joke sparked an uproar in the arena as Vice President Harris suppressed a smile, minting Walz’s role as a campaign attack dog willing to defend Democrats against the Trump-Vance team.
“These guys are creepy,” Walz went on on Tuesday. “And yes, just weird as hell.”
“So we got 91 days,” the governor added. “My God, that’s easy. We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”