On Wednesday, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance tried to confront Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, at the Eau Claire, Wisconsin, airport tarmac, when their two planes arrived simultaneously.

“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,” Vance told campaign reporters after approaching Air Force Two. “I also thought you guys might get lonely because the vice president doesn’t answer from reporters and hasn’t for 17 days.”

“Have they given you guys an explanation for why she won’t take questions from reporters?” Vance continued, adding that it was “insulting” to Americans that Harris hasn’t been giving interviews.

“I’d love her to just answer what she wants to do and also explain why every single position she has had has changed,” he said. “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.”

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Vance concluded, “This is a person who has to answer questions from the media and it’s disgraceful that she runs from you guys, and it’s also insulting to the American people.”

Although Harris and Walz had left just seconds before Vance approached, after posing for pictures with a Girl Scout troop on the tarmac, Vance’s confrontation diverted attention away from their nearby rally, which was their first joint campaign stop.

The Harris campaign mocked Vance by posting a video of his plane landing at the airport with a TikTok-style caption: “All of a sudden, I hear this agitating, grating voice.”

In response, Trump-Vance campaign spokesman Steven Cheung tweeted, “Make sure AF2 is deep cleaned because Lord only knows what Kamala Harris and her team have done on there. The smell alone on that plane must be crazy.”

Earlier that day, at a Michigan rally, Vance echoed similar themes, accusing Walz of “stolen valor” and criticizing Harris’ performance as President Joe Biden‘s point person on illegal immigration.

“I’m the father of a 2-year-old girl. I cannot imagine having a government that cares so little about you that they’re letting people who come into our communities get deported and come back in and then they rape our children,” said Vance. “That is a policy choice of Kamala Harris.”

Vance also criticized Walz after the governor ridiculed him at his first rally as Harris’ running mate on Tuesday in Philadelphia, mocking Vance for promoting false claims and supporting Trump despite his Yale University education.

“What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage,” said Vance, referring to Walz’s exit from the National Guard in 2005, shortly after his battalion was ordered to deploy to the Iraq War.

Vance, who served as a press assistant in the Iraq War and never saw combat, continued, “Do not pretend to be something that you’re not. And if he wants to criticize me for getting an Ivy League education, I’m proud of the fact that my mamaw supported me, that I was able to make something of myself. I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service.”

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