Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to take the stage in Wisconsin as JD Vance holds rival event nearby – live | US elections 2024

In response to a question on whether he thinks it matters that Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz, JD Vance replied:

“What does Kamala Harris’s selection of Tim Walz say about her? Well, I think it says one, she’s leaning into the defund the police radicalism of the last few years. Two, she’s leaning into the open borders policies of last year … And then the final point that I’d say is it says that she bent the knee to the Hamas caucus of the Democrat party.”

JD Vance, who earlier today said that he was “not bothered at all” by Donald Trump’s attacks on Harris’s biracial identity, went on to repeat the Republican attack line that Harris skipped Josh Shapiro as her running mate because of his Jewish identity.

He said:

“The amount of rage that you heard from the far left saying Kamala Harris can’t pick this guy because he’s Jewish is disgraceful. I want my kids to grow up in a country where they can be whatever they want to be, and people aren’t attacking them for their ethnic heritage … It’s not just what these people said about Shapiro. It’s the way that the Harris administration and the Harris campaign refused to push back against it. I think it’s a real scandal.”

Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are about to speak at an open-air rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

We’ll bring you the news from that event, where they are currently playing Bob Marley’s Sun Is Shining to the crowd. Those waiting at the rival JD Vance event heard James Brown’s It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World. Signaling much?

The pool of reporters traveling with the US vice-president reported that the disembarkation from Air Force Two in Wisconsin was a bit delayed.

“JD Vance’s plane could be seen taxiing in the distance shortly after we landed.”

Here’s a clip:

Here is another video of the crowd waiting in anticipation of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where the duo is set to take the stage at around 2.30pm ET:

Long lines in Wisconsin for Harris-Walz event as JD Vance to hold rival rally

Barack Obama: Tim Walz has ‘values and the integrity to make us proud’

JD Vance, who served as a combat correspondent for four years from 2003 to 2007 during the Iraq war, attacked Tim Walz’s military record, which included a 24-year run with the army national guard before his retirement in 2005 as a command sergeant major.

Speaking at a campaign event in Michigan, Vance said:

“I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? What was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went into Iraq, and he has not spent a day in a combat zone. What’s bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not.

And if he wants to criticise 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 like he did.”

In 2018, Walz said in an interview, “I know that there are certainly folks that did far more than I did. I know that … I willingly say that I got far more out of the military than they got out of me, from the GI bill to leadership opportunities to everything else.”

During his attack against Walz, JD Vance avoided mentioning Donald Trump’s avoidance of the Vietnam draft (which according to a podiatrist in Queens who rented his office from Donald Trump’s father, was due to timely bone spurs in Trump’s heels).

During his campaign, JD Vance doubled down on the Republican accusation that Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz over Josh Shapiro because of his Jewish identity.

A reporter asked:

“You have repeatedly suggested that the only reason Kamala Harris didn’t pick Josh Shapiro is because of his Jewish faith. Do you have any evidence to support that assertion that a person who is married to a Jewish man is somehow antisemitic or bowing to antisemites?”

In response, JD Vance said:

“Well I reject the premise of the question. I did not say that was the only reason that Kamala Harris didn’t choose Josh Shapiro so you should take a little less DNC talking points when you ask your question and ask a real question.”

Following Harris’s pick of Walz as her running mate, JD Vance told Fox News on Tuesday that by choosing Walz, Harris “bent the knee to the far-left”, adding, “This decision, selecting Tim Walz, is another sign that she doesn’t care what the American people think. She is only in this to obey the far-left radicals within her own party. It’s a really shameful moment for Kamala Harris.”

Shapiro has been a vocal supporter of Israel amid its war on Gaza which has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians since Hamas’s 7 October attacks that killed 1,200 Israelis.

During the anti-war student protests across US college campuses, Shapiro appeared to compare the student demonstrators to the KKK, saying, “We have to query whether or not we would tolerate this if this were people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia.”

Shapiro, who says his views have changed, has also once written that “peace will never come” to the Middle East, describing Palestinians as “battle-minded”.

Since Walz’s pick as Harris’s running mate, reports have emerged that Shapiro appeared circumspect about the vice presidency position during the final selection process, with various sources familiar with the matter saying that he had numerous questions about the role and his responsibilities.

JD Vance continued to stick to Donald Trump and Republicans’ attack line questioning Kamala Harris’s biracial identity, saying:

“Donald Trump said something very simple, totally inoffensive but frankly obviously true to me which is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon. She’s a fake …”

In response to a question from a reporter who asked, “How can you fake your race?”, JD Vance replied:

“She fakes who she is depending on the audience that she’s in front of and that’s who she is and that’s who she’s always been.”

JD Vance on Trump’s attacks on Harris’s racial identity: ‘I was not bothered at all’

In response to #TamponTim, a trending and apparently mocking hashtag online that takes aim at Tim Walz and his efforts to provide menstrual products to all students, including transgender students, Hillary Clinton defended the progressive Minnesota governor.

Writing on X, Clinton said:

“How nice of the Trump camp to help publicize Gov. Tim Walz’s compassionate and common-sense policy of providing free menstrual products to students in Minnesota public schools! Let’s do this everywhere.”

Tim Walz does not own any stocks, according to financial disclosures reviewed by Axios and confirmed by a spokesperson.

In Axios’s business editor Dan Primack’s newsletter, Primack reports that Walz’s disclosures also do not indicate any mutual funds, bonds, private equities or other securities.

Kamala Harris’s vice-president pick also does not have any book deals, speaking fees or crypto or racehorse interests, Primack reports, adding that Walz does not also own any real estate.

According to the report, the Walzes’ only investment assets appear to be from state pensions.