EAU CLAIRE, WI – Standing in front of over 15,000 supporters packed into an airport hanger at the airport in Detroit, Michigan, Vice President Kamala Harris proclaimed that “this election’s going to be a fight.”
“We like a good fight,” added Harris, who rose to the top of the Democratic Party’s 2024 ticket two and a half weeks ago after President Biden suspended his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president as his successor.
Hours earlier in neighboring Wisconsin, another crucial battleground state that will also likely determine the outcome of the presidential election between Harris and former President Trump, the vice president’s newly named running mate took aim at Trump.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, enjoying what seemed like a hometown crowd at a rally just an hour from his own state, spoke to a sea of supporters – over 12,000 who had waited in line for hours on the roads and farm fields of mostly rural northwest Wisconsin to see Harris and her running mate.
KAMALA HARRIS AND HER NEWLY NAMED RUNNING MATE KICK OFF A BATTLEGROUND STATE SWING
Walz charged that the former president “sees the world differently than we see it. He has no understanding of service. Because he’s too busy serving himself again and again and again.”
“This guy weakens our country to strengthen his own hands. He mocks our laws. He sows chaos and division among the people. And that’s to say nothing of the job he did as president,” Walz argued.
Walz, a former high school teacher and football coach before entering politics, showcased his Midwestern roots as he told the “Packers and Badgers fans” in the crowd that he once coached his team to a state championship and touted that he was the “top gun” three years running at the trap shoot during his dozen years representing a mostly rural red-leaning district from southern Minnesota in Congress.
KAMALA HARRIS AND HER NEWLY NAMED RUNNING MATE KICK OFF A BATTLEGROUND STATE SWING
Hours earlier, Trump aimed to paint Harris and Walz as ultra-liberals as he called into Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” for an interview.
“You know, nobody knew how radical left she was, but he’s a smarter version of her, if you want to know the truth,” Trump claimed in his Wednesday interview. “He’s probably about the same as Bernie Sanders. He’s probably more so than Bernie Sanders.”
And the former president argued that “this is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner.”
Trump’s team was planning on painting the Democratic ticket as extreme left-leaning regardless of whom the vice president chose as her running mate, a source in Trump’s campaign told Fox News.
But Harris’ naming on Tuesday of Walz, a moderate congressman who shifted to a more progressive governor, over more moderate running mate finalists Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona seemed like a gift to Trump’s team.
“I could not be more thrilled,” Trump said regarding the choice of Walz as running mate. “I was shocked when, when it came down to the final two, that she didn’t pick Shapiro. I was very surprised.”
But the naming of a running mate has been lucrative for the Harris campaign, which highlighted that it had hauled in $36 million in fundraising in the 24 hours since the Walz announcement.
At the rally, Walz once again argued that Trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance of Ohio “are creepy and weird as hell.”
Vance, at a dueling campaign event just miles away, pushed back on the “weird” label, saying he and Trump are “normal guys who want to make this country great.”
In a viral moment, Vance appeared to try and troll the vice president, as he approached Air Force Two at Chippewa Valley Regional Airport, where the senator’s campaign plane was also parked.
“I figured that I would come by and get a good look at the plane because hopefully it’s going to be my plane in a few months,” Vance said in front of Air Force Two.
And once again pointing out that Harris has yet to sit for a major interview or hold a press conference in the two and a half weeks since she replaced Biden at the top of the Democrats’ national ticket, Vance told reporters, “I also thought you guys may get lonely, because the VP doesn’t answer questions from reporters.”
Vance also took aim at Walz, who served nearly a quarter-century in the National Guard, for what he claimed was “stolen valor,” as the Trump campaign launched a full-frontal assault on the governor, accusing him of misrepresenting his rank, his service and charging he abandoned his unit on the eve of its deployment to Iraq.
The charge, if substantiated, could be explosive, as Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita well knows.
He was the mastermind 20 years ago behind the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” campaign that aimed to discredit Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart recipient Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts ahead of his narrow 2004 presidential election loss to GOP incumbent George W. Bush.
But Vance himself never served in combat. While Vance was deployed to the war in Iraq as a Marine, he worked in the public affairs department while on his deployment.
And Trump over the years has faced well-documented allegations that as a young man he dodged the Vietnam War draft by claiming to have bone spurs in his feet, which sidetracked him from service.
It’s no surprise that Harris and Walz so far this week have held rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, with Vance holding events nearby to stay in close proximity.
The three states make up the so-called “Blue Wall” that Democrats reliably won in presidential elections for nearly a quarter-century before Trump narrowly carried them in capturing the White House eight years ago.
But in 2020, Biden won back all three states with razor-thin margins as he defeated Trump, and the states remain extremely competitive as Harris and Trump face off in the 2024 presidential election.
The latest polls now show a margin-of-error race in the Blue Wall states, as well as in Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada, the other key battleground states.
Biden dropped his re-election bid on July 21, after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in late June prompted increased questions over whether the 81-year-old president had the physical and mental abilities to serve another four years in the White House. It also sparked a rising chorus of calls from fellow Democrats for Biden to end his re-election bid.
Harris didn’t mention her boss at a large rally in Atlanta last week, nor did she or Walz reference the president at their rally Tuesday night in Philadelphia.
But Harris, in her sixth visit to Wisconsin so far this year, praised the president at the top of her comments.
“I want to bring greetings from our incredible president, Joe Biden,” Harris said. “He loves Wisconsin, and I know we are all deeply grateful for his lifetime of service to our nation and for all he continues to do.”
After the crowd broke out in a chant of “Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!” the vice president responded, “That’s right. I’m gonna tell him what you said.”
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