Trump and Harris agreed to debate on Sept. 10: Highlights from Trump’s news conference

Gov. Tim Walz and his fellow Democrats have enacted big changes in the two years that they’ve had full control of the Minnesota Legislature, from expansions of abortion and LGBTQ+ rights to tax credits and other initiatives aimed at making life easier for families.

His record has delighted liberals and progressives and is a major reason why Vice President Harris chose him to be her running mate. He doesn’t try to claim all the credit — strong Democratic legislative leaders also played major roles. But his record continues to draw condemnation from Republicans, who say he squandered a huge budget surplus that should have been used for tax cuts, failed to prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud, and acted too slowly to quell the violence that followed the murder of George Floyd.

▶ Read about what Walz has done as Minnesota governor

Despite now hammering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over his response to the violence that erupted after George Floyd’s murder, Trump at the time told the governor that he fully agreed with how Walz handled it.

“What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately,” Trump told Walz and other governors and officials in a phone call on June 1, 2020. The Associated Press on Wednesday obtained an audio recording of the call, which has taken on new significance now that Walz has been tapped as Harris’ running mate.

ABC News reported on the call earlier Wednesday, a day after Harris introduced Walz as her vice presidential pick. CNN posted a transcript of the call back in 2020.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he was responsible for deploying the National Guard. In reality, it was Walz who gave the mobilization order in response to requests from the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Although Walz came under criticism at the time for not moving faster.

▶ Read more about the politics surrounding Walz and the National Guard

During Harris’ speech in Michigan, the vice president was interrupted by protesters who oppose Israel’s assault on Gaza and its high death toll. At first, Harris said to those trying to disrupt her, “I am here because I believe in democracy and everybody’s voice matters.”

That was a response similar to Biden’s, who often said when interrupted at his rallies that protesters should be allowed to speak before being removed by security. Harris then pivoted to a tougher tack as the interruption continued, saying, “But I am speaking now.” That sparked cheers from most of the audience.

“If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that,” the vice president continued over the protesters. “Otherwise, I’m speaking.”

Those demonstrating were eventually led away, but not before a tense confrontation between Harris supporters and protesters who screamed at one another.

▶ Read more about Harris’ Wednesday campaign events

The ABC debate will take place on a day her campaign has long stuck to as the Republican nominee waffled on his commitment.

“I hear that Donald Trump has finally committed to debating me on September 10,” she wrote on the social media site X. “I look forward to it.”

Earlier Thursday, Trump recommitted to the Sept. 10 debate — which had been arranged when Biden was still in the race — and proposed additional debates on other networks. The Harris campaign has not responded to Trump’s proposal of more debates.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s military record has come under scrutiny since he was named as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket, with Republicans questioning both Walz’s characterization of his time in uniform and his departure from service.

Walz served a total of 24 years in the Army National Guard before retiring in 2005. As he ramped up for a congressional bid in 2005, Walz’s campaign in March issued a statement saying he still planned to run despite a possible mobilization of Minnesota National Guard soldiers to Iraq. Walz retired from service in May of that year, according to the Guard, and a mobilization order for his unit was issued three months later. The unit mobilized in October and was deployed to Iraq in March 2006.

Republicans have attempted to argue that Walz was aiming to avoid being sent to a combat zone.

▶ Read more about the controversy around Walz’s military service

The former president’s statement on the Fed during his news conference earlier Thursday was a direct challenge to the U.S. central bank’s political independence. Most economists say the country is well-served by having the Fed make choices to address inflation without the risk of political interference, which could lead them to make policy mistakes by focusing instead on a president’s electoral goals.

Trump said he felt he had better instincts on the economy than Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who hiked a benchmark interest rate to help lower inflation after it spiked in 2022 to a four-decade high.

In response to a July question about whether the Fed should coordinate more with the White House, Powell said, “People have learned that a central bank that’s independent of political consideration does a better job of getting inflation under control, and that is now the accepted wisdom in all advanced economies around the world.”

At the private Paris fundraiser, Emhoff said he “cannot wait” to see his wife debate former President Trump.

He also urged the friendly crowd not to get “too comfortable” in the 89 days before the presidential election.

Emhoff is in Paris as head of the U.S. delegation to the closing ceremony and planned to watch U.S. teams compete at the end of the Games, including the U.S. men’s basketball game against Serbia.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, has rallied a group of enthusiastic donors in Paris, France, telling them his wife is “ready” and heaping praise on her newly minted running mate, Gov. Tim Walz.

The private fundraiser held in the French capital’s tony 16th arrondissement was hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s mother, Judith Pisar, the widow of Holocaust survivor Samuel Pisar, who died in 2015. Organizers said it had raised $285,000.

Emhoff, who took time out of his Olympic duties as head of the U.S. delegation to the closing ceremony in Paris, was quick to highlight her choice of Walz, saying “she made the right choice” and touted the governor’s resume.

Kamala Harris is tying her Oakland, California, upbringing by a single mother with running mate Walz’s childhood in small-town Nebraska in an address to United Auto Workers.

“The same people raised us, good people, hardworking people, people who had pride in their work,” she says in the Detroit union hall. “People who had pride in knowing we were a community of people who looked out for each other.”

“No one should ever be made to fight alone,” she said. “We are all in this together.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was sounding a little hoarse after his third day on the campaign trail.

“This is a bit of preaching to the choir. But the choir needs to sing. The choir needs to sing, right now,” Walz, Harris’ new running mate, told a room full of United Auto Workers union members in a Detroit union hall.

The rasp in Walz’s voice didn’t stop him from joining in the chants that have become a regular part of Harris’ rallies, “We’re not going back! We’re not going back! We’re not going back!”

Harris and Walz are set to play up their support for organized labor during an appearance at a Detroit-area union hall.

The two are on stage, waiting to speak to several dozen United Auto Workers members at Local 900 Hall, which represents Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant.

Those members were the first Ford workers to strike in 2023 when the union’s contract with the company expired. Workers at the assembly plant went on strike Sept. 15 and remained on the picket lines until Oct. 25, when the union announced a tentative agreement with Ford.

He was at the podium for about 65 minutes.

It’s only been 26 days since Trump narrowly escaped assassination, but the former president said that was plenty of time for his recovery.

“I’m a fast healer,” he said.

At Mar-a-Lago, there were no visible signs of the bullet’s path.

“Helluva shot,” Trump recalled, adding later: “I got very lucky.”

Trump said he has not “recalibrated” his campaign despite facing a new opponent, a dynamic some Republican strategists have quietly complained about.

Trump continued to criticize Biden, against whom he has been running since before the 2020 election, during his press conference at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, all while hurling personal insults at Harris, the new Democratic nominee.

When asked what assets Harris possessed, Trump said, “She’s a woman. She represents certain groups of people.”

Four times he questioned the intelligence of Harris, a former California attorney general and former U.S. senator.

He said the strategy for the campaign would not change because it’s not about Harris, it’s about the policies of the Biden-Harris administration that will decide the election.

During his news conference, the former president suggested that abortion “has become much less of an issue” since the Supreme Court ended the federal right to abortion services and returned control of the matter to state governments.

Trump argued that Democrats, Republicans and “everybody” is pleased with the results of the 2022 ruling that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Trump’s actions within the GOP, however, suggest he knows that Democrats have already capitalized on Republican opposition to abortion rights and could do so again this fall. Trump single-handedly ensured that the Republican Party platform adopted at the 2024 convention in Milwaukee does not call for a national abortion ban, and he has said repeatedly that hardliners in the party could cost the GOP in November.

The court’s decision, issued months ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, is widely cited as a reason why Democrats fared much better than expected in House and Senate contests. And Democrats have hammered Trump on paid advertisements blaming him and the justices he appointed for ending Roe.

Trump says almost being assassinated by a gunman has not changed his position opposing any new federal regulations or restrictions on weapons.

“People need the guns for protection,” he said, pointing to U.S. cities that have attempted local gun restrictions and still see violent crime.

Trump accused Harris of wanting to “take away everyone’s guns.” Harris’ proposals call for universal background checks and a ban on certain near-military grade weapons like those that were banned from 1994 until a decade later when then-President George W. Bush and Republicans on Capitol Hill allowed the ban to expire.

ABC News says both the Trump and Harris campaigns have agreed to a September 10 debate. That was the date Trump had initially agreed to debate President Biden before the president dropped out of the race.

Trump has falsely claimed that “nobody was killed on Jan. 6,” the date in 2021 when pro-Trump rioters breached the U.S. Capitol amid Congress’ effort to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Five people died in the riot and its aftermath, including Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter shot and killed by police, and Brian Sicknick, a police officer who died the day after battling the mob.

Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran from San Diego was shot and killed by a police officer as she climbed through a broken part of a Capitol door during the violent riot. To be sure, Trump has often cited Babbitt’s death while lamenting the treatment of those who attended a rally outside the White House that day and then marched to the Capitol, many of whom fought with police.

Federal prosecutors had weighed charging the officer involved in the shooting but opted not to file charges.

“I think those people were treated very badly when you compare it to other things that took place in this country where a lot of people were killed,” Trump said Thursday.

Trump is misrepresenting the realities of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and the electorates of several Southern states as he repeats the lie that Biden’s victory in 2020 was due to fraud.

He insisted there “was a peaceful transfer of power” after the 2020 election. Certainly, Biden was inaugurated on schedule. But Washington was on lockdown that day, with the streets patrolled by military personnel and domestic police two weeks after Trump’s supporters had attacked the Capitol as Congress convened to certify Biden’s win.

Trump, meanwhile, argued, “You don’t win Alabama and South Carolina by records and lose Georgia. It doesn’t happen.” Except Alabama and South Carolina are overwhelmingly Republican and Georgia has been trending toward a two-party battleground for years.

Alabama and South Carolina have about 5 million residents and heavily Republican electorates. Georgia, driven by decades of growth in metro Atlanta, now has about 11 million residents — and 5 million presidential voters.

As a comparison, former President Barack Obama lost Georgia by about 5 percentage points in 2008 without spending significant resources in the state. That same year, he lost Alabama by more than 22 points and lost South Carolina by 9 points.

Trump began his press conference with a three-pronged attack on Harris, her new running mate Gov. Walz of Minnesota and even President Biden, who has been out of the presidential race for weeks.

Trump began the event with a statement before calling into question Harris’ legitimacy as the nominee. “We have somebody who hasn’t received one vote for president,” he said. Harris was nominated by virtual roll call by the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday.

He called Walz “a radical left man,” adding that “he has positions that it’s not even possible to believe they exist.”

And he said “the presidency was taken away” from Biden, whom Trump has spent years focusing on, even as he said he did not plan to recalibrate his campaign, in light of a new opponent.

Trump suggests he would participate in as many as three debates against Harris. He said he’s willing to appear separately on Fox, NBC and ABC, all spread across September.

The former president has been inconsistent in recent weeks about his debate preferences, and Harris has not committed to any of Trump’s more recent ideas. Trump had agreed previously to a debate against President Biden on ABC in late September but then he pulled out of that commitment and called on Harris to join him in a Fox News debate.

ABC has said it would continue its regularly scheduled event and host whichever of the candidates shows up. Trump was noncommittal when asked if he would move forward if Harris only agreed to the ABC debate.

He’s warning of World War III, a depression of “the 1929 variety” and a nation overrun with migrants from south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I think that our country is right now in the most dangerous position it’s ever been in, from an economic standpoint, from a safety standpoint,” he said, adding that President Biden is the “worst president in the history of our country” and that Vice President Harris also ranks at the bottom of the people to hold the No. 2 spot.

Trump’s supporters typically hear his “America First” and “Make America Great Again” rallying cries as a fundamentally optimistic vision for fixing deep-seated problems. The question is whether more moderate voters hear the same message or are turned off by such sweeping, often hyperbolic critiques of the country.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is leading the U.S. presidential delegation to the Paris Olympics’ closing ceremony Sunday, cheering on with American athletes over the next few days and holding events such as a UNESCO roundtable to discuss combating antisemitism.

At the roundtable Thursday, Emhoff said the Biden administration is “working with Congress” to support a $2.2 million grant for UNESCO’s international program on Holocaust and genocide education.

He was holding a fundraiser later Thursday hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s mother, Judith Pisar, who is the widow of Holocaust survivor Samuel Pisar, who died in 2015.

President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will meet with campaign staffers in Wilmington, Delaware on Thursday, using the time to thank them for their hard work over the past year and their continued work in support of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. That’s according to a person familiar with the president’s plans, who insisted on anonymity to discuss plans that are not yet public.
The event at a local venue in Wilmington will feature food and, naturally for Biden, ice cream.
The president exited the presidential race two weeks ago and wanted to say hello to the hundreds of staffers expected to attend.

Nancy Pelosi’s influence can be seen all across the Democratic Party shakeup that in a few short, agonizing weeks has reengineered the 2024 presidential ticket and the race for the White House.

It was Pelosi who publicly encouraged President Joe Biden to make a decision about his reelection campaign when he had already insisted he had no plans to step aside. Once he exited and endorsed Kamala Harris atop the ticket, it was Pelosi who was a big fan of her future running mate, Tim Walz.

For the House speaker emerita, the upheaval is less about Biden, a friend of 40 years, and more about Republican Donald Trump, the former president she refers to as “Bozo,” “a snake-oil salesman,” “what’s his name” and the “Creature from the Black Lagoon.”

“How can I say this in the nicest possible way: My goal in life was that man would never step in the White House again,” Pelosi said, slapping the table with every word.

Pelosi spoke Wednesday with reporters and columnists about her new book, “The Art of Power, My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House,” which calls for an end to political violence in the U.S.

Deputy Wayne County Executive Assad I. Turfe, the highest ranking Arab American official in Michigan’s largest county, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for president shortly after she gave remarks just outside Detroit on Wednesday.

Turfe told The Associated Press he spoke with Harris backstage at the event prior to his endorsement.

“Kamala Harris embodies the America we deserve – an America that stands for strength, inclusivity and unwavering commitment to justice,” Turfe said in a statement. “I wholeheartedly endorse Kamala Harris, as she represents the true spirit of our nation and the values we hold dear.”

Metro Detroit, home to one of the largest Arab American populations in the United States, has become a focal point of tension and unrest due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. Harris’ speech outside Detroit was interrupted for several minutes Wednesday by a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters yelling.

Turfe also pressed the need for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, but said Harris “gives us the best chance of achieving peace in that region moving forward.”

The Thursday news conference would be his first public appearance since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee and selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

The former president announced the 2 p.m. EDT news conference on his Truth Social network and then posted he was eager to debate Harris. He had teased an announcement on the presidential debate earlier this week after pulling down from the scheduled ABC News debate. Trump had said he would rather the debate be on Fox News, but on Wednesday was showing willingness to reconsider ABC News.

“I will expose Kamala during the Debate the same way I exposed Crooked Joe, Hillary, and everyone else during Debates,” he said on Truth Social. “Only I think Kamala will be easier.”

Trump’s running mate JD Vance has criticized Harris for not conducting news conference or sitting down for interviews since President Joe Biden stepped aside and she launched her presidential bid. Harris sometimes answers shouted questions while boarding or leaving her plane for campaign stops.

As Project 2025 hits turmoil, the head of the influential, far-right Heritage Foundation is postponing the release of his potentially fiery new book until after the November presidential election.

Kevin Roberts, who took over Project 2025 as part of a leadership shake-up amid blowback over its recommendations for a potential Donald Trump White House, said Wednesday he is focused on defeating presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Trump’s running mate JD Vance penned the forward to Roberts’ book.

Orchestrated by Heritage, Project 2025 is an ultra-conservative blueprint for the next Republican White House, with startling proposals that include firing large swaths of the federal government workforce and disassembling longstanding agencies, including the Justice Department.

Trump has said the outside group doesn’t speak for his campaign, but many of his most trusted former White House officials are architects of the plan and are preparing for a second Trump administration. Even before Harris emerged to replace President Joe Biden atop the party ticket, Democrats campaigned vigorously against Project 2025, portraying it as a buzzword for GOP extremism.

▶ Read more about Roberts’ book

Five secretaries of state are urging Elon Musk to fix an AI chatbot on the social media platform X, saying in a letter sent Monday that it has spread election misinformation.

The top election officials from Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington told Musk that X’s AI chatbot, Grok, produced false information about state ballot deadlines shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.

While Grok is available only to subscribers to the premium versions of X, the misinformation was shared across multiple social media platforms and reached millions of people, according to the letter. The bogus ballot deadline information from the chatbot also referenced Alabama, Indiana, Ohio and Texas, although their secretaries of state did not sign the letter. Grok continued to repeat the false information for 10 days before it was corrected, the secretaries said.

The letter urged X to immediately fix the chatbot “to ensure voters have accurate information in this critical election year.” That would include directing Grok to send users to CanIVote.org, a voting information website run by the National Association of Secretaries of State, when asked about U.S. elections.

▶ Read more about the secretaries’ letter

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing another round of pointed questioning about why he listed a New York address on a ballot petition after he moved to California.

The independent presidential candidate took the stand for a second day Wednesday to defend himself in a voter lawsuit seeking to keep him off the New York ballot in November.

A lawyer asked Kennedy if moving his family and pets to the Los Angeles area showed his intention to reside in California. Kennedy balked at providing a yes or no answer, saying the truth is nuanced. He has said he has a residence in a New York City suburb.

▶ Read more about the latest on RFJ Jr.

Gov. Walz is known for speaking regularly about the importance of “community.” Only today, he did it before a crowd of thousands at the outdoor event he and Vice President Harris headlined in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

In the direct summer sun, a member of the crowd seemed to succumb to the heat.

“We have someone down. They are treating him. They’re getting him some water, and it’s good,” Walz told the audience. “Take care of your neighbors.”

Advising others to take a drink, Walz told those attending to the audience member, “Thank you all for helping.”

“Take care of one another,” he went on to say more broadly.

“This idea of caring for a neighbor, a kindness, a hand up when somebody needs it,” he said. “That’s who we are.”

Harris left the stage to the sounds of her new campaign anthem, “Freedom,” by Beyoncé.

Harris is leaning into the theme of her campaign, “freedom,” elevating her voice in a new way as she becomes more comfortable delivering it.

Especially emphatic in the outdoor event in Eau Claire, Harris called for “Freedom of who you love openly with pride.”

But in particular, and with cheers rising up to meet her voice, Harris intoned robustly, “Freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body!”

“Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in America?” Harris shouted in closing. “And are we ready to fight for it?”

Harris has during recent events tried to tamp down the chants of “Lock him up. Lock him up,” a mantra crowds have appropriated from similar chants that Trump campaign audiences in 2016 used in reference to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Harris motioned with her hands in Philadelphia on Tuesday to avoid the chants.

Today, she had a new comeback for the group, as she referred to herself and Walz as “joyful warriors.”

When crowds chanted to put Trump in jail, she said, “Hold on. Let the courts take care of that. We’re going to beat him in November,” igniting cheers.

Greeting in a high-five hand clasp with Tim Walz, Kamala Harris joined her new running mate at the outdoor rally in Eau Claire.

“Give it up for Wisconsin’s own Bon Iver,” she said, thanking the opening band, which was founded in the northwest Wisconsin city.

And asking for a round of applause for Biden, the crowd of thousands at the Eau Claire Event District began chanting, “Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!”

JD Vance and his wife, Usha, stopped for a sweet treat as they left the battleground state of Wisconsin.

At Olson Ice Cream, they were greeted by dozens of cheering supporters, many of whom had blue Trump campaign signs.

Usha Vance got a scoop of Mackinac Island Fudge, her husband said, while JD Vance ordered Mocha Mud Pie.

“I need a little caffeine,” he joked, before winding his way through the crowd and signing several pieces of campaign material for fans.

Walz is taking the stage to Bruce Sringsteen’s “Born to Run,” at a campaign rally in his neighboring state of Wisconsin, and he’s offering a bit of Midwestern kinship.

“Hello, Eau Claire. Isn’t it nice to have a candidate who can pronounce the name correctly?” Walz said.

Walz is a former south central Minnesota U.S. House member and is appearing with Harris in the city of Eau Claire, which is a key target for the Democratic ticket and just a little more than 80 miles from his home in St. Paul.

President Joe Biden won the county by 11 percentage points — more than 6,000 votes — in 2020, carrying the entire state by fewer than 21,000 votes.

Walz’s place on the ticket would seem to help boost support in other western Wisconsin counties, such as LaCrosse, another reliably Democratic county bordering Minnesota.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stopped by the Harris campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, and the mood was akin to a high school pep rally with chants of “Let’s go coach.”

In a video posted by the campaign, Walz said, “We’re doing it. It’s on,” and, “It’s Friday night lights.”

Walz was a high school teacher and was on the coaching staff for the football team before entering politics, with Mankato West High School winning a state championship in 1999. Many high schools play their varsity football games on Friday evenings, with the term “Friday Night Lights” referencing to a book about Texas football by the journalist Buzz Bissinger that became a movie and TV show.

Chloe Longmire, who attended Wednesday’s rally in Eau Claire said that she is encouraged and excited that Harris has the potential to be the first Black female president.

“She’s trying to create a world where people all have their rights to their own decisions, their bodies, their choices. Women’s rights,” are definitely crucial, she told AP. “Definitely something that I look for as a woman, as a woman who has a daughter, I want her to be able to have a right to her own body. We talk about it every day, all the time. And that’s something that’s central for me.”

Andrea Lorenz noted that her teenage kids are now more interested than ever in the election.

“I have two teenage kids, one, a daughter who all of a sudden wasn’t excited about the election. And now. And now she is,” she said, adding “I love what, what she’s talking about with education and abortion rights.”

Wisconsin voter Dan Miller said he liked the tone and message of the Harris and Walz ticket.

“I love Tim Walz saying, you know, yeah, we’re the monsters. You know, look at us. You know, we want. We want to feed children. We want to educate everybody. We want women to have a choice versus, you know, having the government make their choices for them,” he said. “It’s the tone that they use. It’s the messaging itself. It’s just so much better. We love Joe. Joe has been an incredible president, but he just isn’t the same messenger. And sometimes you need a better messenger. And that’s Kamala.”

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said he had a bit of fun Wednesday trying to catch up with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris as the pair used the same Wisconsin airport as part of competing campaign travel.

“I just wanted to check out my future plane,” he joked with reporters after walking off the Donald Trump campaign plane and walking straight over to Air Force Two, which had landed with vice president and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Vance used the stunt to jab Harris for not having conducted an extended interview or full press conference since she began her campaign July 21 after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid.

“I also wanted to go say hello to the vice president and ask her why Kamala Harris refuses, why does she refuse to answer questions from the media,” Vance said. “I don’t think the vice president waved at me as she drove away.”

Indie band Bon Iver was warming up an outdoor audience waiting for Kamala Harris to take the stage in Eau Claire, with “The Battle Cry of Freedom.”

“We’re all here for the right reasons,” lead singer Justin Vernon, with the Eau Claire-based band, said before breaking into a slow, bluesy version of the Civil War-era anthem.

The band was opening on the grounds of Eau Claire Event District for Harris’ first appearance in swing state Wisconsin Wednesday with her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, from nearby Minnesota.

“Let’s go!” Vernon told the crowd of thousands before leaving the stage in anticipation of the appearance of the Democratic ticket.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin, specifically Chippewa Valley Regional Airport, is the center of the political universe at the moment.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance both landed and were on the tarmac outside the northwestern Wisconsin city, planning to hold separate campaign events scheduled for the same time in the afternoon.

Harris, who arrived in Air Force Two, disembarked and left for her event, where she was to speak with her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Vance’s aircraft could be seen taxiing as he prepared for his rally. Before leaving for his event, Vance walked over to get a closer look at Air Force Two, the aircraft he hopes to consider his main form of travel beginning in January.

Wisconsin is among the handful of states considered the most competitive, where Democratic President Joe Biden won by fewer than 21,000 votes in 2020.

The Harris campaign is continuing a strong fundraising wave after the vice president picked Walz as her running mate.

The campaign said Wednesday that it has raised $36 million in the first 24 hours after the formal vice president candidate announcement.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio have one thing in common besides being candidates for vice president – Diet Mountain Dew.
Walz doesn’t drink coffee, but he’s frequently spotted with a fluorescent green plastic bottle of his caffeinated beverage of choice.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan once tweeted a photo of him grabbing a cold one, saying, “He’s Dew’n it again! #dadjoke.” He replied, “Had to Dew it.”Becoming Kamala Harris’ running mate doesn’t appear likely to change Walz’s habits. Minneapolis resident Scott Svare said he saw someone who appeared to be with Walz’s security detail loading two bottles of Diet Mountain Dew into an SUV on Tuesday.

Vance’s love for the yellow soda spurred a jab from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear when he was still in the mix to become Harris’ running mate.

“Who drinks Diet Mountain Dew?” Beshear asked rhetorically in a CNN interview, suggesting that Vance was inauthentically Appalachian.Earlier that week, Vance had said at a rally in Ohio that he’d had a Diet Mountain Dew that day and added jokingly that he expected to be called a “racist” because of it. Beshear later apologized to the manufacturer – but not to Vance. Still, Beshear said he thought Kentuckians were more likely to turn to Ale-8-One as their soft drink of choice.

Asked about Trump’s comments that the VP pick doesn’t dramatically affect voters’ moves, Vance said he believed voters make decisions based on the top of the ticket, but took an opportunity to go after his latest rival.

Vance said Wednesday in Michigan that Walz is a “crazy radical” and that picking him shows Harris “bends the knee to the far left of the Democratic Party.”