AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – No more “Midwest nice.”
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, back on the campaign trail after his clash with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, shunned the debate pleasantries that marked their relatively cordial meeting and went back on the offensive Wednesday.
After a debate performance that former President Donald Trump described as “fantastic” and said it “reaffirmed” his choice for a running mate in an interview with Fox News, Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, delved into his summary of the debate within minutes of beginning his campaign speeches Wednesday afternoon in Detroit’s northern suburb of Auburn Hills.
“Now, of course, we had a debate last night – a vice presidential debate. I thought it went pretty well,” Vance said. He then told the crowd gathered at an aerospace company warehouse that he spoke with Trump Tuesday night after he came off stage.
“He said that Tim Walz had said twice that he was friends with school shooters, and I actually didn’t notice that Tim Walz had said that on the debate stage,” Vance said, recounting the conversation. From there, the story quickly turned into another attack on his Democratic counterpart: “That was probably only the third or fourth dumbest comment Tim Walz made that night.”
It was a far cry from the litany of times Vance emphasized his agreement with Walz onstage in New York. And Walz wasn’t the only Democratic member to receive barbs from Vance as he relished the traditional VP role of attack dog on Wednesday.
He also turned his fire on Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, calling her an “absolute disgrace” and accusing her of the “rancor” in national politics. Without naming names, he also claimed that many in Washington described Harris as “insecure.”
Vance, who often takes on the role of a grassroots messenger for the Trump campaign, has previously been dispatched to translate MAGA to the average voter for other types of crowds — apart from the often polarizing Trump. For example, in a speech to the International Association of Fire Fighters convention in Boston, Vance intertwined his family’s struggle with addiction with a pitch that sought to portray the Trump-Vance Republican Party as the “party of the American worker.” (The IAFF has yet to agree to the presidential race.)
Vance brought the same strategy to the debate stage: trying to defend and share the Trump agenda without appearing too combative to an audience that was more ideologically mixed than those at the campaign rallies he often headlines. He sometimes agreed with Walz on issues such as addressing gun violence and offered his condolences after Walz said his teenage son, Gus, witnessed a shooting at a Minneapolis community center while playing volleyball.
At a second event Wednesday on the grounds of a race track in suburban Grand Rapids, Vance again opened his remarks with a reference to the debate — this time with a twist.
“In some ways I have the easiest job in American politics,” Vance said, likening the role of a vice presidential running mate to a campaign salesman.
“You know, I’ve never worked in sales myself, but it’s always good when you work in sales to sell a good product,” he continued, before addressing the Democratic ticket with a final conclusion: “Unfortunately for Tim Walz, he has the crappiest product that can be sold in the entire United States of America.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
