Source: Tom Williams / Getty
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was the subject of a comical jab by Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz during a vibrant speech with Kamala Harris in Philadelphia.
On Tuesday (August 6), before a packed auditorium at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris officially introduced her running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota. He demonstrated how effective he was with his messaging as he attacked JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate. “Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland,” Walz began. “JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best seller trashing that community. Come on. That’s not what middle America is. And I gotta tell you. I can’t wait to debate the guy.” As the crowd roared, Walz then quipped: “That is if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.”
The reference to an alleged passage from the first edition of Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy made the crowd raucous, and Walz immediately acknowledged it. “You see what I did there?” he said, briefly touching his ear as he laughed. But Walz’s speech also had jabs for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as well. “Make no mistake, violent crime was up under Donald Trump,” Walz stated, “and that’s not even counting the crimes he committed.” He also added: “He doesn’t know the first thing about service – because he’s too busy serving himself.” Harris spent her speech highlighting Walz’s accomplishments, which include his decades-long career as a teacher in high school and defensive coordinator for the school’s team as well as his 24 years serving in the Army National Guard. “My promise to you is this: Our campaign will reach out to everyone, from red states to blue states, from the heartland to the coast, in rural, urban, suburban, and tribal communities,” she said to the crowd.
Walz was one of two remaining candidates to be Harris’ running mate – the other was Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who pledged his support for the ticket at the rally. Walz has proven to be a highly effective communicator so far for the Democrats, having been the figure who first described the Republican candidates and their supporters as “weird,” which has become virally affixed to them in the last couple of weeks.