Last week, Kamala Harris’s campaign announced that they would confirm their running mate choice by Tuesday and that once the announcement was made, Harris and her running mate would go on a multi-state tour, doing rallies in key swing states. All of that is happening as we speak – Harris chose Tim Walz, and they did a huge rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday, they were in Wisconsin. They got a huge turnout, literally thousands of normal Wisconsin folks came out to support Harris and Walz.
I bring up the fact that the Harris campaign made those announcements for a reason. They were obviously not trying to keep it a secret and they wanted people to get hyped and show up for the rallies. But by announcing Harris’s schedule, that gave JD Vance a chance to lean into his “creepy weirdo stalker” energy. Vance is now making a point to do “MAGA counterprogramming” events close to wherever Harris and Walz are campaigning. Which means that Vance arrived at the Wisconsin airport shortly after Harris and Walz. Vance absolutely decided to be a giant f–king weirdo about it.
J.D. Vance briskly marched up to Air Force 2, Kamala Harris’ plane, planning to give political reporters a show as he confronted the vice president uninvited on Wednesday. His power play dreams, like most of his chaotic veep run, were immediately thwarted once he realized Harris was not present.
“I just wanted to check out my future plane,” Vance told campaign reporters gathered on the tarmac in Wisconsin. He didn’t get the chance to face Harris but said that he “wanted to go say hello to the vice president and ask her why does she refuse to answer questions.”
It’s unclear what questions Vance was referring to, as Harris has repeatedly pressed for Donald Trump to attend a September 10 debate that he already agreed to appear at when he was running against President Joe Biden. Vance told a Philadelphia rally on Tuesday that he would “absolutely” want to debate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, if given the chance.
Harris and Vance are hosting dueling campaign stops throughout this week, as he follows her across the country in a not-at-all weird way.
Just so we’re clear, both Harris and Walz have leaned in hard to branding the MAGA cult a bunch of weird creeps. That branding has landed beautifully, and now the “f–k your feelings” people are crying constantly about being called “weird.” Those same people are now in charge of the Trump-Vance campaign, and they thought it was a brilliant idea for Vance to pathetically stalk Kamala Harris across the country. Not only that, but Vance attempted to get in the sitting vice president’s face ON HER PLANE.
What’s also funny/ridiculous about Vance’s public stalking is that there’s an abundance of bad staff work across the board. The advisors who cooked up Vance’s “stalking tour” are clearly crackheads. But the people putting together Vance’s actual counterprogramming events are terrible at their jobs too – he’s giving aggrieved-white-douche speeches to dozens of bored people (if that) while Harris and Walz are packing arenas and airport hangars with thousands of enthusiastic supporters. That’s the side-by-side comparison Vance is forcing by stalking Harris and Walz around the country. Makes me wonder if this is less about messaging and more about Vance explicitly threatening VP Harris and trying to be so creepy and weird that she’s genuinely unsettled.
Eau Claire, WI
After landing in Wisconsin, @JDVance deplaned and walked toward AF2 where @KamalaHarris had landed minutes before. Vance said he did not see the VP as her motorcade started to leave, explained he “just wanted to see his future plane.”@CBSPolitics @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/YrsP343hUR
— Taurean Small (@taureansmall) August 7, 2024
I thought the reporters traveling with Kamala might be a little lonely given that she never answers questions from them, so I figured I’d come say hello and check out my new plane while I was at it. https://t.co/OPEh0UKBDc
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 7, 2024
(Sound up) pic.twitter.com/16z5CGwoOf
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 7, 2024
On their way to a 15 year old’s OBGYN appt pic.twitter.com/63TTCQXXsX
— Christine Nangle (@nanglish) August 7, 2024
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.