Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) approached Air Force Two “to check out” the plane after both he and Vice President Harris landed at the same airport in Wisconsin.
When he told gathered press what he was doing, Vance also attacked Harris for not answering questions from the media.
“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. “I also thought you guys may get lonely, because the VP doesn’t answer questions from reporters.”
Harris’s campaign responded to Vance approaching Air Force Two by calling it “weird.”
“Just to clarify,” Harris spokesperson Ammar Moussa wrote. “JD Vance is flying around the country following Vice President Harris. He approached her plane today because he just wants to talk. And now he’s begging her for a debate?”
“This is getting weird,” he added.
KamalaHQ, the campaign’s social media arm, has also responded to Vance’s troll with its own TikTok edit.
KamalaHQ posted a video showing Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), speaking to children after landing in Wisconsin. Then, Vance’s plane arrives, and a voiceover says, “I hear this agitating, grating voice,” a meme from Abby Lee Miller of “Dance Moms.”
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) also weighed in on Vance’s decision to approach Air Force Two, making a dig about the size of Vance’s crowds at rallies. She quote-posted Vance’s post of a photo of him walking away from Harris’s plane with about a dozen people.
“Looks like @JDVance brought all his rally attendees to the airport with him today,” she wrote.
On Tuesday, Harris’s campaign on TruthSocial made similar digs about the smaller crowd sizes of Trump-Vance campaign events compared to recent Democratic rallies.
Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, also weighed in on Vance’s appearance before Air Force Two, responding to Vance’s post on social platform X, saying, “Make sure AF2 is deep cleaned because Lord only knows what Kamala Harris and her team have done on there.”
“The smell alone on that plane must be crazy,” Cheung added.
Vance has hit Harris in recent days for not holding press conferences or unscripted events. He doubled down on those attacks outside of Air Force Two.
“Have they given you guy’s explanations about why she hasn’t answered questions,” Vance asked reporters outside of Air Force Two. “Well I hope she changes her mind because it would be good for the American people and for all of you if she ran a real campaign instead of one from her basement and a teleprompter.”
“It’s just disgraceful,” he added.
Since taking over as the Democratic nominee, Harris has appeared at rallies and fundraisers but has not sat down for any interviews or taken questions at press conferences.
As Vance walked away from Air Force Two, a reporter asked him what questions he would like Harris to answer.
“I’d love her to answer what she wants to do and also explain why every position she has ever had has changed,” he responded.
He pointed specifically to her past as a prosecutor and calls for defunding the police, as well as her record on the border.
The Hill reached out to Harris’s campaign.
During his campaign event in Eau Claire, Vance doubled down on the criticisms of Harris, saying she “deserved to be fired.”
“President Trump and I will go anywhere, will answer any question because we respect the American people enough to actually ask them for their vote rather than sit in front of a teleprompter, read scripted lines and run away from every reporter,” Vance said.
Vance also challenged Harris to appear at a debate next week that was scheduled when Harris was still President Biden’s running mate.
“So here’s my offer to Kamala Harris: If she’d like to do a debate with me on August 13, I’ll do it,” Vance said Wednesday in Eau Claire. “I don’t think she wants to anymore because one, she probably doesn’t even know that she’s going to be the Democratic nominee, and two, we don’t know who the vice presidential nominee is going to be either.”
Vance has said he will debate the Democratic vice presidential nominee, but he has not committed to a date. During the rally, he said he would not commit to a date until both Harris and Walz were the “official nominees” because Democrats have “pulled a bait and switch before.”
“He’s got a lot of skeletons coming out of the closet today,” Vance said. “We’ll see if the Democrats pull a bait-and-switch on Tim Walz or Kamala Harris, just like they did with Joe Biden.”
On Tuesday, Harris and Walz officially became the Democratic nominees for president and vice president after the Democratic National Committee concluded a virtual roll call vote certifying the candidates ahead of the Democratic convention later in August.