New York, PA – The day after the vice presidential debate in New York City, Republican Ohio Senator JD Vance And Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz returned to the campaign trail with stops in two key battleground states.
As he arrived at the airport near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, Walz pointed his debate with Vance hours earlier and told reporters, “New York City was a little crazy last night.”
Most pundits said Vance was the more talented of the two candidates on Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate stage, although flash polls indicated debate watchers were mostly divided over which candidate emerged victorious.
One off-the-cuff response from Walz during the debate quickly went viral, as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate mistakenly said she had “been friends with school shooters.”
2024 cash dash: Trump raises stakes as he tries to close gap with Harris
Senator J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, the Republican vice presidential nominee, speaks with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, during the vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 1. (AP/Matt Rourke)
The accident occurred when Walz was asked about a change of position on banning assault weapons, which he had previously opposed but now supports.
Walz said, “I sat in that office with those Sandy Hook parents. I’ve been friends with school shooters. I’ve seen it.”
Asked to explain his debate mistake, Walz said Wednesday, “I’m very emotional about this. The question came about school shootings. We talk about everything else except school shootings.” Talking. And I sat down with Sandy as a member of Congress, and it was an intense movement.
“David Hogg (a prominent gun control activist and school shooting survivor) is a good friend of mine.”
Vance, Walz, Spar debate issues in VP debate showdown
Walz admitted, “I need to be more specific on it. But I’m passionate about it.”
Vance, speaking at a rally Auburn Hills, Michigan, He said he did not hear Walz’s comment until he was told about it during a conversation with his running mate, former President Trump, after the debate.
Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance of Ohio speaks at a rally in Auburn Hills, Michigan on October 2, 2024. (associated Press)
“He said Tim Walz said he was friends with school shooters twice,” Vance quoted him as saying. Conversation with Trump. “And this is something I really didn’t notice that Tim Walz said on the debate stage.
“I said, ‘Did he really say that, sir?’ And he (Trump) said, ‘I’m telling you, man, go and watch the clip.’
Harris, Biden head to storm-ravaged southeast ahead of Trump’s visit
“And I said that was probably the third or fourth dumbest comment Tim Walz made that night.”
The debate moderators also confronted Walz over his claim to have been in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, China.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, is in the spotlight at a rally in York, PA, October 2, 2024. (Fox News Digital/Paul Steinhauser)
Walz acknowledged that he traveled to Asia in August 1989, several months after the April 15 massacre, and said that he could be “a fool sometimes.”
The governor reiterated Wednesday that his “dates are wrong.”
Trump, in an interview on Wednesday Brooke Singman of Fox News called her partner’s performance “fantastic” and said it “confirmed my choice.”
The former president also argued that Walz had “embarrassed himself” during the debate.
Another big moment in the debate came near the end, when Vance didn’t say President Biden won the 2020 election over Trump. The former president has spent four years repeatedly making unproven claims that the election was rigged and that there was widespread voter fraud.
Walz again emphasized Wednesday that “it’s disrespectful not to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. It’s as simple as that.”
An hour later, addressing a large crowd at a rally at the York Fairgrounds, Walz charged that “you can’t rewrite history. And you’re trying to mislead us about Donald Trump’s record.” This is shocking.”
Asked why he avoided answering the 2020 election question during the debate, Vance repeated his allegation on Wednesday that the “simple reason” is that “the media is busy talking about the election from four years ago.” “My focus is on the election 33 days from now because I want to get Kamala Harris out of office and get back to common sense, economic policies.”
Walz arrived at his rally in York to cheers as he boarded his campaign bus and arrived at the York Exposition Center.
But York is Trump country. The former president won York County over Biden by about 25 points in 2020.
Walz’s pennsylvania swing Via Harrisburg, York and Reading began what the Harris campaign described as a more aggressive post-debate travel and voter engagement blitz by the governor, including stops in two other battleground states – Arizona and Nevada, and Ohio, Involved a fundraising blitz in California and. Washington
Click here to get the Fox News app
And the campaign noted that Walz would participate in more media interviews. Vance has conducted dozens of interviews since Trump nominated the senator as his running mate two and a half months ago and has repeatedly fielded questions from reporters during the campaign.
Vance made the first of his two stops in Michigan at Visioneering, an automotive industry equipment supplier in Auburn Hills.
Auburn Hills is in Oakland County, which has leaned heavily toward Democrat in recent election cycles. Four years ago, Biden carried the county by about 14 points over Trump.
Michigan and Pennsylvania are two of seven key battleground states whose razor-thin margins clinched Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump and will likely determine whether Trump or Harris wins the 2024 presidential election.
Fox News’ Deirdre Heavey and Kirill Clark contributed to this report
