J.D. Vance checks out Air Force Two in cheeky stunt
Sen. J.D. Vance knows an opportunity to embarrass an opponent when he sees it. So when his campaign plane, nicknamed Trump Force Two, landed in Wisconsin minutes after Kamala Harris arrived aboard Air Force Two he knew exactly what to do.
No sooner was he down the steps but he was set off across the Tarmac for a closer look at the vice president's ride. His Secret Service detail hurried to catch up and his press handlers panicked as they try to stop his small traveling pool of journalists from marching off behind him.
But Vance's plans were thwarted. As his small throng drew closer to Air Force Two, the vice president's motorcade drove off, hurrying her to her next event. Vance was beaming when he returned to his own plane and addressed reporters.
'I just wanted to check out my future plane,' he said with a grin. She has the bigger plane ... for now. Her Boeing C-32, is a modified 757, resembling Donald Trump's own private jet. Vance is traveling in the slightly smaller 737, which has a reduced range.
The two planes were bound to run into each other. Vance has been crisscrossing battleground states this week, 'bracketing' the vice president's events in the same states. So on Tuesday, he appeared in Philadelphia just before she took the stage with her new running mate.
And on Wednesday, he flew into Michigan and Wisconsin, visiting the same places where Harris had scheduled events. But he said his Air Force Two stunt had a serous point. 'I also wanted to go say hello to the vice president and ask why Kamala Harris refuses ... to answer questions from the media?' he said.
'And I also thought that the press gaggle following her might get a little lonely.' Vance has spent the past two weeks playing defense, buffeted by scrutiny of old interviews - such as the time he complained about the country being run by childless cat ladies' - and fake smears.
This week he has been back on the front foot, winning good reviews even from Trump insiders who had lobbied for alternative running mates. At two stops Wednesday he laid into Harris's record on the border, crime and the economy, reveling in his role as Trump's policy attack dog. And he said he and Trump were ready to answer questions from anyone.
'We think it's important to have a counter narrative here, and importantly, to drive home this point that she has been a dangerous radical, she has pursued very far left policies, from defunding the police to opening the American southern border to increasing the price of housing and groceries on Americans,' he said. 'This has happened because of her policies, and I think it's important that the American people actually know that. And again, I really can't believe she's been himself to nominate for 17 days, and she hasn't taken a real question.'
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