- JD Vance is visiting Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday with DailyMail.com
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It was a strange moment between a husband of wife of 30 years.
After delivering the biggest speech of his political life, Kamala Harris's newly anointed running mate Tim Walz greets his wife Gwen on stage in front of an adoring crowd ... and welcomes her with a firm handshake.
He barely recovers himself, leaning in for the sort of awkward man hug that is perhaps more often seen when two college fratboys meet up years later, not at the end of a high-octane speech when you're trying to convince the nation to vote for you.
It tickled Walz's opposite number on the Trump ticket.
'It's funny, because they're trying to portray him as just another normal Midwestern guy,' Sen. J.D. Vance told DailyMail.com with a guffaw during an exclusive interview Wednesday.
Kamala Harris 's newly anointed running mate Tim Walz greets his wife Gwen on stage in front of an adoring crowd ... and welcomes her with a firm handshake
'And I know that when I see my wife after a big speech, what I really want to do is give her a nice, firm handshake.
'It's just a completely bizarre response.'
While Harris kissed her husband stage right, the Walzs were looking as if they were still getting used to what was and wasn't expected of their new high-profile role.
Vance spoke to DailyMail.com aboard his campaign plane en route to Michigan, a day after Walz was unveiled as Kamala's Harris's vice presidential pick.
In a wide-ranging interview, he described how his role was to keep 'laser focused' on Harris, unpicking her policies on immigration, energy and the economy.
But it also offered him the chance to take on Walz, whose MidWestern normie vibes will be matched up against Vance's blue-collar Ohio roots.
He slammed reports that Walz had walked out on his National Guard brothers in arms before they deployed to Iraq in 2005.
And he delighted in Walz's awkward handshake with his wife.
The moment stands in stark contrast to Vance's big moment, when he addressed the Republican National Convention last month two days after becoming Trump's running mate.
Mrs Walz takes the initiative by reaching up to her husband as Harris and her husband kiss
He and his wife Usha, 39, showed how it should be done, smooching on stage at the end of his speech in a natural embrace.
'I gave my wife a nice kiss,' he said, guffawing again at the idea that they were making out on stage in front of thousands of party delegates.
Walz's behavior, he added, was totally bizarre.
He landed at Detroit airport on Wednesday morning before heading to Shelby Township where he was briefed by law enforcement officers and addressed local media.
'It is a policy choice to open up the American southern border and allow migrant criminals to come into this community and make it less safe,' he said.
'I gave my wife a nice kiss,' Vance said about the moment he embraced Usha after his speech at the Republican National Convention
Vance mocked Walz by sarcisctally saying that when he saw his wife after his RNC speech 'what I really want to do is give her a nice, firm handshake'
'It is a policy choice to not deport people, to suspend deportations, which is what Kamala Harris did, and I heard just earlier about a criminal who was deported from this community, who came back in and then raped an 11 year old girl just in the past couple of months.'
After that he was on his way to Eau Claire in Wisconsin.
Aides say it is part of a 'bracketing' strategy, hitting cities just ahead of Harris, who is visiting both places later in the day.
He was in Philadelphia Tuesday too, ahead of the first Harris-Walz event.
