US election live: long lines for Harris-Walz rally in Wisconsin as JD Vance holds rival event nearby | US elections 2024

Here is another video of the crowd waiting in anticipation of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where the duo is set to take the stage at around 2:30pm ET:

Long lines in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, for Harris-Walz event as JD Vance to hold rival rally

Barack Obama: Tim Walz has ‘values and the integrity to make us proud’

JD Vance, who served as a combat correspondent for four years from 2003 to 2007 during the Iraq war, attacked Tim Walz’s military record, which included a 24-year run with the army national guard before his retirement in 2005 as a command sergeant major.

Speaking at a campaign event in Michigan, Vance said:

“I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? What was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went into Iraq, and he has not spent a day in a combat zone. What’s bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not.

And if he wants to criticise me for getting an Ivy League education, I’m proud of the fact that my mamaw supported me, that I was able to make something of myself, I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.”

In 2018, Walz said in an interview, “I know that there are certainly folks that did far more than I did. I know that … I willingly say that I got far more out of the military than they got out of me, from the GI bill to leadership opportunities to everything else.”

During his attack against Walz, JD Vance avoided mentioning Donald Trump’s avoidance of the Vietnam draft (which according to a podiatrist in Queens who rented his office from Donald Trump’s father, was due to timely bone spurs in Trump’s heels).

During his campaign, JD Vance doubled down on the Republican accusation that Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz over Josh Shapiro because of his Jewish identity.

A reporter asked:

“You have repeatedly suggested that the only reason Kamala Harris didn’t pick Josh Shapiro is because of his Jewish faith. Do you have any evidence to support that assertion that a person who is married to a Jewish man is somehow antisemitic or bowing to antisemites?”

In response, JD Vance said:

“Well I reject the premise of the question. I did not say that was the only reason that Kamala Harris didn’t choose Josh Shapiro so you should take a little less DNC talking points when you ask your question and ask a real question.”

Following Harris’s pick of Walz as her running mate, JD Vance told Fox News on Tuesday that by choosing Walz, Harris “bent the knee to the far-left”, adding, “This decision, selecting Tim Walz, is another sign that she doesn’t care what the American people think. She is only in this to obey the far-left radicals within her own party. It’s a really shameful moment for Kamala Harris.”

Shapiro has been a vocal supporter of Israel amid its war on Gaza which has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians since Hamas’s 7 October attacks that killed 1,200 Israelis.

During the anti-war student protests across US college campuses, Shapiro appeared to compare the student demonstrators to the KKK, saying, “We have to query whether or not we would tolerate this if this were people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia.”

Shapiro, who says his views have changed, has also once written that “peace will never come” to the Middle East, describing Palestinians as “battle-minded”.

Since Walz’s pick as Harris’s running mate, reports have emerged that Shapiro appeared circumspect about the vice presidency position during the final selection process, with various sources familiar with the matter saying that he had numerous questions about the role and his responsibilities.

JD Vance continued to stick to Donald Trump and Republicans’ attack line questioning Kamala Harris’s biracial identity, saying:

“Donald Trump said something very simple, totally inoffensive but frankly obviously true to me which is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon. She’s a fake …”

In response to a question from a reporter who asked, “How can you fake your race?”, JD Vance replied:

“She fakes who she is depending on the audience that she’s in front of and that’s who she is and that’s who she’s always been.”

JD Vance on Trump’s attacks on Harris’s racial identity: ‘I was not bothered at all’

In response to #TamponTim, a trending and apparently mocking hashtag online that takes aim at Tim Walz and his efforts to provide menstrual products to all students, including transgender students, Hillary Clinton defended the progressive Minnesota governor.

Writing on X, Clinton said:

“How nice of the Trump camp to help publicize Gov. Tim Walz’s compassionate and common-sense policy of providing free menstrual products to students in Minnesota public schools! Let’s do this everywhere.”

Tim Walz does not own any stocks, according to financial disclosures reviewed by Axios and confirmed by a spokesperson.

In Axios’s business editor Dan Primack’s newsletter, Primack reports that Walz’s disclosures also do not indicate any mutual funds, bonds, private equities or other securities.

Kamala Harris’s vice-president pick also does not have any book deals, speaking fees or crypto or racehorse interests, Primack reports, adding that Walz does not also own any real estate.

According to the report, the Walzes’ only investment assets appear to be from state pensions.

In a new post on X, Kamala Harris said that with Tim Walz by her side, “Let us fight for the promise of America’s future.”

The duo is set to campaign in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, today as part of their campaign blitz across seven states in five days.

‘I could not be more thrilled’: Trump reacts to Harris’s VP pick

In the days leading up to Kamala Harris’s final selection of her vice-president, three finalists were presented to her by her campaign team: Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly and Tim Walz, the New York Times reports.

Among the questioners who interviewed the finalists were Marty Walsh, Joe Biden’s labor secretary, Cedric Richmond, a campaign co-chair, Tony West, Harris’s brother-in-law, Dana Remus, a former White House counsel, and Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada senator.

According to the report, “Mr. Shapiro had privately appeared more circumspect about the vice presidency, according to multiple people familiar with the selection process, asking about his role and responsibilities.

“Mr. Shapiro, 51, is widely seen as harboring his own presidential ambitions, which could have complicated any relationship where his chief job would be to serve as a dutiful No. 2,” the Times added.

Meanwhile, the impression Walz gave off the Harris was “joyful” and “willing to do anything for the team”.

According to a source speaking to the Times anonymously, Harris said, “He’s just so open,” adding, “I really like him.” Additionally, Walz reportedly explicitly told Harris to not pick him if he could not help her win in November.

The Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign has rolled out its newest merchandise: the Harris-Walz camo hat which it described as the “most iconic political hat in America”.

The embroidered hat with the orange words is described on the website as “America made, union made” and sells for $40.

The hat appears to pay homage to Missouri-born popstar Chappell Roan’s own tour merchandise collection which also features a camo hat with the orange words, “Midwest Princess”.

Following the release of the Harris-Walz hat, Roan herself took notice of the resemblance, writing on X, “Is this real?”

Usha Vance has come to her husband JD Vance’s defense after his comments on “childish cat ladies” running the country surfaced in recent weeks.

In an interview with Fox News, Usha Vance responded to a question on what she would say to people who were offended by JD Vance’s comment, saying:

“JD absolutely, at the time and today, would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really … was struggling with that…

And I also understand there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families and many of those reasons are very good.”

Usha Vance’s comments have been paraphrased by Vanity Fair as, “My husband only meant to insult people who actively choose not to have kids, not people who are trying but are unsuccessful” in a new headline.

She also did not mention her husband’s other attacks in which he called people without children “sociopathic”, “psychotic” and “deranged”.

For more on Usha Vance’s defense of her husband’s words – which she described as a “quip”, click here:

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Our Revolution, a grassroots US progressive political organization founded by Bernie Sanders, condemned the outcome of Cori Bush’s Democratic primary.

Joseph Geevarghese, spokesperson for the group, said Democratic party leaders failed to support Bush against a “barrage of racist attacks and millions of dollars” being spent to unseat her.

Geevarghese said in a statement: “Cori Bush had the moral courage to speak out against her constituents’ taxpayer dollars funding war crimes in Gaza. As a result, Aipac and its Maga Republican-funded super Pac spent more than $8.4m to buy her congressional seat.

“Democratic party elites have spent years decrying Trump as an existential threat to democracy, yet they are resoundingly silent when wealthy conservative donors unseat a true working-class champion who was among the first federal lawmakers to endorse Kamala Harris in her historic candidacy for president.”