If Trump-Vance campaign aides have their way Tuesday night, JD Vance won’t belabor the fake outrage over pet-eating immigrants that dominated the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Asked directly by a reporter Monday if Vance planned to repeat Trump’s bizarre claims that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pet cats and dogs in Tuesday's vice presidential debate against Tim Walz, senior campaign adviser Jason Miller dodged the question and focused on the Biden administration’s perceived weaknesses that play to the MAGA base.
“I definitely would expect Senator Vance to talk about all aspects of illegal immigration, including as we’ve seen—and this is a big issue with regard to Springfield—the Kamala Harris smokescreen when it comes to illegal aliens and the issue of temporary protective status,” Miller, a longtime trusted Trump aide, told reporters during a call to preview the final debate of the 2024 presidential campaign season.
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Miller also advised political reporters not to be fooled by stories suggesting Walz, a veteran politician, is “real nervous and chewing on his fingernails.”
“Tim Walz is very good at debates. Really good,” Miller said, pointing to Walz’s 12 years as a member of the House of Representatives before becoming governor of Minnesota. In fact, Miller said, Walz’s tenure in Congress will come up in the debate “in a big way.”
Taking personal, pointed stabs at the Democratic Minnesota governor, Miller, the loyalist who worked for both Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, added: “He’s not gonna be the wildly gesticulating effeminate caricature we see at rallies pointing to Kamala Harris and dancing about on the stage.”
GOP Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who played the role of Walz during Vance’s debate prep sessions, also excoriated his fellow Minnesotan.
Emmer, who represents the Republican-leaning district directly northwest of Minneapolis, told reporters that his former House colleague is a “total fraud.” He predicted that Vance will “wipe the floor with Tim Walz” in Tuesday night’s CBS debate.
“No amount of Minnesota nice is going to make up for the fact that Walz embodies” Kamala Harris’ “open-border and soft-on-crime” policy stance, Emmer said.
Walz has largely leaned into his Midwestern identity in recent weeks as he looks to connect with voters in key swing states. Some of his allies, including fellow Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, have worried this “Minnesota nice” image might be a liability on the debate stage.
Meanwhile, Vance’s advisers said he will portray himself as the man for Middle America, having come from a “disadvantaged struggling community.”
A recent New York Times/Siena poll found that more Midwesterners had a favorable view of Walz over his Ohioan rival—with 48 percent of voters in Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin holding an unfavorable opinion of Vance.
