JD Vance Attacks Harris and Walz During Speech in Philadelphia

At a campaign event in Philadelphia, Mr. Vance criticized his rivals for avoiding the news media and then deflected questions himself.

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Senator JD Vance of Ohio at an event in Philadelphia on Monday.

Senator JD Vance of Ohio on Monday accused Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota of misleading the public about their records and taking relatively few questions on the campaign trail.

But Mr. Vance’s attacks, made to supporters at an appearance in Philadelphia, also trained the spotlight on his own less-than-direct answers to specific questions, including whether he and former President Donald J. Trump would support an increase in the federal minimum wage and whether his own opinions have changed on the need for a federal abortion ban.

Some of Mr. Vance’s evasiveness could be chalked up to smart politics, such as refusing to say which Philadelphia eatery he preferred for cheesesteaks. Still, his elusiveness on more serious policy questions gave an opening to his Democratic opponents to call into question his own resolve on crucial issues.

Mr. Vance said Ms. Harris was only “pretending to run” for president, describing her as overly scripted and suggesting the former senator and California attorney general was fearful of answering questions from the news media. He criticized Mr. Walz for not agreeing to a second vice-presidential debate and accused him of lying about his military service.

“Even though he says he carried a weapon in war, the closest Tim Walz has ever come to combat is when he let rioters burn Minneapolis to the ground a few years ago,” Mr. Vance said, a reference to the protests in 2020 after a police officer murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck.

But when Mr. Vance took questions from the reporters on Monday, the start of a busy week of campaigning, he would not say whether he and Mr. Trump supported boosting the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour, where it has remained since 2009. Instead, Mr. Vance pivoted to the campaign’s position on immigration.

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