The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in recent months, and two people have now tried to kill Donald Trump.
The outburst from Republican JD Vance at a dinner in Georgia recently met with strong reactions in the media and criticism from the White House.
It testifies that the Ohio governor takes his mission as an attack dog seriously, something that has also led him to call the Democratic presidential candidate Harris "dangerous" and "radical liberal". And he has not backed down from his earlier description of Harris as part of "a gang of childless cat ladies".
Weird and crazy?
Vance has also defended his boss Donald Trump's claim that Haitian migrants in a city in Ohio eat pets, as a way to get the media to focus on the migration issue. The question is what attacks he has up his sleeve ahead of the TV debate against Tim Walz, who is often described as the embodiment of normality.
Walz – who has a background as a geography teacher, football coach, and congressman – has tried to score points by calling the Trump camp "weird and crazy as hell".
And he has not hesitated to attack his opponent.
Like all ordinary people I grew up with in the countryside, JD studied at (elite school) Yale, made a career with the help of billionaires from Silicon Valley, and then wrote a best-selling book where he trashed them (the billionaires), said Walz ironically at the Democratic Convention.
Come on. That's not what Middle America is about, he added with a reference to life in the American heartland.
Nervous
The TV debate is arranged by CBS and will be broadcast from their studio in New York during the night to Wednesday Swedish time, without an audience present.
Tim Walz, who has admitted to US media that he is nervous, has prepared himself at home in Minnesota, where Transportation Minister Pete Buttigieg played Vance, reports The New York Times.
JD Vance has also gone home to recharge. In Ohio, Minnesota Republican and congressman Tom Emmer played the opponent in practice debates.
We will focus on a concise and direct appeal to the American people to see Donald Trump's successful policies and Kamala Harris' failures, says Vance according to CNN about his strategy.
Fresh opinion polls show that barely 41 percent of Americans have a positive view of Walz, compared to 36 percent for Vance.
The debate is likely the last before the presidential election in November and thus a crucial opportunity to broadly influence middle voters. Kamala Harris has challenged Donald Trump to another TV duel on October 23, but he has said no.
Tina Magnergård Bjers/TT
Facts: Tim Walz
TT
The 60-year-old Democrat Tim Walz was born in Nebraska and calls himself "coach". He has a background as a geography teacher, football coach, congressman, and national guard member.
He has been Minnesota's governor since 2019. As such, he has introduced progressive reforms such as free school lunch, parental leave, and stricter gun laws, as well as strengthening abortion rights.
His wife Gwen is also a teacher, and the couple has two children.
After he was appointed Kamala Harris' vice president, an interview Walz did in 2018 where he said he had carried a gun "in war" went viral. The statement was quickly dismissed as a slip of the tongue, as Walz took leave shortly before his unit was sent to Iraq in 2004. Donald Trump's campaign has, however, called him a liar.
James David Vance, originally Bowman, was born in Ohio in 1984.
In the book "Hillbilly – a family and culture in crisis" (2016), he describes his upbringing in white working-class as poor and problem-filled with a mother who struggled with addiction.
At 19, he enlisted and served during the Iraq War, but not in combat. He then studied political science and philosophy at Ohio State University and law at top university Yale. Worked at a law firm and as a venture capitalist in California.
Married to Usha Vance, whose parents immigrated from India. The couple has three children.
Earlier, JD Vance was a sharp critic of Donald Trump, but he made a complete turnaround around 2020. Vance was elected as a Republican senator for Ohio in 2022. In July 2024, he was appointed as the Republican vice presidential candidate.
