Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (Democrat), who is considered one of the leading candidates to be Harris’ running mate, said he is “eager” to debate Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).
“I’m eager for the opportunity to debate him, just as I know the vice president is eager to debate former President Trump,” Beshear said. He told the Des Moines Register The interview took place Saturday in Iowa during a campaign rallying state Democrats.
After President Biden withdrew from the Democratic nomination, Harris became the presumptive nominee and is currently vetting candidates to join him, a list that includes Gov. Beshear, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Gov. Roy Cooper (R-N.C.), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
Speaking with CNN’s Caitlin Collins on Monday, Gov. Beshear attacked Vance for his opinions about Appalachia in his best-selling book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” saying “he’s not from here” and calling him a “fake and a phony.”
Gov. Beshear doubled down on those criticisms in an interview Saturday.
“Our discussions are certainly going to get a little personal,” he said. He told the Des Moines Register. “This is a guy who came to Kentucky for two weeks in the summer and wrote a book. [Hillbilly Elegy] “They claim to know us, understand our culture. He called our people lazy, but these are the miners who built this country.”
On Monday, a spokesman for Vance responded to Beshear’s attacks on Vance, saying Beshear, whose father was also governor of Kentucky, “came from a wealthy family.”
“JD comes from a poor family who spent summers in Appalachia, something Andy Beshear, who grew up in a wealthy family thanks to his politician and lawyer father, will never understand,” Vance spokesman Taylor Van Kirk wrote in The Hill on Monday.
“Unlike Mr. Beshear, who followed his father into the Governor’s Mansion, Senator Vance has had to earn everything he has achieved in life on his own.”
Vance Also, Reporters pointed out that it was odd that Governor Beshear would “criticize” his own “origins” when he “inherited the governorship from his father.”
Governor Beshear responded to the criticism in an interview with the Des Moines Register, again calling Vance a “fake.”
“That’s what he said: ‘Origin story,'” he said. Said. “Batman has an origin story. Fictional characters have origin stories. Real people have childhoods and upbringings. It just goes to show how fake it is.”
Beshear also said that whether he becomes Harris’ running mate or not, he wants voters to see “the real Kamala Harris,” adding that he was “honored” to be considered.
“I’m bringing in someone who can go into the most partisan and most partisan parts of battleground states, speak to people in a way that gets them involved, explain what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and ultimately ensure that they see the real Kamala Harris and not who the other side is trying to make her out to be,” he said. He told the Des Moines Register.
Beshear has served as a surrogate for Harris and one of Vance’s attackers since she became the Democratic nominee.
Gov. Beshear is also scheduled to speak at a rally in Atlanta on Monday.
