Beshear says he'd be 'eager' to debate Vance

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), who is viewed as one of the top candidates for Vice President Harris to tap as her running mate, said he would be “eager” to debate Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).

“I'd be eager for the chance to debate him, just like I know the vice president is eager to debate former President Trump,” Beshear told the Des Moines Register Saturday in an interview while campaigning in Iowa to rally state Democrats. 

After President Biden stood down as the Democratic nominee, Harris has become the presumptive nominee and is now vetting candidates to join her on the ticket. That list includes Beshear, Govs. Josh Shapiro (D-Penn.), Tim Walz (D-Minn.), and Roy Cooper (D-N.C.), as well as Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. 

On Monday, Beshear spoke with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and attacked Vance, saying “he ain’t from here” and called him “phony and fake” because of Vance’s opinions on Appalachia in his bestselling book “Hillbilly Elegy.” 

Beshear doubled down on those criticisms in his interview on Saturday.   

“Our debate would admittedly be a little bit personal,” he told the Des Moines Register. “This is a guy that used to come a couple weeks a summer, at best, to Kentucky and then wrote a book [Hillbilly Elegy] claiming to know us, claiming to understand our culture. He called my people lazy, and these are the coal miners that built this country.” 

On Monday, a spokesperson for Vance responded to Beshear’s attack on Vance, saying that Beshear, whose father also served as governor of Kentucky, “grew up with a silver spoon.”

“JD grew up spending his summers in Appalachia and came from a poor family, something Andy Beshear could never relate to because he grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth thanks to his politician/lawyer daddy,” Vance spokesman Taylor Van Kirk wrote to The Hill on Monday. 

“Unlike Beshear, who rode his father’s coat tails into the governor’s mansion, Senator Vance has had to earn everything he’s accomplished in this life.”

Vance also told reporters that it was odd that Beshear would “criticize” his “origin story” when he “inherited the governorship from his father.” 

Beshear responded to that criticism in his interview with the Des Moines Register, calling Vance “fake” once again. 

“Those were his words, ‘origin story,’” he said. “Now, Batman has an origin story. Fictional characters have origin stories. Real people have childhoods and upbringings, and it just shows you how fake this is.”

Beshear also added that whether or not he is Harris’s running mate, he hopes to help voters see “the real Kamala Harris,” adding that he is “honored” to be considered. 

“I think what I bring is somebody that knows how to talk to people that can go into the deepest purple or red parts of any swing state and talk to folks in a way that allows them to be a part, that explains why we're doing and what we're doing, and ultimately ensures they see the real Kamala Harris and not who the other side is going to try to turn her into,” he told the Des Moines Register.

Beshear has taken up the role as one of Harris's top surrogates and attackers of Vance since she became the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Beshear will also speaking at a rally in Atlanta on Monday.