2024 election updates: Harris campaign launches ad on Jan. 6 debate clash

Less than 24 hours after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stepped off the vice presidential debate stage in New York, he stepped onto a rally stage in York, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.

The governor, who embarked on a daylong bus tour of central Pennsylvania with Sen. John Fetterman, entered the exposition hall where the rally was held from the back, with a garage door opening and the Harris-Walz "New Way Forward" bus clearing a path to drop him near the stage.

He first expressed sympathies over the impacts of Hurricane Helene across the Southeast, telling the crowd that Vice President Kamala Harris was "on the ground right now in Georgia, making sure folks are doing what they can do." Harris was meant to be on the bus tour of Pennsylvania with Walz today in place of Fetterman.

The governor quickly pivoted to discuss his debate performance against Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, saying, "Not bad for a football coach," adding that the two rivals had "a civil, but spirited debate."

That's where the civility ended as Walz then hurled into a litany of criticisms over Vance's answers from last night.

"I did not underestimate Senator Vance as a slick talker… But I also called out there -- you can't rewrite history," he said. "And trying to mislead us about Donald Trump's record, that's gaslighting," Walz added.

He also joked about the fact-checking, corroborating Vance's claim that the two had indeed agreed to no fact-checking, but he quipped that he was glad that they did.

Walz also stressed a point he made during the debate about former Vice President Mike Pence going against Trump's false rhetoric and certifying the election compared to Vance refusing to not answer a question about accepting this election's results.

"Understand in that 88th minute last night, with that damning non-answer, Senator Vance made it clear he will always make a different choice than Mike Pence made," Walz said. "And as I said then, and I will say now, that should be absolutely disqualifying if you're asking to be the Vice President of the United States."

"I was speaking to the American people last night. It felt especially in that moment to me, that Senator Vance was speaking to an audience of one," the governor added.

-ABC News' Isabella Murray, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie

In a phone call with Fox News Digital, Trump said the debate performance from his running mate "reconfirmed my choice."

"JD was fantastic last night -- it just reconfirmed my choice," Trump said. "There was a brilliance to what he did."

The comments came after Vance's rocky rollout in the weeks after becoming Trump's VP pick. At one point, Trump said he believed vice presidential selections had "virtually no impact" on the election.

"On the other hand, Tim Walz proved to be a man that doesn't have it in any way shape or form for the office that he is seeking, though I would put him a large number of steps above Kamala," Trump said.

The former president also continued his baseless, personal attacks on Harris and Walz's mental acuity.

"This is what the country needs; smart people, not people that can't put two sentences together," Trump said. "We have to take our country back."

Just hours after last night's debate, the Harris campaign launched a new ad slamming Vance over his answer to a question about Jan. 6 in a moment they consider to be a highlight of Tuesday's vice-presidential debate.

In the 30-second clip titled "JD Vance's Damning Non-Answer," Vance refuses to clarify if he thinks Trump lost the 2020 election. It is part of the campaign's $370 million fall media push and will air digitally across battleground states.

Michael Tyler, a Harris spokesperson, was asked by CNN Wednesday morning if the Jan. 6 exchange was something Walz wanted to talk about or if it was something that just happened in the moment.

"I think the governor was prepared to make sure that the voters understood that Donald Trump remains a risky bet for the American people,"

Read more about the biggest clash of the debate here.

ABC News' Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

“So, I was actually in the Situation Room today with the president for several hours with our national security team,” said Harris on Tuesday. “It is important that we as the United States stand with Israel and its right to defend itself, especially against Iran, which poses a threat to American interest American personnel in the region.”

Harris also told the reporter that the government is sending supplies to Georgia following Hurricane Helene.

“I have been in touch with the governor. Actually I spoke with him. I've been getting regular briefings at FEMA,” before refuting Trump’s claims that President Joe Biden’s administration has not been moving supplies in fast enough.

“We’ve got boots on the ground in Georgia. There has been a big effort that we have made to make sure that we get food, water and generators to folks who need that after the hurricane.”

-ABC News' Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie