Election 2024 updates: Michelle Obama to speak at DNC this week

A spokesperson for JD Vance is pushing back after audio from a 2020 podcast resurfaced that seemed to suggest the vice presidential candidate agreed with the host, who said having grandmothers help raise children is "the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female."

"The media is dishonestly putting words in JD's mouth -- of course he does not agree with what the host said," Taylor Van Kirk, a Vance spokeswoman said in a statement to ABC News.

In April 2020, on "The Portal" podcast, Vance discussed with the host how his mother-in-law moved in with him and his wife, Usha, after they welcomed their first child to help support the couple and how it was a positive experience.

"It makes him a much better human being to have exposure to his grandparents, I don't know and the evidence on this, by the way, is like super clear," Vance said.

The host, Eric Weinstein, then said to Vance, "That's the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female in theory."

Vance said, "Yep" after the host said "menopausal."

Van Kirk said Wednesday night that Vance was reacting to another comment.

"JD reacted to the first part of the host's sentence, assuming he was going to say: 'that's the whole purpose of spending time with grandparents.' It's a disgrace that the media is lying about JD instead of holding Kamala Harris accountable for her policies that caused sky high prices for groceries and everyday necessities, a disaster at the southern border, and a historic drug overdose epidemic," her statement read.

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie

Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance did not outright commit to the Oct. 1 debate on CBS News with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, but speaking with Laura Ingraham on Fox News Wednesday night, Vance said he plans to go up against him on a debate stage.

"Look, Laura, we're certainly going to debate Tim Walz. We just heard about this thing three hours ago, so we're going to talk to them and figure out when we can debate," Vance said.

Vance signaled he wants to meet Walz on the vice presidential debate stage more than once before the November election.

"I actually think we should do more than one debate, so hopefully we're going to see him on Oct. 1, but hopefully we're going to see him either before or after that because I think it's important for the American people to actually see us discuss our views."

When Ingraham asked Vance if "there's any doubt that you will not be there on Oct. 1 to debate Walz," Vance said he "strongly suspects" he'll be there.

"I strongly suspect we're going to be there on Oct. 1, but we're not going to do one of these fake debates, Laura, where they don't actually have an audience there, where they don't actually set the parameters in a right way, where you can have a good exchange of ideas," Vance said.

-ABC News’ Leah Sarnoff and Hannah Demissie

The Harris campaign went on the offensive against former President Donald Trump Wednesday following his speech on the economy, saying he does not care about working families.

"During what was billed as a speech about his economic vision, Donald Trump said he’s 'not sure the economy is the most important topic' -- because when you're running to slash taxes for rich donors and corporations it's easy not to care about the working families and middle-class Americans who get hurt as a result," Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement to ABC News.

Trump delivered remarks Wednesday at Harrah's Cherokee Center in downtown Asheville, North Carolina.

"The choice this November is clear: Building up the middle class will be the defining goal of Vice President Harris' presidency -- that's why she’s focused on lowering costs for working families, holding greedy corporations accountable, and creating opportunity for all Americans," Moussa said.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has officially appealed a New York judge's ruling that he cannot appear on the state's ballot because he misrepresented his place of residence on his nominating petition forms.

In the appeal, RFK Jr. called the judge's ruling "an assault on New York voters who signed in record numbers to place me on their ballot."

The independent presidential candidate went on to call the Democratic party "unrecognizable."

"The party of my father and uncle’s time was committed to expanding voters' rights and understood that competition at the ballot box is an essential part of American Democracy," RFK Jr. said in the appeal.

"The DNC is now a party that uses lawfare in place of the democratic election process," he added.