Vice President Kamala Harris is hitting the campaign trail this week with her newly announced running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Harris and Walz officially kicked off their ticket with a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday and are holding events across battleground states in the coming days.

The running mate announcement set off a new round of fury from former president and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who have sought to paint Walz as a liberal extremist.

On Tuesday, Trump claimed Walz would “unleash HELL ON EARTH” and shared a baseless theory about President Joe Biden attempting to reclaim the nomination at the Democratic National Convention later this month.

Read our previous coverage here, and scroll down for live updates:

Walz’s Daughter Playfully Denies Telling Her Dad About Vance Couch Joke

Hope Walz, Tim Walz’s 23-year-old daughter, got coy when someone asked if she'd told her dad about the fake couch anecdote plaguing the Trump-Vance campaign.

In a video posted to TikTok, Hope Walz playfully mimed zipping her lips and said, "Lips are sealed."

On July 15, an X user suggested falsely that Vance admitted to having sex with a couch in his book “Hillbilly Elegy.” The social media post even included a fake citation. That story does not exist in the book, but the rumor took off, and Walz even gave a nod to it in his introduction speech Tuesday, telling the crowd, “I gotta tell you, I can’t wait to debate the guy. That is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up. See what I did there?”

Harris’ campaign social media account also seemingly hinted at the rumor in a post, writing, “JD Vance does not couch his hatred for women.”

Lorne Michaels Offered Steve Martin The Role As Walz on ‘SNL’

Steve Martin has declined an offer to play Walz on “Saturday Night Live,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Lorne Michaels, producer of “SNL” — which kicks off its 50th season Sept. 28 — called Martin on Wednesday morning to offer him the role.

“I wanted to say no and, by the way, he wanted me to say no,” Martin told the LA Times. “I said, ‘Lorne, I’m not an impressionist. You need someone who can really nail the guy.’ I was picked because I have gray hair and glasses.”

Martin said impersonating Walz would be “ongoing” and not something he wanted to commit to.

“It’s not like you do it once and get applause and never do it again,” Martin said. “Again, they need a real impressionist to do that. They’re gonna find somebody really, really good. I’d be struggling.”

Last week, Deadline reported that “SNL” alum Maya Rudolph will play Harris on “SNL,” a role she has won an Emmy for.

New Audio Shows Trump Praising Gov. Walz’s Handling Of George Floyd Protests

In a 2020 recording of phone call between President Donald Trump and a group of governors, Trump can be heard lavishing praise on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for his handling of the George Floyd protests that engulfed the city that summer.

"I know Gov. Walz is on the phone, and we spoke, and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days," Trump says in the call.

"I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim," he adds. "You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins."

Later in the call Trump praises Walz as an “excellent guy.”

The audio completely undercuts Trump’s more recent criticism of Walz’s handling of the protests, which he has done regularly since Harris named Walz as her running mate.

Listen to the audio clip on ABC News.

Video Shows Walz Greeting Raucous Harris Campaign Staff Outside Headquarters

Walz paid a visit to Harris’ campaign headquarters in Delaware on Wednesday morning, and got a hero’s welcome from a number of her staff outside.

Video posted on social media by Walz, and some of Harris’ staff, shows the newly minted running mate enthusiastically shaking hands amid cheers of “let’s go coach.”

Harris And Vance Events Postponed Due To Tropical Storm Debby

The Harris and Trump campaigns have postponed several upcoming events in the South due to severe weather expected from Tropical Storm Debby.

Both teams’ separate visits to Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday have been postponed. Harris was scheduled to appear with Walz, while Vance has been traveling solo this week.

Harris’ team is also postponing her visit to Savannah, Georgia, on Friday due to the storm’s aftermath in the area. She has stops planned in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday, and Las Vegas on Saturday.

Walz Halts Rally Amid Medical Emergency In Crowd

Walz abruptly halted his speech in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, after seeing someone in the crowd needing medical attention.

The governor paused the event for several minutes while directing help to the person, who he said needed water amid the heat. As the person was tended to, he appeared to go off script to use the moment to encourage kindness towards others.

Vance Tells Reporters That ‘Hopefully’ Air Force Two Will Be His Plane Soon

While they were both on a Wisconsin tarmac, Vance told reporters he wanted to get a good look at Harris’s plane, Air Force Two, because “hopefully it’s going to be my plane in a few months.”

He also told reporters they might “get lonely” because Harris hasn’t answered reporters’ questions in 17 days.

“Have they given you guys an explanation for why she won’t take questions from reporters?” Vance asked reporters.

He continued: “I’d love her to just answer what she wants to do and also explain why every single position she has has changed. She pretends to be a tough-on-crime prosecutor and yet here she is wanting to defund the police. She’s the border czar, yet she’s opened up the American southern border.”

Vance has changed some of his own opinions during his political career, including that of his running mate, having once compared Trump to Hitler.

JD Vance Follows Trump’s Lead In Debate Escape

During a campaign stop in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vance said he’d debate Vice President Kamala Harris next week, but not her running mate Tim Walz.

Vance reportedly said “we don’t know who the vice presidential nominee is going to be” and that Democrats might “pull a bait and switch” on Walz.

Trump’s running mate may have been taking a shot at President Joe Biden stepping down from the campaign and handing the reins over to Harris. But both Harris and Walz have already been certified by the DNC.

Trump, who has tried to back out of debating Harris, cooked up his own fanfiction scenario in which Biden will try to take back the nomination at the DNC this month.

“What are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden … CRASHES the Democrat National Convention and tries to take back the Nomination, beginning with challenging me to another DEBATE,” he wrote on his social media website Truth Social.

Wisconsin Poll: Voters Evenly Split Between Trump, Harris

A recent survey of 877 registered voters in Wisconsin found Trump and Harris locked in a dead heat, and Trump likely having lost supporters after Biden dropped out.

Harris received 49 percent of support among those surveyed, while Trump got 50 percent, according to the results of the Marquette Law School poll published Wednesday.

However, Harris slightly edged out Trump among the survey's likely voters — people deemed most likely to actually vote in November — with Harris receiving 50 percent and Trump 49.

The survey also found larger support for Trump if Biden had stayed in the race. Asked who they would have voted for before he dropped out last month, 42 percent said Biden and 47 percent said Trump. Ten percent of those remaining voters said they didn’t know.

Wisconsin is considered a swing state in this coming election, with it having voted for Trump in 2016 and then Biden in 2020.

Campaign Donations Surge For Harris After Walz Pick

The Harris presidential campaign says it has raised $36 million in less than 24 hours since Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was chosen as her running mate.

It's the latest sign of renewed enthusiasm in the Democrat offer, coming after the campaign said it brought in $310 million in July – more than double the amount accrued by Donald Trump last month.

The vice president's election coffers were boosted by donations of more than $200 million in the week after she replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.

New Joe Biden Interview To Air Sunday

Biden sat for an interview with CBS News' Robert Costa, the White House said Wednesday. The interview will air on "CBS Sunday Morning" on Aug. 11.

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