Vance says media acted like Biden was 'Einstein,' aim to make Harris into 'second coming of Abraham Lincoln'

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Vance says media acted like Biden was 'Einstein,' aim to make Harris into 'second coming of Abraham Lincoln'

Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance told a crowd in New Kensington that the media sought to make President Biden look like "Einstein," and are now working to make Vice President Kamala Harris into the "second coming of Abraham Lincoln."

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance accused the mainstream media of attempting to turn Harris into the "second coming of Abraham Lincoln."

The senator from Ohio made the remarks while speaking at a rally in New Kensington, Pennsylvania on Thursday.

"I just can't quite get over how dishonest the American media is about Kamala Harris. Isn't it the craziest thing," Vance said at the rally. "Now we have to remember for three and a half years […] Democratic leaders all across the country would say things and the American media would back 'em up. That President Biden, for three and a half years — he's as sharp as he's ever been, sharp as a tack. Remember that?"

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Vance speaks at a rally in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. (Fox News)

He continued, "The American media acted for three and a half years like this guy was Albert Einstein — and now they would tell us that Kamala Harris is the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. We don't buy it. We don't believe it."

Vance has made frequent comments about his deep distrust of the mainstream news media since being chosen by former President Donald Trump to be his running mate.

Speaking with Fox News on Wednesday, Vance said he wanted multiple debates with his vice-presidential opponent Tim Walz — but drew a distinction between "real" and "fake" debates.

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Trump and Vance appear on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Vance said he is "not going to do one of these fake debates where they don't actually have an audience there, where they don't actually set the parameters in a way where we can have a good exchange of ideas."

"In other words, we're not going to walk into a fake news media garbage debate. We're going to do a real debate, and if CBS agrees to it, then certainly we'll do it," he added.

Vance got into a public feud with CNN's Brianna Keilar after the anchor questioned his military bona fides on air.

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Walz speaks during a campaign rally with Democratic presidential candidate at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

"Because we have, as you introduced him, as a combat correspondent, which is what [Vance's] title was," Keilar told her CNN colleague Dana Bash Thursday. "But when you dig a little deeper into that, he was a public affairs specialist, someone who did not see combat, which certainly the title ‘combat correspondent,' kind of gives you a different impression. So he may be the imperfect messenger on that."

"Brianna this is disgusting, and you and your entire network should be ashamed of yourselves," Vance wrote on X. "When I got the call to go to Iraq, I went. Tim Walz said he carried a gun in a war. Did he? No. It was a lie."

Keilar later appeared to walk back her remarks, acknowledging in a monologue that Vance "served honorably in Iraq."

Fox News Digital's Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.