Paul Ryan Skips Debate Talk as He Picks Pumpkins with Family
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J.D. Pooley/Getty Images(KENOSHA, Wis.) — After three full days of debate prep in Virginia, Paul Ryan had a packed day Sunday, but his debate against Joe Biden and the intense preparations from this week were not what he wanted to talk about.
Instead, he wanted to talk pumpkins.
At the Apple Holler pumpkin patch in Sturtevant, Wis., the GOP vice presidential nominee, his wife Janna, and their three children came to pick pumpkins, but the reporters trailing him wanted to know about his face off against Biden Thursday.
One reporter asked Ryan if he was “excited” about the impending debate.
“I’m excited about picking pumpkins,” Ryan said.
Another asked how he was feeling about the debate, but Ryan didn’t answer, instead joking, “What debate?” and “Oh yeah! I’d better get ready for that.”
Another reporter tried as well, asking how his prep was going. Ryan turned around to face the cameras and laughed, “You know I’d better get started. You just reminded me. No, it’s going well.”
And then he was off to the pumpkin patch. A mass of reporters, cameras and secret service agents trailed the Ryans as they engaged in the family ritual of picking out pumpkins.
Ryan dragged his youngest children Sam and Charlie in a red wagon to the pumpkin patch where they picked out four of the largest in their area of the patch. Charlie, 9, was the most serious of the group, not wanting to make a hasty decision when it came to his pumpkin.
“I’m just going to check and see if there are any better ones,” he told his parents.
Ryan said they carve the pumpkins — which weighed 49, 37, 35 and 34 pounds — free-hand with a marker and a kitchen knife, but Janna Ryan said the activity of carving such large pumpkins is “all Paul,” noting with a smile that he is both “ambitious” and “serious” about the activity. The pumpkins came to $91.45.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio