JD Vance, Ohio Senator and Republican vice-presidential nominee, campaigned just 20-minutes away from Grand Rapids in Sparta this Tuesday. He shared thoughts on the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life in his speech.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, if an assassin takes out a presidential candidate, in the midst of this election, it is going to cause a rift and a wound in this country that will be so deep it will never heal,” he said.
He urged the Democratic party to stop trying to censor Trump, saying it only creates political violence. He also stated that Democratic-nominee and current Vice President, Kamala Harris, has lacked communication with the media.
“It goes to show there is a difference in leadership style… There is a guy who takes a second almost assassination attempt and responds to it with grace and good humor and then there is a woman who is terrified of the American media, who do we think outta be the president of the United States? Donald J. Trump,” said Vance.
Harris has limited her media interviews as a part of her campaign strategy. She has recently done an interview alongside her vice-presidential candidate, Tim Waltz, after being criticized for not engaging in interviews. Additionally, Harris received a boost in the polls after the presidential debate on Sept. 10.
Vance continued to speak on what he thinks the difference is between his running mate and Harris, bringing up inflation and the rising cost of housing and groceries in the process.
“You got two very different records. Donald Trump’s record was peace and prosperity; no wars, lower inflation, rising wages,” said Vance. “Kamala Harris has been chaos all over the world. She can’t answer a single question without sounding like a, whatever, and she’s had policies that have made it impossible to afford housing and food in the country that all of us love.”
Vance praised his running mate and his desire for peace although Trump has been involved with legal troubles following his involvement with the capitol riots on Jan.6.
Along with talking about the current state of the economy and what the Republican campaign plans to do about it, he also responded to a question a reporter had regarding the recent deaths of two Georgia native women who were denied reproductive care, resulting in death. He stated that the Trump-Vance campaign is on the pro-life side, but accounts for the “life of the mother exception.”
“When you have a pregnancy that is endangering a woman’s life, it is a terrible terrible tragedy, but you’ve got to let that woman make the decision that makes the most sense for her… Every single pro life person, even people that are very very hardcore on the pro-life issue, believe in the life of the mother exception,” he said.
This statement contradicts the action Trump took when overturning Roe v. Wade, a ruling that allowed women all over the country to make their own reproductive decisions.
He also spoke briefly on immigration, continuing on Trump’s point made in the presidential debate about the high immigrant population in SpringField, Ohio. He said the town’s immigration problem is a good example of what Kamala Harris’s “open border” has done to small towns all across America.
Toward the end of his speech, Vance quoted politician Pete Hoekstra, saying: “I want every single one of you, to get out and vote 10 times,” followed by his own statement: “Well, we’re Republicans, we don’t vote 10 times, we only vote once. Well, here’s the way to legally vote 10 times: take yourself to the polls and nine other people to the polls, too.”
