JD Vance calls Kamala Harris a chameleon
During a campaign rally by Donald Trump in Michigan, JD Vance was asked about his running mate’s statements about Kamala Harris at the NABJ conference.
BYRON TOWNSHIP — U.S. Senator JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, sought to refocus his attacks in the presidential campaign on Wednesday, taking more targeted aim at Vice President Kamala Harris during a visit to western Michigan.
Vance sought to directly link the country’s inflation problems to Harris’ voting behavior, speaking to several hundred people at Cordes, Inc., a family-run trucking company in Byron Center, a dependent community near Grand Rapids.
“Inflation occurs when the U.S. government spends money we don’t have,” Vance said.
He then pointed out that Harris had cast the deciding vote in the U.S. Senate both to open debate on the American Rescue Plan in 2021 and to pass the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 – two huge spending bills that critics say have contributed to inflation, despite the name of the latter bill, which included significant funding for energy and combating climate change.
Yet Vance delivered his speech on the same day that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that U.S. prices rose 2.9% in July compared to the same period last year, the smallest increase since April 2021.
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Michigan is a key swing state in the November election, and Trump and Vance are scrambling to refocus their message after recent polls show Harris has closed Trump’s lead over President Joe Biden since Biden decided in July not to seek a second term and instead endorse Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Vance also attacked Harris in a way that suggested that she, not Biden, had been in charge of the country for the past four years: “We will never accept another four years of Kamala Harris,” he said.
Trump chose Vance as his Republican running mate in July. Vance, a first-term U.S. senator from Ohio, is the author of a 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” and holds a law degree from Yale University.
Although his populist rhetoric covers many of the same themes – inflation, border issues and the outsourcing of jobs to countries like China – Vance’s speech is nowhere near as dire as Trump’s. The former president frequently describes the US under Biden as a failed nation.
Vance had a more positive message: “This is the greatest country in the world,” he told the crowd. “The American dream is still alive.”
Democratic U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Lansing on Wednesday criticized Trump’s handling of the economy during his time in the White House and praised the current Democratic presidential administration’s investments in new manufacturing facilities and its efforts to lower drug prices.
“In this election, we chose between two very different visions: One that grows the economy and lowers costs for people, and one that helps billionaires and big corporations at the expense of working families,” Stabenow said during a virtual press conference hosted by the Harris campaign ahead of Vance’s visit. “If there are two things Michigan voters hate, it’s the Buckeyes and politicians who lie to them, and JD Vance is both.”
At the Republican event, Tom Wager of Greenville, who recently quit his job installing machinery, mostly for the automotive industry, said he was there to support Vance, whom he had never seen in person before, and the Trump campaign.
“We need to find leadership,” Wager said.
Aurelia Becker, a real estate agent from Grandville, said she was impressed with Vance when she heard him speak recently in Grand Rapids, but showed up herself Wednesday to learn more about him and support Trump.
Her biggest election concern is that the votes will be counted correctly, she said. Becker said she does not believe Trump lost the 2020 election, nor does she believe the current election is as close as the polls show.
“It’s very frustrating,” Becker said. “I pray a lot and just hope that everything will improve this year.”
Free Press writer Clara Hendrickson contributed to this report.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or [email protected]. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.
