Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance visits a farm in Mecosta County, Michigan for a rally on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Updated, 9:56 a.m., 8/28/24
Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance gave a performance review of Vice President Kamala Harris in front of a crowd of 1,000 in the Big Rapids area on Tuesday.
And the evaluation was more scathing than the Michigan summer sun which sent dozens of attendees seeking help from medics on site.
“Harris has run her entire campaign on the idea that she’s joyful, but ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago?” Vance asked the crowd. Like Trump, the Ohio U.S. senator spoke behind bulletproof glass after the shooting at a Pennsylvania rally last month.
A proposed Gotion plant has ‘turned neighbors and friends into enemies’
“Kamala, I hate to break it to you … you’ve been vice president for three-and-a-half years. The message from this crowd and this state, Michigan, is, ‘You had your chance. You failed and we’re not giving you a promotion. And Donald J Trump is coming back to clean up your mess, Kamala Harris, and it’s going to start right here in this city.’”
Former President Donald Trump and Harris are in a battle for battleground state votes, with both candidates visiting Michigan in recent weeks.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, held a rally of more than 15,000 at Detroit Metro Airport earlier this month. Trump spoke to a National Guard convention on Monday and is slated to return for an event in Potterville on Thursday. Harris is reportedly coming to campaign in Detroit Monday for Labor Day.
Vance railed against Harris’ campaign of “ embodying joy ,” saying she “laughs all the way to the bank” as American families suffer under inflation and job loss due to the outsourcing of jobs and illegal immigration.
In a review of Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention last week, Vance took issue with Harris’ saying this year’s election is not only the most important election of people’s lives, but it will define the country’s future.
“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious,” Harris said, adding that the “chaos and calamity” he inflicted in office worked to try and take away voters’ rights and voices.
Vance asked the crowd, “Is she the vice president or the vice principal worried about ‘very serious consequences?’” He added that he thinks Harris is too focused on “whining” and “telling a joke” to present a decent argument of why the country should promote her to the Oval Office.
“… The extremely serious consequences Kamala have come from your leadership as Vice President of the United States,” Vance said. “Americans can’t afford groceries because of your leadership, Kamala, young people can’t afford homes because of the policies that you’ve enacted as vice president. Now, the only serious consequence in November that I’m worried about is giving Kamala Harris a disastrous promotion. Let’s say to Kamala Harris, ‘You are fired.’”
After 1,300 days in office as Vice President, the time has passed for Harris to turn her performance around and it’s time to put forth better candidates for leadership roles Vance said. He acknowledged Republican state leaders in the crowd who spoke earlier: GOP former gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon; U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers, a former congressman; and Michigan Republican Party Chair Pete Hoekstra.
The controversial Gotion electric vehicle battery plant that’s set to be built outside Big Rapids was at the forefront of the Michigan speakers’ minds with Hoekstra praising the efforts of individuals and business owners to fight against the “Chinese Communist battery plant.”
The Gotion plant is expected to begin operation in 2025, with Gotion Inc., a California-based company being led by its parent company Guoxuan High-tech Co., which has headquarters in China.
“That plant is not going to be built,” Hoekstra said, adding that once Rogers wins the U.S. Senate seat in November, he will ensure that America is put first while working with Trump during a second presidency.
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Attendees get seated at a rally for Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance in Mecosta County, Michigan on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Michigan Republican Party Pete Hoekstra speaks in Mecosta County, Michigan for a rally for Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
"Make America Great Again" hats sit outside a a rally for Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance in Mecosta County, Michigan on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Attendees get seated at a rally for Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance in Mecosta County, Michigan on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Attendees at a rally in Mecosta County, Michigan cheer for Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Former Republican candidate for Governor of Michigan Tudor Dixon speaks in Mecosta County, Michigan for a rally for Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Mike Rogers, a candidate to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate, speaks in Mecosta County, Michigan for a rally for Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance visits a farm in Mecosta County, Michigan for a rally on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance visits a farm in Mecosta County, Michigan for a rally on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
An attendee gets help from medics at a rally for Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance in Mecosta County, Michigan on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance visits a farm in Mecosta County, Michigan for a rally on Aug. 27, 2024 | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Rogers is running against U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) for the open Senate seat.
“Donald Trump was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and JD Vance had his career bankrolled by hedge fund billionaires from Silicon Valley… We all know what their campaign is about: enriching themselves and giving handouts to their billionaire backers,” said U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Grand Rapids). “Vice President Harris knows that costs are still too high, and she put forward a comprehensive plan to make things more affordable for families. On the other hand, Donald Trump and JD Vance are running on a Project 2025 agenda that’ll raise costs on middle-class families while giving more tax breaks to the ultra rich, and America’s biggest corporations. [Trump] put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block. He’s going to end the Affordable Care Act and raise the cost of prescription drugs and insulin, reversing the gains that we have made.”
Vance and Trump have claimed at events and ads that the Biden administration has failed to keep America safe from foreign adversaries and criminals coming in across the border , despite crime rates going down under the Biden administration and border crossings declining markedly for the last five months.
However, Vance claimed that Harris and Biden have opened the borders to get “millions of cheap laborers” and “millions of voters for Democrat policies.”
“While Donald Trump is the people’s president, Kamala Harris is running on a fake joy,” Vance said. “Donald Trump is going to offer something very, very different. He’s going to offer a very real hope for the future of this country, hope that we can reignite our economy and bring back prosperity, hope that we can raise our kids in secure neighborhoods with safe borders, hope that we can renew the patriotism that binds us together as one nation under God.”
If Harris wants to backpedal and address the concerns families over the country have about border security, Vance said she can put on a navy suit, red tie and adopt Trump’s “make America great again” slogan — but he argued no one is going to buy that she will do anything to make the country safe.
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