Four years ago, supporters of former President Donald Trump descended on a Detroit convention hall and shouted at city election workers processing absentee ballots, demanding they stop the count. When Trump running mate JD Vance made his first visit to the Motor City Tuesday since joining the GOP ticket, he said Trump supporters wouldn't sow election chaos this year. It's not what they do, he said.
Vance's comments came in response to a question from the Free Press about a recent federal filing stating a Trump campaign official in 2020 messaged another campaign worker present at the counting hall urging, "Make them riot." The Free Press asked Vance whether he would discourage the Trump campaign from engaging in such behavior. The crowd of Trump supporters booed loudly at the question and applauded Vance's response.
"First of all, of course we discourage rioting. We do not riot. Nobody in this room and nobody in this movement is going to riot," he said.
Vance said the Trump campaign probably has more than a thousand staffers, so it's not surprising that one might be "willing to say anything" especially in a private message as stated in last week's federal filing in the election interference case against Trump. That case focuses on Trump's efforts to overturn the last election, culminating on Jan. 6 when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying the vote.
"The idea that the Trump campaign either in 2020 or 2024 is encouraging people to riot is disgraceful. Of course we're not doing that," Vance said.
Election workers in Detroit present at the chaotic scene in 2020 have said they felt intimidated by the Trump voters who banged on the windows which were covered up. That move fueled Trump's false claims that Republicans were shut out of the counting room even as it teemed with election challengers.
Asked to comment on Vance's remarks, the Harris campaign directed the Free Press to comments U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., made in a Harris campaign news briefing ahead of Vance’s visit. "Donald Trump wanted to disenfranchise all of the voters in the City of Detroit and to throw their vote total out," he said. Peters urged Detroit voters to turn out in unprecedented numbers to reject Trump this election.
Patty Sharkey, 54, of Troy, said she wasn't at the counting hall in Detroit in 2020 but said election observers were shut out when the windows were covered. "We don't riot, but we also need to have accessibility to the counting," she said at the Vance event. As a Trump supporter, she said she's on edge heading into the election. She said she has a sticker for her car she hasn't displayed because she's afraid. Anne Kennedy, 62, of Bloomfield Hills, said she told her daughter in college not to wear her "MAGA" hat. "I was like, 'They will key your car,'" she said.
"It's funny because they paint the Republicans to be the rioting, crazy people but I feel like it's totally not the case," said Sharkey. She pointed to civil unrest amid protests against police brutality in 2020 to draw a contrast with Trump supporters. "We don't do that," she said.
Vance's remarks in Detroit come about a week after Vance refused to say whether Trump lost the 2020 election during his vice presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Visitors usually flock to Detroit's Eastern Market to buy fresh produce, tailgate before a Lions game or browse crafts for sale by local vendors. But on Tuesday outside Shed 3 where Vance spoke, sellers offered Trump-Vance merchandise. They had a variety of products for sale from a lawn sign with a picture of Trump rising with his fist in the air following an assassination attempt against him, bejeweled Trump baseball caps and a shirt with a cross overlaid on an America flag reading, "JESUS IS MY SAVIOR" and "TRUMP IS MY PRESIDENT."
In a shift from 2020 when Trump railed against absentee voting, this election he's encouraged his supporters to vote early or by absentee ballot. Vance told Trump supporters they can request and return their absentee ballot now, and he encouraged them to take advantage of the opportunity to vote before Election Day. But few hands went up when Michigan GOP Chair Pete Hoekstra asked how many had already voted and expressed some disappointment with the result.
Jan. 6 Case: Trump co-conspirator urged 'Make them riot' during 2020 vote count in Detroit, filing says
The mostly white crowd of Trump supporters gathered for Vance also heard from Black Republicans from Detroit – one of the nation's largest majority-Black cities.
Detroit Pastor Lorenzo Sewell led a booming invocation that brought attendees to their feet to put their hands in the air in prayer. The crowd applauded when Sewell shouted, "We ask you holy spirit to make this city a city that people will be able to say that you overperformed in every heart, every mind that we voted our values, because we believe that you make Detroit great again."
GOP congressional candidate for the Detroit-based 13 th District Martell Bivings likened voters in the city hopping on the Trump bandwagon to the Lions' growing fandom as they've become Super Bowl contenders. "Be a Republican in Detroit before it's cool," he said.
In 2020, President Joe Biden won 94% of the vote in Detroit. It was slightly less than the 95% vote share for Hillary Clinton in the city in 2016. Trump received 3% of the vote in the city in 2016 and 5% in 2020. Even as his performance in the city improved between the two elections, Trump lied about the vote count in the city four years ago to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, previously called Twitter, @clarajanehen .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'We do not riot,' Vance says in Detroit where Trump allies tried to stop the 2020 count
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