Vice presidential nominee JD Vance speaks on veteran issues at Pennsylvania rally

LOWER BURRELL, Pa. (WTAJ) — Vice presidential candidate JD Vance addressed a group of a few hundred veterans and republican party members in battleground state Pennsylvania Thursday, marking his first stop in western Pennsylvania since being named former president Donald Trump’s running mate.

Vance spoke at VFW Post 92 in Lower Burrell, Westmoreland County, focusing on issues veterans are currently facing homelessness, a lack of access to healthcare and financial security. He highlighted the points of his platform that he believes demonstrate how a Trump-Vance Administration would better support the nation’s veterans, stating that if elected, they plan to generate programs that help veterans take life experiences and turn them into workplace skills.

“President Trump and I have plans to do exactly this for the education that veterans get on the battlefield and their training to translate to the job market in the civilian world, and we do that. And I think that one, we stop discriminating against people that didn’t go to college and we actually promote the skills formation, skills recognition in our veterans, that’ll help raise their wages more than any government program,” Vance said.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign responded to Vance’s remarks at a press briefing Thursday afternoon in Pittsburgh. Former United States Representative Conor Lamb (D-Pa.) said that while the Trump-Vance campaign is promising to prioritize the needs of veterans, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has already put in the work, having contributed to the development of programs that do just that.

“We have program after program that Democrats like Tim Walz have developed specifically to target the issue you’re talking about — to take advantage of, of the experience that veterans bring to help ease their transition into the workplace,” Lamb said.

The campaigns are at odds as to how to create change but both presented messages supporting the belief that change is needed in America to better connect veterans to services available to them at both the state and federal level.

Vance, a veteran himself, held a moment of silence for falling veterans and took a moment to acknowledge the veterans in his rally crowd, relating to them based on his own service experience.

“You hear Marines say all the time, ‘Semper Fi,’ and to me, what it means is that Marines are always faithful to our country and to our brothers and sisters in arms,” Vance said. “But it also has another meaning, which is that we always have to be faithful to all of the members of our military who serve this country and did so honorably.”

Volunteers at Vance’s rally said that the event was open to the public but that the campaign chose to keep the event small for security purposes following the attempted assassination of Trump in neighboring Butler County in July.

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Trump himself is expected to be back in Pennsylvania Saturday, with plans to speak at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre.

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