JOHNSTOWN — Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance campaigned Saturday in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, where early mail-in voting is already underway with just 25 days left until a hotly contested 2024 race that will be decided by several states.
Former President Donald Trump’s running mate gathered a crowd of several hundred people at a sprawling riverside manufacturing facility in Johnstown, advocating for major ticket topics like immigration and the economy.
During a question-and-answer session with the press after prepared remarks, States Newsroom asked Vance if he would commit to a peaceful transition of power regardless of the winner in November.
The upcoming presidential election will be the first since a mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, delaying Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. More than 1,500 defendants have been charged with crimes related to the attack on the Capitol, during which 140 police officers were attacked.
“Yes, of course,” Vance replied. “Listen, it’s very simple. Yes, there was a riot at the Capitol on January 6, but the country still had a peaceful transition of power and always will.”
Vance, Ohio’s junior U.S. senator, in his speech described Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, as “a tax-paying, spending liberal from San Francisco who wants to open our borders and destroy American manufacturing.”
“Will we give Kamala Harris the promotion to be president of the United States? Hell no. “We will tell Harris, ‘You are fired,’ and we will vote for Donald J. Trump to be our next president,” Vance said in a greeting.
Vance spoke from the stage at JWF Industries, a local facility that produces transportation, energy and defense equipment and vehicles.
Four military tactical utility vehicles surrounded the stage, and about 80 spectators lined up behind and on either side of Vance. There were several hundred people sitting in front of the stage, and behind them there were several empty rows and an empty part on the left.
New survey numbers
Both campaigns and their counterparts feature seven must-win swing states as the presidential race remains extremely close.
According to the latest poll, Trump has a lead in Arizona and Harris has a slight lead in Pennsylvania results for key battleground states, published Saturday morning by The New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College.
Vance urged the crowd to check their voter registration status and talk to family and friends about going to the polls.
“This is the only way we can make Donald Trump the next president, so let’s get out there and vote, my friends,” he said.
Vance spent most of his remarks blaming Harris and President Joe Biden for economic suffering, including inflation and credit card debt delinquencies.
The Consumer Price Index report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed inflation is the lowest since February 2021.
Vance also attacked Harris for participating in “softball interviews,” citing her recent appearances on podcasts and on daytime and evening television.
Vance took credit for a Trump campaign ad that included a clip of an interview with Harris on “The View” in which she did not distance herself from Biden’s presidential decisions.
“The problem with a softball interview is you still have to be able to hit a softball,” Vance said.
Apart from performances this week on the “Call Her Daddy” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” podcasts, as well as a town hall for UnivisionHarris also sat for interview on Monday on CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” Trump backed out of his promised appearance on “60 Minutes.”
January 6, protesters “exterminate”
Vance hinted at allegations of voter fraud in his speech, telling the crowd that “Pennsylvania needs to have margins so big that it doesn’t matter what crazy things Democrats come up with at the last minute.”
“We will never have a fake media or Democrats who tell the truth. We have our own voices, our own networks, our own family and friends. “It is the power of the people that will make Donald Trump the next president,” Vance said.
During a reporter’s question-and-answer session, the crowd jeered when a University of Pittsburgh student journalist asked whether Vance condemned the Jan. 6 violence.
Vance defended Trump’s actions that day, saying the former president encouraged the crowd to “protest peacefully.”
“And the fact that a few idiots went and did something they shouldn’t have done was not his fault. It’s their business,” Vance said to cheers.
Vance irritated reporters who repeatedly asked about Trump’s refusal to accept Biden’s win in the 2020 race. The former president continues to repeat the lie he won. After the 2020 election, Trump challenged the election results in dozens of lawsuits in multiple states and lost all of them.
“What Kamala Harris and the media are doing is trying to tell us that we should hear more about what happened four years ago than about her failures to govern,” Vance said. “I think we will reject it on November 5.”
Other press questions focused on western Pennsylvania, veterans benefits and Project 2025, a 900-page “mandate” for the next government from the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Vance said the conservative bill has “no connection whatsoever” to the Trump campaign. A CNN investigation in June found at least 140 several former Trump administration officials were involved in the project.
Vance spoke for 23 minutes and took about the same amount of time to answer reporters’ questions.
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