PITTSBURGH — U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), the GOP vice presidential candidate, said Thursday during an afternoon rally in Pittsburgh that the Trump administration will not exploit the military to prosecute people who oppose it.
Former President Donald Trump said in Sunday interview on Fox News that “radical leftist lunatics” can be “dealt with very easily, if necessary, by the National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military” and refers to the “enemy from within.”
Trump’s Democratic opponent Vice President Kamala Harris played a video of Trump’s remarks at a rally in Erie on Monday and said a second Trump term would be “dangerous.”
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On Thursday, Vance appeared to backtrack on Trump’s comments or at least try to rephrase them. Asked if the military would be used, Vance replied, “Of course not,” adding, “tthe media is taking up this issue, making the observation that we need to have law and order in our country too because it is an essential issue.”
“The media loves to talk about January 6 and of course January 6, 2021. If so, if you committed acts of violence, you should be prosecuted for them. Everyone believes it.” A mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, delaying Congress in certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. More than 1,500 defendants have been charged with crimes.
Vance he pointed out unrest in American cities in the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
“INPresident Trump has said quite directly that if this ever happens again, if there are ever people who think they can’t just exercise their First Amendment rights but also loot, riot and burn down American cities, we will go behind them and we will pursue them strenuous,” Vance added.
Vance repeated some of his previously debunked comments about illegal immigrants in Ohio, Charleroi, Pennsylvania, and Aurora, Colorado, “which makes life dangerous in America’s cities.” And he made fun of Harris’ appearance on the daytime show The View.
He also addressed recent decisions by major labor unions not to endorse either presidential candidate, which is widely seen as a blow to Harris. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has endorsed the Democrat in every election since 2000. An internal poll found that rank-and-file Teamsters preferred Trump over Harris 59.6% to 34%.
Teamsters won’t support either candidate in the presidential race, but some Pennsylvanians support Harris
Vance said Thursday if his grandparents were alive today, “they would do what many other union Democrats are doing, which is recognize that Kamala Harris’ Democratic Party has left them behind and are welcome in Donald J. Trump’s Republican Party,” he said.
Dozens of Teamsters in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Michigan have said they will support Harris, including Local Driver Team 623 in Philadelphia and Joint Council of Teamsters 40which represents the people of western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia
In response to a question about mail-in voting, Vance said he had “no preference” for mail-in voting, something Trump had until recently complained was “corrupt” when he encouraged people at his rallies to vote by mail if they wanted to.
“I don’t like that we’ve gone away from Election Day where everyone casts the same ballot, everyone casts the same day,” Vance said Thursday. “But again, Pennsylvanians, through their elected legislature and governor, have changed the way this works. So I’m not saying I prefer postal voting. I say mail-in voting is here to stay, so let’s deal with this reality and make sure our vote counts as much as the other party’s.”
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, a Democrat, dismissed Vance’s Thursday rally on a video call with reporters, pointing to Trump’s tenure as president. “Instead of supporting hard-working families, he gave the rich huge tax cuts and left the rest with the bill,” Gainey said. “Pittsburgh workers and families know a Trump-Vance administration would be even worse.”
The Trump and Harris campaigns have increased their turnout in Pennsylvania as the election heads into its final stretch. 19 electoral votes are a must for any candidate. The latest polls show the candidates in a virtual tie in the Keystone State.
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