GOP vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), speaks to supporters in Waterford, Michigan. Oct. 24, 2024. Photo by Jon King.
With 12 days before the election, Republican vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) campaigned Thursday in Oakland County, saying retired four-star U.S. Marine General John Kelly was lying in comments he made about former President Donald Trump.
Speaking at the Elite Jet Center at Contac flight school in Waterford Township, Vance said Kelly, who was Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, was a “disgruntled ex-employee” who had been fired by Trump.
Kelly told the New York Times that Trump praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. He also said that if Trump were reelected, he would rule as an authoritarian and met the definition of a fascist.
“John Kelly didn’t come out of his own volition,” said Vance. “I guarantee he talked to somebody on Kamala Harris’ campaign beforehand. And we gotta ask ourselves, why are the media, and most importantly, why is [Vice President] Kamala Harris talking about a disgruntled former employee instead of the fact that under her leadership, grocery prices are up 25%?”
Harris, at a town hall event Wednesday in Pennsylvania, directly called Trump a fascist who is “increasingly unstable and unfit to serve” another term as president.
Tariffs and the auto industry
The question about Kelly’s comments, which was met with a chorus of boos from the several hundred supporters, many of whom waited in line for hours to get inside, came at the end of the event, which was ostensibly focused on the automotive industry.
As both he and Trump have falsely claimed since the beginning of their campaign, Vance again asserted that the Biden administration had instituted a mandate that will force car buyers to only purchase electric vehicles (EVs).
“Her electric vehicle mandate is basically trying to force every American to buy electric vehicles,” said Vance. “Again, most of them are made in China. What that would do is that would put 117,000 auto workers out of a job. Isn’t that crazy? Ain’t it crazy to have an American leader, a person who’s running for president of the United States, appear to not give a damn about one of the most important industries in the United States of America?”
The accusation of a mandate stems from the Biden administration setting a goal for 50% of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030. While there is no requirement attached to the goal, Republicans argue that new Environmental Protection Agency-issued vehicle emissions standards would effectively ban gas-powered vehicles.
However, policy experts told FactCheck.org that automakers would have flexibility in how they meet the new standards, with the option to make internal combustion engines more efficient.
Vance’s main pitch for the auto industry was centered on proposed tariffs on foreign imports, which he claimed would lead to increased domestic manufacturing and more jobs.
“Under Donald Trump, the American auto industry, our great Michigan auto workers, were thriving,” said Vance. “And the reason we were doing better than we had in 30 years is because Donald Trump recognized something that frankly, Republican and Democrat[ic] leaders, both parties had neglected. If foreign corporations want to use slave labor in China or Mexico, the only way to fight to protect American workers is tariffs. Slap a big fat tariff when they try to bring that crap back into the country.”
When asked how tariffs, which are essentially a tax paid by the consumer, would benefit American car buyers, Vance tried to connect the issue to inflation.
“We actually already had a president who imposed tariffs on China, who brought back American manufacturing. And when that president, Donald J. Trump was president, inflation was 1.5%. So we know that tariffs can protect American workers and also keep inflation low,” said Vance.
Despite that assertion, 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists said Trump’s plan to broadly impose tariffs on imported good would reignite inflation, while another analysis indicated it would result in up to $2,350 of additional costs per U.S. household, not including the additional costs that inevitable retaliatory tariffs would impose.
In response to Vance’s remarks, Lavora Barnes, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said the senator was spreading “lies” about a nonexistent EV mandate while ignoring that Trump’s proposed policies won’t protect Michigan auto jobs in Lansing.
“Simply put, neither Vance nor Trump have anything good to offer Michiganders, and voters know it,” said Barnes. “Michigan auto jobs are at their highest level since 2007 because Democrats are investing in manufacturing to create jobs that will start here and stay here.”
The Harris campaign in Michigan pointed to Thursday’s endorsement by former GOP Congressman Fred Upton as their response to Vance’s visit. Upton, a Republican who represented his southwest Michigan district for 36 years in Congress, said Harris was the first Democrat he had ever voted for in a presidential election, calling Trump “unfit to serve as commander in chief again.”
Immigration
Vance also used his appearance to make the case for Trump’s anti-immigration platform.
“While [Harris] wants to open the country to millions upon millions of illegal aliens, and while she’s promising to give them free health care, housing, and Social Security benefits, Donald Trump has a different message. In four months, pack your bags because you’re going back home,” said Vance to cheers from the audience.
Vance’s assertion about benefits being provided to migrants in the country illegally, which he said included being placed “in five-star hotels” has been disproven as false, multiple times.
Vance also referenced Trump’s stated goal of a mass deportation of the more than 11 million undocumented people in the country, by invoking the Alien and Sedition Act, a 1798 wartime law that was last used to unconstitutionally place more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent into internment camps during World War II.
But as a recent paper for the Center for Migration Studies of New York indicated, a mass deportation like that envisioned by Trump would “have a major negative effect on the national economy,” by reducing the gross domestic product (GDP) over 10 years by $4.7 trillion.
Get out the vote
Another theme throughout the event was urging the audience to be sure to utilize every opportunity available, including absentee and early voting, to cast their ballots on or before Nov. 5.
“The Lions are playing the Titans this weekend, y’all,” said U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Twp.), prior to Vance’s remarks. “Look, I’m a big Lions fan. But imagine if I were with [Lions Coach] Dan Campbell and said ‘You know what? We’re gonna let the Titans run up the score for three and a half quarters. And then, in the last few minutes, we’re gonna try and win the game.’ Wouldn’t that sound crazy? Well, that’s exactly what so many of us do. We wait until the last moment that the Democrats run up the score, and then we wake up the next morning and we’re surprised when we’ve fallen behind.”
Vance also took up the call, reminding supporters that in-person early voting begins everywhere in Michigan this Saturday.
“I’m the world’s biggest critic of election season over election day, but as Donald Trump says, ‘It is what it is,’ and if Kamala Harris’ folks are gonna use every method they can to get people to the polls, Republicans, we gotta do the exact same thing,” he said. “The thing that we’ve got to remember is that the Democrats are trying to make as many votes as possible before Election Day. Right? They’re trying to go into the game with the score as good for them as possible. So why don’t we do the exact same thing and get out there and vote and make our voices clear? We gotta do it.”
The advocacy of absentee and early voting is relatively new for the Republican Party in the Trump era, with the former president promoting conspiracy theories of mass voter fraud, most especially around the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden.
The GOP push also follows news last week that early ballot returns in areas like Detroit and Traverse City, which favor Democrats, are ahead of 2020 numbers, giving the Democratic Party a potential firewall of votes already locked in for Nov. 5. However, Republicans are confident that the influx of their voters turning out early — as opposed to in 2020 — bodes well for the party.
Battleground Michigan
Both campaigns have heavily targeted Michigan, with its 15 electoral votes seen as a key to winning the White House.
The visit by Vance, who was last in Michigan on Oct. 8 at Detroit’s Eastern Market, came ahead of planned campaign stops in the state by former President Donald Trump, who is set to hold a rally in Traverse City Friday night and then at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi on Saturday.
Harris, who campaigned on Monday in Oakland County with former GOP U.S. Liz Cheney, will also be in Michigan this weekend, with a planned visit Saturday to Kalamazoo with former first lady Michelle Obama. That’s the same day early voting begins across the state.
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