In Michigan, Trump running mate JD Vance decries Harris, D.C. 'ruling class' - UPI.com (2024)

Former President Donald Trump's running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance said voters in Michigan and other swing states have a choice between voting for prosperity under Trump or poverty under Vice President Kamala Harris while addressing a campaign rally Wednesday in Byron Center, Mich. Photo by Matt Marton/UPI | License Photo

"Byron Center has been cast aside, and a lot of places in this country have been cast aside by the ruling class in Washington, D.C.," Vance told attendees. "You, my friends, have been betrayed" by people profiting from what he said was the nation's decline.

He said Vice President Kamala Harris, as a key part of the Biden-Harris administration, has raised the price of American energy, but her donors have made money off what Vance called "green energy scams."

Such alleged scams include wind farms in the ocean that don't work and forcing Americans by buy electric vehicles made in China at the expense of the working class in Michigan, which has gotten much poorer while Harris' green energy supporters have gotten a lot richer, he said.

Vance said Harris cast the deciding vote on many Senate bills that saddled Americans with inflation while casing votes on "wild spending" measures and "green energy that failed."

Before Trump was president, Vance said, the nation lost 60,000 manufacturing jobs under the prior two administrations, but Trump opened 12,000 manufacturing facilities during his four years in the White House while keeping inflation in check.

"Media for three and a half years acted like [President Joe] Biden was Albert Einstein and now is pretending Harris is the second-coming of Abraham Lincoln," Vance told the crowd.

He said the Biden-Harris administration invoked a regulatory agenda that caused energy problems while buying oil from nations and recklessly spending trillions of dollars that caused inflation to rise some 30%.

"We're gonna get American energy from America and employ American workers," Vance said. "Drill, baby, drill is how we will do it."

He said the Biden-Harris administration extended "economy-crushing lockdowns" and overran the nation with millions of illegal migrants while causing families to spend $1,000 more in living costs every month than when Trump was president.

"Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Vance asked the crowd. "Let's bring Donald Trump back to the White House."

Since Biden took office and Harris became the tie-breaking vote in a nearly evenly divided U.S. Senate, Vance said gas prices rose by 50%, housing costs doubled and grocery prices rose by 21%.

He said Trump is willing to fight for American workers and their jobs while Harris voted to preserve the North American Free TradeAgreement and EV mandates that "tax you and send it to electric vehicles made in China instead of right here in Michigan."

"It's time to say to Kamala Harris: 'No, thank you. You are fired,'" Vance said.

Vance called Harris "America's border czar" and accused her of flooding the nation with illegal migrants to provide cheap labor that take Americans' jobs while stopping deportations and proposing amnesty.

"Harris turned border patrol into a travel agency for illegals," Vance said. "We'll tell them to pack their bags and send them home on day one."

He said Harris has no vision or plan for the nation, which is why she won't answer questions from the news media and only works from prepared scripts.

Vance said Trump offers "hope and a vision to make that hope a reality" by loosening regulatory controls on American energy so that it can flourish and putting into place policies for farmers to make food and homes to be more affordable, all while stopping fentanyl and other drugs from crossing the border.

"Parents have lost their children to drugs and violence," Vance said. "We've been going back[ward] for the last three and a half years."