GOP vice presidential candidate and Senator JD Vance of Ohio speculated Thursday that Pennsylvania is trending red because of former President Trump’s tariff proposal and warned voters in the battleground state not to trust Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris’ promise to revive American manufacturing.
“This is where President Trump gets the most criticism, but it’s also where President Trump is the most right,” said Vance at a campaign stop in Pittsburgh, referring to Trump’s plan to implement tariffs as a way to drive domestic production and discourage imports. VP Harris has criticized the plan as risking hikes in prices.
“If you are a business, and you rely on foreign slave labor at $3 a day, the only way to rebuild American manufacturing is to say, if you want to bring that product made by slave labor back into the United States of America, you’re going to pay a big fat tariff before you get it back into our country,” said Vance.
“My message to Pennsylvanians: don’t trust anybody, especially Kamala Harris, when she tells you she’s going to rebuild American manufacturing without forcing the Chinese to pay a tariff,” Vance continued, speaking to voters in the crucial swing state. “There is no way to do it unless you’re fighting hard against the people who are stealing our jobs and stealing our manufacturing industries; you got to do it. And if you’re not doing our jobs and stealing our manufacturing industries, you got to do it. And if you’re not doing it, you’re not serious about rebuilding the American middle class.”
Vance was responding to a question from a reporter about what county in Pennsylvania the Trump campaign would first turn to determine whether they won the election.
“I’m not much of a political prognosticator. The only prognostication I’ll make is that Pennsylvania is going to make Donald Trump the next President of the United States,” said Vance. “I really do believe that.”
“If you look at the early voting numbers, if you look at how much redder Pennsylvania has gotten in just the last couple of years, we are going to win this race so long as we work for it over the next 19 days,” said Trump’s running mate. “I really do believe that.”
Vance praised Pennsylvania’s tradition of steel manufacturing
Sen. Vance credited Pennsylvania’s tradition of internationally renowned steel craftsmanship and manufacturing, saying the country has unfortunately “gotten way too far away from self-reliance.”
Vance said he believes the former President’s message is resonating in Pennsylvania more than Republicans from 20 years ago had because of Trump’s belief in “making things in America and stamping more products with the incredible label ‘Made in the USA.’”
The senator, citing a statistic he said “scares the hell out of me,” said China has 32% of world manufacturing GDP, indicating that 32% of the goods made internationally are made there, compared to only 18% made in America.
“That means China makes more stuff — I’m talking about the pharmaceuticals that we put into the bodies of our children, some of the important weapons systems of the future, the computer chips,” said Vance. “We’ve got to make more of our own stuff in the United States of America. And the way to do that is to lower regulations, lower energy costs for American businesses, and to rebuild the great American middle class.”
