Vance and Walz trade spikes in NC duels

“Our message to the illegal aliens who have come to this country, who have driven up the cost of housing, who have made it more expensive for Americans to live a good life, to the drug cartels who have brought pounds and pounds, tons and tons of fentanyl into this country, is simple: In six months, pack your bags, because you’re going home,” Vance told a packed room of supporters at Union Hall in Raleigh on Sept. 18.

Voters strongly support Republican positions on immigration and border security, so it was not surprising that Vance focused his remarks on the divisive issue. Trump has called for mass deportations on day one of his administration, should he win.

Vance estimated that there were 25 million illegal immigrants in the country illegally. Data from the Pew Research Center from 2022, the most recent available, suggests that the number of illegal immigrants currently in the United States is around 11 million, though it can be difficult to pin down true numbers among such an elusive demographic. A 2019 report from the Migration Policy Institute put the number at 11 million, but the highest recorded number was 12.2 million in 2007.

Whatever the number, Vance believes they contribute to inflation and unaffordable housing prices.

“We’re bringing in 25 million illegal aliens to compete with Americans,” Vance said. “And here’s the thing, if you take that same amount of housing and you bring in 25 million people who shouldn’t be here at all and you force Americans to compete with those 25 million, that’s going to drive up the cost of housing for everybody.”

Economists disagree with Vance, who has been making this claim since August. He cites a widely acknowledged lack of supply as the reason for skyrocketing house prices. They also seem reluctant to link that lack of supply to rising demand from illegal immigrants.

Vance also believes that migrants are responsible for the rise in car insurance premiums and accuses them of ignoring traffic laws.

“Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that there are 25 million drivers on the road that shouldn’t be here? And if they didn’t follow our laws to get here, do you think they’re going to obey the stop signs? Absolutely not,” Vance said.

Earlier this year, reports indicated that the average increase in auto insurance rates had increased by 21 percent for the year ending in February. Market analysts disagree with Vance again, pointing to the rising cost of auto repairs, more frequent and devastating accidents, and of course lawyers as the real reason for the increase. A CNN report from March said that North Carolina’s auto insurance rates had increased the least in the country, about 5.5 percent.

While Vance did not repeat his fully discredited claims that Haitian migrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio — a claim Vance made and Trump repeated, leading to bomb threats and social tensions there — he did spread more misinformation about Haitians in Springfield, calling them “illegal immigrants.”

Haitian migrants in the United States have temporary protected status until Feb. 3, 2026, though they remain unauthorized. Springfield officials suggested they were brought to the city by companies to work. At least one Springfield CEO employs 30 and said he would like to have 30 more.

The one thing Vance didn’t blame illegal immigrants for was energy costs, instead placing the blame on the Biden administration and therefore on Harris. Trump did the same in Asheville on August 17, calling for energy independence by reviving Sarah Palin’s 2008 mantra “drill, baby, drill!” But both Trump and Vance remain specious at best: Until 2019, the United States produced less energy than it consumed and imported more than it exported. That year, exports meaningfully exceeded imports for the first time, a trend that has continued through all four years of the Biden administration.

One of the final points Vance made, and perhaps the most apt, was Harris’ failure to meaningfully engage with the press as Trump has on numerous occasions.

“I believe that if you want to be the president of the American people, you can’t be afraid of a friendly American media, which of course is exactly what it is for Kamala Harris,” he said. “Think about this — how is she going to sit in a room with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping?”

Vance doesn’t trust Harris when it comes to dealing with dictators, but Walz certainly doesn’t trust Trump.

Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz speaks to a rain-soaked crowd in Asheville on September 17. Photo: Cory Vaillancourt

Walz told a large crowd outside the Salvage Station in Asheville on September 17 that Trump’s performance during the debate against Harris, in which Trump was reluctant to say he wanted Ukraine to win the war against Russia, indicated he may have more ties to Russia than to his own European allies.

“This guy admires Putin, he admires Kim Jong Un, he admires Xi Jinping,” Walz said, also mentioning Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán. “Here’s the thing. He thinks these guys like him. Can you imagine those four guys getting together, talking about how weak and what a loser Trump is, to get played? You know that’s what they do. Oh my God, he’s so easy. Just tell him his hair looks nice, and he’ll give you — just tell him he’s handsome and he’ll pull out of NATO.”

Walz continued to list a long list of grievances with the former president’s tenure.

The Affordable Care Act, which Trump promised and tried to dismantle through multiple means, still exists, but Trump is now falsely taking credit for saving it. Tax cuts passed in 2017 that benefited the wealthy are set to expire in 2025 if left unchecked, but preserving them will cost $400 billion a year. The national debt, now $35.7 trillion, has risen about twice as fast under Trump as it has under Biden.

Walz remained largely silent on the Republicans’ biggest issue, immigration, but he did criticize Vance for what he described as “malicious, hurtful lies about immigrants.”

Instead, Walz turned his attention to what many see as one of the biggest problems for Democrats. Increasing Republican interference in personal health care decisions, made possible by Trump’s judicial appointments, threatens individual liberties, he said, adopting a traditional Republican talking point.

“When (Republicans) talk about (freedom, they say) the government should be free to go into (your doctor’s office), make decisions for you. Go into your bedroom, tell you who to love. Go into your school library. And now Trump is trying to create this new government agency that will monitor all pregnancies to enforce their abortion ban,” Walz said, repeating a false claim he has made before.

Walz said he didn’t trust Trump, Vance and Republican candidate for North Carolina governor Mark Robinson to oversee women’s reproductive health. He disparaged Robinson’s previous comments, calling him the worst person in the United States.

“If you search through those 330 million people, you’re not going to find a worse candidate than Mark Robinson,” Walz said. Although he probably didn’t know it at the time, CNN would break the news two days later that Robinson had allegedly made a series of tasteless comments on a pornographic website, called himself a “black Nazi!” and longed for the return of slavery so he could buy some slaves of his own.

Robinson was noticeably absent from Vance’s meeting the day after Walz’s — the day before the CNN story was published — in perhaps the first public sign that something scandalous was brewing.

Vance and Walz will meet in person for a debate hosted by CBS in New York City on Tuesday, October 1 at 9 p.m. At the time of this article, this was believed to be the only debate scheduled by the two vice presidential candidates.