‘No substance, no plan:’ Vance targets Harris at Bucks County Rally – DV Journal

No Republican has carried Bucks County since 1988, but Republican Party vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance was in Newtown on Saturday to try to break that streak. And the trends show that the purple province may play a role.

Vance was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of about 1,500 people at the Newtown Athletic Club, with supporters chanting “USA!” chanted. and “JD!”

Donald Trump’s running mate delivered the message they wanted to hear, stating that Vice President Kamala Harris is incapable of doing the job.

“The problem with Kamala Harris is she has no substance,” Vance said. “The problem with Kamala Harris is that she doesn’t have a plan. The problem with Kamala Harris is that she was vice president for three and a half years and she failed this country. Let’s send her back to San Francisco, where she belongs, and put Donald Trump in the White House.”

Vance zeroed in on the three issues that Republicans say are their best sellers with swing voters in Pennsylvania: inflation, energy and immigration.

“We have natural resources in the state of Pennsylvania,” Vance said. “Great natural gas. Let’s get it out of the ground for Pennsylvania workers. When Donald Trump is president, we’re going to drill, baby, drill, and bring back the great American economy.”

“Kamala Harris wants us to buy energy from every tin dictator around the world,” Vance said. “Kamala, we say, ‘No way.’ We’re going to buy it from our own people, right here in the state of Pennsylvania.”

“We have inflation at the highest level in 40 years,” Vance added. “We have messages that are 25 percent higher than when Kamala Harris took office. That’s because Kamala Harris cast the deciding vote on nearly $4 trillion in new spending, printing money we don’t need to suppress inflation and destroy the middle class in the state of Pennsylvania.”

He also blamed Harris, “the border czar,” for the “wide open southern border.”

“It’s an invasion of this country,” he said. “If you let in 25 million people, many of whom are bringing fentanyl into this country, and they compete with Americans and buy houses that should rightly go to American citizens, then we have sky-high housing costs here in the Netherlands. Pennsylvania and the entire country.” And illegal immigrants are driving down wages for American workers, he said.

Not only will the Trump-Vance administration continue to build the border wall, it will also deport illegal immigrants. “We’re going to go to war against the Mexican drug cartels,” he said.

Vance said they would deport the criminals first. “There are currently 13,000 illegal immigrant killers in the United States,” he said. “They are in this country because Kamala Harris let them into this country.”

Although polls consistently show Pennsylvania too close to enter the presidential race, the Philadelphia suburbs are considered a deep blue corner of the Keystone State. But Bucks County could be an important exception.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton narrowly defeated Donald Trump in Bucks County by one percent and fewer than 3,000 votes. And it’s home to Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who managed to keep his seat even in a blue-wave election.

While it is true that Joe Biden soundly defeated Trump in 2020 by a four percent margin and 17,000 votes, Biden has since been excluded from the ticket and are now in the White House for the first time since George W. Bush was in the White House.

How important is Bucks County?

“If you win Bucks County, you keep the Southeast close, you win Pennsylvania and he’s president of the United States,” said Jim Worthington, owner of the Newtown Athletic Club where Vance spoke.

During his speech, Vance called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for what appeared to be a partisan campaign stop at a munitions factory in Scranton with Governor Josh Shapiro (D) and Senator Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa).

“We spent $200 million on Ukraine. You know what I wish Zelenskyy would do when he comes to America? Give thanks to the people of Pennsylvania,” Vance said. “Donald Trump is the candidate of peace.”

After the speech, DVJournal asked Vance how a second Trump administration would deal with the war between Ukraine and Russia and Israel’s military actions against Hamas and Hezbollah.

“I have a very detailed plan for how we are going to bring peace and prosperity back to the world: Elect Donald Trump,” Vance said. “When you have weak American leadership, and you have an American leader that no one respects, wars break out all over the world. If Donald Trump had been president, Russia would never have invaded Ukraine. If Donald Trump were president, Hamas would never have attacked Israel.”

“We need to get back to the common sense of American deterrence,” said Vance, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq. “You have to make the bad guys worry that if they do something wrong, someone will make them pay for it…Peace through strength.”

Vance also mocked Democrats’ claims that they are pro-middle class.

“If she stands for the middle class, why does she want to tax the middle class to give rich people money to buy electric cars made in China?” he asked. “Why does she want to destroy Pennsylvania’s energy? If you stand for the middle class, let go of Pennsylvania energy workers.”

Harris has reversed several positions, from banning fracking and private health insurance to embracing them now that she is the presidential candidate.

“She doesn’t really rule that way,” he said. He has told Trump, “Sir, I think she will show up at your next rally wearing a red MAGA hat.”

Vance also rejected the claim that Trump is only appealing to the Republican base. He said their campaign is reaching Democrats and moderates who agree with them on many issues, noting that former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and former Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Support Trump.

“There are many Democrats who want an economy where normal people can afford to buy food and housing, and to those Democrats I say, ‘You are welcome on the Trump-Vance team.’”

Follow DVJournal on social media:@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal