Vance Rally in North Carolina

Now sometimes my friends politics is complicated, but this race is about as simple as it could be. And you can tell that it's simple because Kamala Harris more than any candidate in the history of presidential politics, is running away from a record instead of to a record. And there are all these different spins we can put on this race. But I think the most simple and the most direct is that Donald Trump had a record to be proud of, and Kamala Harris has a record to be ashamed of. So we're not going to promote her. We're going to say... Now it's funny. Kamala is as afraid of the American media, even though most of the media is friendly to Kamala, as she is some of the most hostile leaders all over the world. And I happen to believe that if you have a Vice President who is terrified to speak to the American people and terrified to give an interview to the American media that she belongs nowhere near the Oval Office. I mean, think about this. (01:09) How can we trust Kamala Harris to represent us in front of the most dangerous regimes in the world if she won't even sit for an interview with the American media? Now I say that and I admit that I'm a little biased here because part of the reason I think Kamala Harris should do some interviews is because the American people deserve it. But part of the reason I want Kamala Harris to do some interviews is because every time she opens her mouth, I think Donald Trump and I gain about a hundred thousand votes. And I don't know of the few interviews that she has given, I don't know if it's one or two, but it's not that many. It's funny to try to have her answer what our actual plans are for the American people. The press back here, we've got some reporters and we'll take some questions in a little bit, but the press will ask Kamala Harris, "What is your specific plan to lower the cost of groceries, to lower the cost of housing?" (02:06) Which of course have gone up wildly under the policies of Kamala Harris. And you know what she'll say? She'll say, "Well, I grew up in a middle-class family and I know the struggles." Or she'll say, "When I was a little girl, my parents had a very nice lawn." She'll say anything but what her actual plans are to lower the inflation that she caused. She'll say anything other than talk about how she's going to fix the problems that her administration led to. She will do anything to avoid answering the very simple fact that Kamala Harris has made the American people's lives worse. And on November 5th, the state of North Carolina is going to say to Kamala Harris, "You're fired. Go back to San Francisco where you belong." Now let's just go through the ways in which Kamala Harris has made the lives of North Carolinians worse off. You know that it costs over a thousand dollars more per month to afford the same things that you would've afforded three and a half years ago. That's more than $12,000 a year just to afford the same quality of life as when Donald Trump was president. Now that's not it, of course, because everything has become more expensive under the policies of Kamala Harris. She cast the tie-breaking vote on almost $4 trillion of wasteful spending where she taxed money from the American taxpayer, send it off to China and to foreign regimes all over the world, printed money we didn't have to give it to other people. And now the American families can't afford basic middle-class necessities. You go to a grocery store, the price of eggs when Donald Trump left office was about a buck- fifty a dozen. The price of eggs, the average now is close to $4 a dozen thanks to the policies of Kamala Harris. (04:07) And I'll tell you, I know this very personally because my kids, we got a seven-year-old, a four-year-old, and a two-year-old, and they eat a whole lot of eggs every morning. So I feel it as much as anybody. I see it as much as anybody because it takes a lot of food to feed three hungry kids. Now we took our boys... Actually, I'll tell you a story. We took our boys with us on the campaign trail just a couple of days ago when we were in Pennsylvania and we went to a Hispanic grocery store in Redding, Pennsylvania. And my two boys came along with me and it illustrates how sometimes kids, their personalities are just inborn. Because we took our seven-year-old boy and our four-year-old boy, and we go to this grocery store and I was so proud of my four-year-old because he set a goal for himself that he was going to do a hundred reading lessons with his mama. And he actually accomplished that goal last Saturday. So we're very proud of our four-year-old. Give him a round of applause. (05:06) So I say, "Boys, you can come on the campaign trail with me and we're going to get you anything you want at this grocery store." Of course, the four-year-old wants a candy bar, but the seven-year-old... I'm literally talking on camera about the price of eggs and the price of groceries in this grocery store. And my seven-year-old's like, "Dad, we need to get a dozen eggs." And I'm like, "Son, when I said you could get anything, I meant like a Snickers bar or an ice cream." And he's like, "No, dad. You cooked the last three eggs this morning. If we don't get eggs, we're not going to have any more eggs." And the seven-year-old, he's got his mama's personality, very practical, worried about whether we have enough eggs. And right now all across our country, we've got a lot of families that are cutting back because of Kamala Harris' war on affordability in this country. (05:50) And Donald Trump and I believe in a very simple principle, my friends, we believe that if you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to be able to afford a nice life for your American family. It's that simple. And that is not that hard. We just got to get better leadership and common sense economic policies back in the White House. We got to get Kamala Harris out of there and put Donald Trump back where he belongs, leading this great country and pursuing common sense economic policies. Now let's just take through a few more things. Gas prices are up over 30% thanks to Kamala Harris' policies. Groceries in total are up about 25% of the state of North Carolina thanks to Kamala Harris' policies. A gallon of milk now north of $4. Ground beef was about 3.50 a pound when Donald Trump left office. It's now close to $6 a pound thanks to Kamala Harris' policies. My friends, we could do so much better. (06:52) And to the folks watching on TV or who will see clips of this, this is not hard. There are some things in politics that are hard, some issues that are complicated, but we just need to get back to common sense economic policies so that American families can afford to feed their children the food that they want. American families... We want American families to be able to afford to buy a home again. Think about this, the American dream, it means different things to different people. To me, it always meant becoming a good husband and a good father. But to a lot of families out there, the American dream doesn't exist without homeownership. People want to own a stake in this country that all of us love. Well, thanks to Kamala Harris' policies, housing is 56% more expensive than it was just three years ago. (07:45) Now I know a lot of us know young, young Americans, young families, our kids, our grandkids, and we just want them to be able to afford that American dream of homeownership. But thanks to Kamala Harris, it's not happening. And we got to remember, it's not just because Kamala Harris cast that tie-breaking boat on trillions of dollars in new spending. It's also because Kamala Harris let 25 million illegal aliens into this country. And as much as the media doesn't like to talk about this, when you let in 25 million people into your country that shouldn't be here, and you have them compete against Americans for scarce homes, that drives housing through the roof. And that's exactly what we've seen. This border invasion has made homeownership unaffordable for the majority of American families. And I happen to believe that we ought to have a president who says, "American homes go to American citizens, not to foreigners who don't even deserve to be in this country in the first place." Now here's the other problem. We talk about the border crisis because that is maybe the most significant unforced error of Kamala Harris administration as we have got 25 million illegal aliens. Now what kind of stress that puts on the municipal budget of Charlotte? You know how hard it is to afford to provide housing and healthcare for your citizens when Kamala Harris lets in millions upon millions of people who shouldn't even be here? And that is exactly what she has done. Thanks to Kamala Harris' policies, you've got a lot of American families and a lot of American cities that can't afford to provide basic necessities to their citizens. But it's also just a huge, huge problem for crime and public safety. Now a lot of you know my personal story, a lot of you know that I grew up in a working-class family, and I was raised by my grandmother. I called her Mamaw. Like a lot of Appalachian people, I called my grandmother

... Grandmother Mamaw. And by the way, let's give a shout-out to all the great-grandparents in the room right now. Take care of kids. We love you. But think about this. Part of the reason my Mamaw raised me is because my mom, God, love her, struggled with opioid addiction for a big chunk of her early life. And there are so many great blessings that came from having my grandmother raised me, but one of them is I just had safety and stability that I wouldn't have had without her. Now, I'm proud to stand here today and say that my mom has been clean and sober for almost 10 years, and we're so grateful for it. Thank you. (10:48) And for those of you who are struggling with addiction or those of you have family struggling with addiction, there really is hope in recovery, but there's only hope in recovery if we give people that second chance that we know all American families are eventually going to need from time to time. And I remember as a teenager, my mom had taken something that she shouldn't have taken, and I was so terrified that she was never going to wake up from this coma. And I was in the hospital and a few days we didn't know what was going to happen. And I remember just begging, good Lord Jesus, please let my mom wake up this time, give her another chance. And that time, thank God for me, my mom did wake up and we did get that second chance, and she eventually got clean and sober and now we're in a great place. (11:39) But we know that with a deadly fentanyl that's coming across the southern border today, Kamala Harris has let the Mexican drug cartels turn this state and turn this country into a drug trafficking zone. I really believe that if the poison Kamala Harris let's come over the border in 2024 was coming over 10 years ago, that we wouldn't have got that second chance with my mother. And so we say to Kamala Harris, to every illegal alien, to every person who's contributed to this border crisis, we need a president that's going to go to war with the Mexican drug cartels, not invite him to do business in this country. And that's why we're going to make Donald Trump the next President of the United States. My friends, this is not rocket science. You go down to the southern border. I've been twice by the way, and our illustrious border czar Kamala Harris has been all of zero times. You go down to the southern border and they'll tell you, we just want to do our jobs. We want a president who allows us to enforce the border to keep this country that all of us love safe. We just want Donald Trump. We want Donald Trump because he's going to make it possible for us to enforce the border. We want Donald Trump because he's going to make it possible us to keep these drugs out of our country. And we want somebody who says to law enforcement, we've got your back, instead of trying to tear us down. That is what we get with the President Donald Trump. And that's why we got to put him back in the Oval Office. (13:21) Now, here's something that really bothers me about the American media, and like I said, I'll take a couple of questions here afterwards. But what I've noticed from the Kamala Harris campaign, it's not just that her border policies are a total nightmare. It's that Kamala Harris thinks that you're a bad person for thinking that she's doing a bad job. And you see this in some of her messaging over the last couple of weeks where we've talked about the unbelievable toll that has been caused by illegal immigration. There are communities in the state of Ohio where car insurance rates are going up because the migrant flood that Kamala Harris has let come into our country has made the streets less safe to drive. And of course that means the car insurance rates go up too. We've got local services, local schools, even in this state, even some of our small towns in the state of North Carolina where they've had a massive influx of children who don't even speak English. (14:12) And I've got nothing against those children, by the way. But when you drop a bunch of kids into our rural school districts that don't speak English, then who suffers? It's the children in those districts who deserve to get a good education and aren't because of Kamala Harris's policies. And I happen to believe that we are my friends. I think that we are the most compassionate country and the whole world, and I don't want to change that, but for American leadership, our compassion must start with American citizens. It must start with people right here at home. (14:52) And Kamala Harris, she doesn't want to debate that. She doesn't want to debate the cost of the migrant invasion. She doesn't want to debate these issues. She'd rather censor you. And the main tool of censorship under today's Democratic Party, under Kamala Harris's leadership is to call all the people who are complaining about this migration problem a racist. Even though by the way, many of the people who are complaining about her open border come from every walk of life and every skin color in our country. Well, I think we should send a message to Kamala Harris, and we ought to stand up for the hardworking Americans who are mad about the border because it's made their communities less safe and it's made their lives less affordable. (15:41) And our message to Kamala Harris is how dare you call people a racist for wanting to close down that wide open border? Our message to Kamala Harris is, how dare you call the citizens of your own country, bad people because they don't want a flood of illegal migration in their country. Kamala Harris, how dare you attack the citizens of your own country for not wanting their children to die of fentanyl overdoses. Kamala Harris, how dare you call the citizens of your own country bad people. You're a bad person for causing this border crisis. We are not bad people for complaining about it.

JD, JD, JD, JD, JD.

Let me just talk about one final issue, my friends, and then we'll take some questions from reporters. A lot of this stuff is, like I said, it's not always easy. Politics is not always wave a magic wand and make these problems go away, but the affordability crisis, because Kamala Harris refuses to answer the question of what she would do to lower the price of groceries and housing of food and everything else for American citizens. Donald Trump and I have a very, very simple answer. And it starts with energy. It starts with a very simple principle. Drill, baby drill. (17:14) You want to lower American's prices. Here's what Kamala Harris has done in the name of environmental policy. And of course we all believe in clean air and water. We want our children to grow up in this beautiful country that is clean of environmental toxins. But what she has done is in the name of environmental policy, she has encouraged the offshoring. She's encouraged just to ship all of our energy and manufacturing jobs to China, which is by the way, the dirtiest economy in the history of the world. If you care about energy and you care about the environment and you want a clean environment, but also if you just want American jobs, unleash the American energy sector, unleash the American energy worker, stop shipping this stuff overseas. We got plenty of it right here at home. Let's get it from our own territory with our own workers. (18:13) And if we do that, if we do that, my friends, we're going to lower the cost of everything because everything, Donald Trump says this all the time, everything requires energy. You want to talk about why our farmers are struggling because everything from the diesel fuel that they use to the fertilizer they use has gotten more expensive because of Kamala Harris's energy policies. You want to talk about why groceries more expensive? Let's talk about the fact that our truck drivers are paying way more for diesel than they were three years ago, and they're of course the ones who are driving the groceries to the grocery store in the first place. (18:45) You want to talk about why all of our manufactured goods, our construction equipment, is more expensive. It's because it takes energy to make this stuff and you jack up cost of energy and you're going to make Americans poor. So to Kamala Harris, we have one final message on the economy and I've got some advice for you, Kamala, on how you can answer this question about your specific plans. No more word salad about how you grew up in a middle-class family, unleash American energy, unleash American workers. That's how you open up this country and that's how you lower prices for American citizens. All right, so I'm going to take some questions in just a second, but I want you... Especially now while everybody's standing up here, I want you to take out your phones and we're going to ask every single one of you to play your part. Because look, we're never going to have the biased media on our side, and we're never going to have... Kamala Harris lies about Donald Trump every single day and twice on Sunday. But what we do have is the truth, and we have all of you. So what I want every

-- every single person to do is to try to commit to getting 10 people to the polls. And one of the ways that we are going to do that is by talking about this rally, this moment on social media. And so, if you would, take a photo, take a selfie, take whatever photo makes the most sense, and then post it on social media with the caption, "This is why I'm going to vote for Donald J. Trump." And if we do that, we are going to reach far more people than any reporter or any Kamala Harris campaign could want to reach because you all have power. And here is something else. I want you to go to this website. I want to read it because I want to make sure I get it right. (20:40) SwampTheVote.com. Go to SwampTheVote.com, and find out how you can volunteer and how you can help us. A dear colleague of mine in the United States Senate will often say, we need to get out there as Republicans, and we need to vote 10 times. And that makes people a little uncomfortable because they say, well, we are Republicans. We do not vote 10 times. We only vote once because we believe in every legal ballot counting, but only once. But here is how you go out and cast 10 ballots legally. You get yourself to the polls, and you get nine friends and family. That is how we do this in the legal and the right way. (21:17) And here is the final point about this. Look, we have got three ways to vote now: early voting, vote by mail, and voting on election day. And look, I am a firm believer that we ought to have election day in this country and not election season, but we are where we are. So we have got to take advantage of all these pathways to vote. Because if I talk to a hundred people who planned to vote for Donald Trump in 2020, 95 of them voted for Donald Trump. But then five of them, a kid got sick, and so they had to go pick him up from school. Or mom had something, so they had to go pick mom up and deal with some of her issues. (21:52) Or maybe they just had a late night at work and they did not make it. The best way for us to beat the Democrats in November is to get out there and vote. So do everything you can, drag everybody across the finish line, and we are going to take this country back because of all of you. God bless you all. Thank you. (22:16) So I want to, again, thank you all for being here, and I know that we are a little behind on time, so I will not take as many questions as I normally do. But if we can, let us start with the local reporters. I unfortunately cannot see it because the lights are so bright. So if you have got a microphone, just shout a question and I will answer it.

Hey, Senator Vance. Senator Vance. Hi, Nick Ochsner at WBTV. I want to ask you about Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. The Lieutenant Governor was with you on stage with you, and -- trying to ask the question if you will let me ask it. The Lieutenant Governor was on --

I knew I would get that.

Senator, the Lieutenant Governor was on stage, with you and the former president at your August 21st Rally in Asheboro. But he is not here with you today. He was not with the former President in Wilmington in the wake of the CNN investigation. Is there something disqualifying about the comments uncovered by CNN that was not disqualifying about any of the previous comments he made?

Is that the question? Look, look, here is my view on the Lieutenant Governor. First of all, what he said or did not say is ultimately between him and the people of North Carolina. The people of North Carolina are going to make that decision. Now, look, I have seen some of the statements. I have not seen them all. Some of them are pretty gross, to put it mildly. Mark Robinson says that those statements are false, that he did not actually speak them. So I think it is up to Mark Robinson to make his case to the people of North Carolina that those were not his statements, and I am going to let him make that case. (23:54) But look, I have got to say this entire episode illustrates something that is fundamentally broken about the American media. You have got, in this country right now, a record number of Americans who are dying of Fentanyl overdoses thanks to Kamala Harris' policies. You have got a record number of young Americans who cannot afford to buy a home thanks to Kamala Harris' policies. And you have got a record number of Americans who are struggling to buy groceries thanks to Kamala Harris' policies. The media ought to focus on Kamala Harris and her failure. I am much more interested in pursuing policies that correct the problems of Kamala Harris. A sex scandal in North Carolina is between the Lieutenant Governor and the people in North Carolina. They are going to make their decision, and we support them.

Senator Vance, Julie with WCNC, Charlotte. I am curious about the debate, how you are feeling ahead of it, how you are preparing, and should this be the last debate of the election cycle?

Well, look, I think one thing that is true about the debates and whether it should be the last debate of the election cycle is that Donald Trump accepted a debate on Fox News, and Kamala Harris ran from it. And if you think about the difference -- you think about the difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Donald Trump did a hostile debate with CNN, a network that is not friendly to him. He did a hostile debate with ABC where, remember, the moderators fact-checked him multiple times and did not fact-check Kamala Harris when she said outrageous things. (25:43) Remember the -- Kamala Harris -- just a few weeks ago, you had American troops who were nearly killed in an attack by Iranian militias, and Kamala Harris had the audacity to say, there are no troops in active combat. Where was the fact check from ABC for that? And look, if Kamala Harris wants to go on Fox News or wants to do some hostile interviews, we welcome her to do that. But what me and Donald Trump are going to keep on doing is going everywhere and talking to everybody. We talk to the hostile media, we talk to the friendly media, we talk to the national media, we talk to the local media, and we do it because we think the American people deserve leaders who try to earn their vote instead of expecting it to be given to them. (26:37) Next one.

Senator Vance, thank you so much for answering questions.

Thank you.

I am Kaci Jones with WCCB. I want to ask you, you are talking about hostility. So looking at how things are going in Springfield, Ohio, right now where you make claims that Haitian migrants were eating pets that have since been debunked, there are threats to the community, things are hostile. Knowing that America is so divided right now, would you change anything about the way you spread those now-debunked false claims?

Well, look what I have a responsibility to do, in Springfield, Ohio, or any constituency in the state of Ohio, and if God willing the American people honor me by making me their next vice president, this will be my responsibility for the whole country. My responsibility is to listen to the people that I serve and not a biased media. And that is what I will keep on doing in Springfield, Ohio, or anywhere else. One thing I have learned, and I really do think it is a difference between me and President Trump and the Kamala Harris campaign, is that we listen to people and we try to understand where they are coming from. And think about this. I have learned this in just two years in the United States Senate. When there was a train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, a lot of residents came to me and told me a lot of things, and some of those things ended up being not totally true. They were based on rumors, but most of those things ended up being based on reality. And they were treated like enemies by the American media for daring to complain about what is going on in their country. And I will tell you, I promise that, as your next vice president, to the American people, to the people of this great state of North Carolina, I will always listen to you even when the media attacks me. (28:57) I will listen to you about what is going on in your communities because that is what a leader ought to do. And the final point that I will make there is that everything that is going on in Springfield, Ohio, first of all, it comes from Kamala Harris' wide open borders. A small town in Ohio, 20,000 migrants into that community. It has stressed every local service. I wish the American media was half as interested in the stress on the local schools, the stress on the hospitals, and unaffordable housing as they are in debunking a story that comes from the residents of Springfield. And the final point that I make on this is

It is interesting to me to listen to the American media where they will descend on a town... I've had constituent inquiries from Springfield, Ohio just in the last couple of weeks where you know what they'll say to us? They'll say, "Hey, this thing's going on our community. Could you help us investigate it? But please don't put my name out there publicly because every person who speaks up has 15 news media reporters show up at their doorstep." And to all of the reporters who are listening to these words, whether they're national reporters or local reporters, did you ever think about listening to people instead of harassing them? Did you ever think about telling the truth instead of accepting the word... Did you ever think about listening to people speak their truth instead of listening to some bureaucrat and assuming that everything that they tell you is true? Journalism in this country is increasingly a disgrace. It's about investigating the truth, and unfortunately, far too few reporters do that today. Next question.

Senator Vance, thank you for taking our question. This is Kelly Kendall from WXII. You just called North Carolina a second home to you, but you also said that you want to leave the situation between voters and Mark Robinson. So I just want to give you one more chance here. Will you continue to support Mark Robinson and his campaign?

Look, I'll continue to support the people of North Carolina. That's what my job is as their next vice president. It's not to tell them... Look, I have spent so much time in this state and I love this state. It is beautiful. You guys have one of the rare-

[inaudible 00:31:49]

Thank you. We have one of the rare combinations of beautiful mountains and beautiful beaches right here in the state of North Carolina. You ought to be proud of it. I joke with my wife that Ohio also has mountains and beaches, and she says, well, the hills of southeastern Ohio don't count, and Lake Erie doesn't count as a beach. So you guys kind of have as beat on the beachfront. (32:10) Look, the people in North Carolina when I'm here, this is the second event I've done today, you know what I hear about? I hear about concerns regarding inflation. I hear about affordability. I hear from young people who want to be able to afford a home and worried they're never going to be able to. I hear heartbreaking stories from people who say, "My parents, they got married and they worked and they were able to afford a home to raise a family in. And I'm worried that's never going to be true for me and my children." Those are the people whose problems I'm focused on, not a sex scandal and not something that I think is fundamentally, the voters of North Carolina are focused on the right issues, and that's what our campaign is going to focus on too. (32:59) And let's do one more question before we hit the road.

Hi, Senator. Kit Maher. I just want to clear, does a Trump campaign still endorse Mark Robinson? And number two, [inaudible 00:33:08] a second question about your debate prep. It's reported today that Tom...

Go ahead, Kit. Go ahead.

Yeah. Second question is about your debate prep. It's reported that you are enlisting the help of Tom Emmer to sit in for Tim Walz. Can you talk about that choice and how you're preparing for the debate?

Yeah, well, look, Tom Emmer is a great representative from the state of Minnesota. He has not helped us out yet, but I think that we are going to try to call on him in the next couple of weeks as we really start to think about how to make our best case during this debate. (33:50) But look on the Mark Robinson question, Kit, you've heard me answer it now two times. I've been asked, I think five questions. Now, three of those questions have been about what Mark Robinson did or did not say 20 years ago on a message board. As I've said, that is Mark Robinson's case to make to the people of North Carolina. I'm not going to make it for him. And the people in North Carolina, they get to be the judges of whether they believe them or not. It's really that simple. (34:18) Now, but I really cannot believe that the American media is so much more focused on this than on the struggles of their fellow citizens. What happened? What happened to speaking truth to power? What happened to investigating the truth? If the American media wants to focus on a sex scandal, there are plenty of supermarket tabloids that would love to have you. Let's focus on the real issues that affect North Carolina. Final point I'll make on this. Look, people have found... Somebody just behind me said, Bill Clinton. That's a good point. Bill Clinton spoke at the Democratic National Convention. How many questions have been asked about his very interesting history? But what I'm focused on is not Bill Clinton or Mark Robinson's history, it's how to make the lives of the people of the state better. One thing I wish that I could do for every single person in this room, even the journalists, even the journalists, is I wish that I could take you on our campaign plane and give you the perspective that I've gotten to this country in the past seven weeks. It is the coolest... Other than being a wife to this beautiful lady here and a father to our three kids, the greatest honor of my life has been running for this office of Vice President of the United States. And I'll tell you-

Thank you.

I'll tell you, you see this country through an incredible perspective When you run to be its next vice president. I mean from the beautiful deserts of Arizona to the mountains of Western North Carolina. I believe that we have the most beautiful country in the world, and we ought to be proud of it. I believe we've got natural resources that the Chinese and the Russians would literally kill for. We have an incredible bountiful land in addition to having the most beautiful country in the world. And I believe we've got the best people and the best workers anywhere on the face of the earth. The only thing that is broken about this country is the failed leadership of Kamala Harris. Let's fire her and send Donald Trump to the White House and let's do it together. God bless you guys. Thank you all for having me.

Why don't we liberate these United States we're the ones that need it worst. (37:17) Let the rest of the world help us for a change and let's rebuild America first. (37:17) Our highways and bridges are falling apart. (37:17) Who's blessed and who has been cursed. (37:17) There's things to be done all over the world but let's rebuild America first.