As Ohio senator and GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance campaigns across the country, Spectrum News had a seat on his plane for a two-day, three-state blitz this week.
The trip started on Monday afternoon, as Vance and his wife, Usha, boarded the plane in Arlington, Virginia, for a visit to Atlanta. Georgia is one of the seven battleground states both campaigns are focusing on.
Vance came to Georgia to speak at a dinner hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, an evangelical group with a devoutly Republican following.
In his remarks, Vance called for dialing down the attacks against his running mate, former President Donald Trump – while also criticizing Democrats – one day after Trump survived an apparent assassination attempt in Florida.
“No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months,” Vance said. “And two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months. I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric.” (Within the last month, two people have been arrested and charged for making death threats against Harris, President Joe Biden and other officials. On Sunday, the far-right New Hampshire Libertarian Party posted, then deleted, a comment stating that “anyone who murders Kamala Harris would be an American hero.”)
After three hours on the ground in Georgia, the plane made the quick flight back to Washington, D.C. for the night.
Roughly 12 hours later, on Tuesday morning, Vance and his wife were back at the plane to set off for two Great Lakes states that might help decide the election – Michigan and Wisconsin.
At a barn in Sparta, Michigan, Vance delivered a stump speech to a few hundred supporters before taking questions from the press.
“Her policies have caused every single problem we’ve seen in this country over the last three and a half years,” he said of Vice President Harris.
At the event, Vance attacked journalists for covering a string of bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio, that started after Trump and Vance amplified what local and state officials say are baseless claims about Haitian migrants there eating people’s pets.
“So, the American media for three days has been lying and saying that Donald Trump and I are inciting bomb threats,” Vance said while speaking about Springfield for about four minutes.
After the event and before boarding his plane, Spectrum News asked Vance if he can explain the cause of the bomb threats, since he has denied a connection between those threats and the remarks he and Trump have made.
“What is the argument? The argument is that, because Donald Trump or because I or because a resident of Springfield called attention to the problems of this town, these bomb threats are now falling on residents, well the implication is, you’re not allowed to talk about these issues because a psychopath calls in a bomb threat,” Vance said.
After making a quick flight from Grand Rapids to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vance’s motorcade shuttled him to an event space in Eau Claire – a community, like Sparta, with a significant number of white working or middle class voters that are targeted by the Trump campaign. Vance was greeted by several hundred supporters.
“If I had Kamala Harris’ record, I might run from the American media, too,” he told the crowd.
After delivering his speech, Vance once again took questions from the press.
Spectrum News asked Vance, a devout Catholic, to clarify where he stands on same-sex marriage.
“Look, Taylor, I think this issue has long sailed in this country. Nobody–the Supreme Court ruled that same sex marriage is the law of the land, and nobody is trying to change that. That is not an issue that we’re focused on at all in this country,” he said.
“Whether you’re gay or straight, you are welcome in Donald Trump’s Republican Party, so long as you believe in common sense,” he added.
Shortly after, Vance’s motorcade made it back to the airport for the flight back to D.C.