On the campaign trail in Nevada on Tuesday, Ohio Sen. JD Vance attacked Vice President Kamala Harris as “dangerously liberal” and reiterated former President Donald Trump’s pledge to launch mass deportation operations in his second term.
Trump’s running mate is attempting to introduce himself to a national audience as the Harris campaign and other Democrats paint him as out-of-touch, hard right and “anti-woman,” with a particular focus on his anti-abortion stances and previous comments describing Harris — the Republican ticket’s likely Democratic opponent in November — and other leaders in the Democratic Party as “a bunch of childless cat ladies.”
“Kamala Harris was the most liberal member of the United States Senate. She is a San Francisco liberal. She is dangerously liberal, and thanks to the people in this room, she is never going to be the president of the United States,” Vance told supporters in a high school gym in Henderson, Nevada, a city just southeast of Las Vegas.
“During her first failed run for president, she told everyone exactly what she wanted: to decriminalize illegal immigration, to tear down Immigration, Customs and Enforcement and open up the floodgates, while giving everybody who came here free healthcare at your expense," he continued.
Vance, Trump and other Republicans have focused on Harris’ role in the Biden administration’s border policies, often exaggerating the responsibilities she was given by President Joe Biden and the impact those policies have had on U.S. citizens. On Tuesday, Vance falsely claimed Harris plans to give undocumented immigrants the right to vote, a policy she does not and never has supported.
“She is not going to stop until every illegal immigrant has the right to vote, which is going to destroy your voice in your own country to make room for people who shouldn't even be here,” Vance said, before he was interrupted by chants of “USA, USA, USA!”
He went on to contrast the Biden-Harris administration’s policies with Trump’s plan for a second term: “To all illegal aliens, President Trump and I have a different message. If you are here against the laws of this country, pack your bags because you're going home in six months.”
In the most recent estimates available, the Department of Homeland Security and Pew Research Center both placed the population of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. at 11 million people in 2022. The largest deportation operation in U.S. history, during the Eisenhower administration, was estimated to have resulted in the removal of some one million people — including some U.S. citizens — though that number is often disputed by historians. Trump has cited that effort, dubbed “Operation Wetback,” as an inspiration for his plans.
“The clock is ticking on Kamala Harris. Six months from now, President Trump will launch the largest deportation program in American history,” Vance said. “We're going to end catch and release, we're going to ban sanctuary cities, and then we're going to finish building that beautiful Trump border wall. Ain't that right?”
In response, the audience in the high school gym broke out into chants of “build that wall.”
In their first major TV ad targeting Harris since she replaced Biden as the Democrats’ likely nominee, Trump’s campaign labeled Harris as “America’s border czar” and “dangerously liberal.” The ad was released Tuesday, hours before Vance’s speeches in Nevada, as the Trump campaign races to define Harris to voters after years of hammering Biden under the expectation he would be their opponent in the fall.
In Nevada, Vance took onus to Harris’ comments from the day after Trump picked him to be the Republican nominee for vice president, when she said in a video for the then-Biden campaign that “JD Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country.” Harris cited Vance’s comments from earlier this year that, if he were vice president at the time, he wouldn’t have certified the 2020 election results — as Trump’s then-Vice President Mike Pence did amid the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
A U.S. Marine veteran, Vance grew animated as he discussed Harris’ critique of him, raising his voice to say “loyalty is serving your country in the Marine Corps, which is something that I did. Loyalty is taking a bullet for this country, which is something Donald J. Trump did.”
“If Kamala Harris wants to see the face of disloyalty, she might as well look in the damn mirror,” Vance said.
Swing state Nevada
Vance was scheduled to head north to Reno for a second rally on Tuesday at the Reno Sparks Convention Center. Tuesday marked his first visit as Trump's running mate to the Silver State, a state that has been reliably Democratic since 2008, but polling has shown that the race could be tight in November. Joe Biden won the state over Trump by about 34,000 votes in 2020.
The 2022 midterms were a mixed bag for both parties. While Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto won reelection over a well-funded Republican challenger, Democrats increased their majorities in the state legislature and all four U.S. House incumbents — three Democrats, one Republican — were reelected, Republicans flipped the governor’s mansion, winning the gubernatorial and lieutenant governor races, as well as state controller. Democrats hung on to the secretary of state and attorney general positions.
While in Henderson, he introduced Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown, a U.S. Army veteran who sustained massive burns to his body while fighting in Afghanistan in 2008. He’s running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and has been endorsed by Trump, sitting in the former president’s box seats for parts of the Republican National Convention earlier this month.
“The words that took me from that place of having lost all hope on the battlefield as I was engulfed in flames were quite simple, but so powerful: ‘sir, I’ve got you,’” Brown said, recalling the words of a soldier who saved his life in Afghanistan. “I can tell you, as I look at President Trump and as I look at JD Vance and what they're going to do for this country, their message is so similar and resonates in our hearts as they tell us they've got us.”
Recent polls show Rosen consistently leading Brown by around five percentage points, roughly the margin she beat her Republican opponent in 2018. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of 454 registered voters in Nevada released on Tuesday showed Harris with a 47% to 45% advantage over Trump in a head-to-head matchup, though that is considered to be a small sample size and the margin of error is five percentage points — meaning pollsters believe it could be off as much as five points in either direction. Rosen and Brown’s race was not polled in that survey.
Vance was also joined at the event by Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a staunch Trump ally, and Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, who was indicted last year as part of an alleged fake electors scheme in the 2020 election. (McDonald pleaded not guilty and the case was dismissed last year over a venue question; the state attorney general has appealed the case to Nevada's highest court.)
Democrats hit Vance on abortion and 'childless cat ladies' comments
As Vance traveled to Nevada on Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee had erected billboards in English and Spanish in the state attempting to portray Trump and Vance’s positions on the issue as “too extreme for Nevada.” Polling shows nearly seven in 10 Nevadans support abortion, and a ballot initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution will be on the ballot in November.
“Thanks to Trump, MAGA Republicans have enacted extreme abortion bans in 22 states – and if given the chance, Trump and Vance will force Nevada women to face the same horrific reality after they ban abortion nationwide,” Democratic National Committee spokesperson Stephanie Justice said in a statement. “The consequences of a Trump-Vance administration would be devastating for women in Nevada and across the country.”
Vance’s previous comments about the country “being led by a bunch of childless cat ladies,” saying that Democrats like Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg not having a stake in in the country’s future because they do not have progeny, sparked backlash from Democrats and Republicans alike, as well as notable figures like “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston.
Former "View" co-host Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Republican Sen. John McCain, said on social media that she has "been trying to warn every conservative man I know - these JD comments are activating women across all sides, including my most conservative Trump supporting friends.”
On Tuesday, North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis called Vance’s comments “bad judgment,” according to HuffPost.
“You got to stay away from that, attempts at humor,” Tillis said. “I’m sure JD has got a lot of friends and family that fit into that category.”
Vance said last week that his comment was sarcastic, but he didn’t back down from criticizing Democratic leaders who choose not to have children.
In an interview on Megyn Kelly’s SiriusXM show, the Ohio senator said it was a “sarcastic comment” and that “people are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance” of what he said.
Vance doubled down on his remarks from 2021, telling Kelly, “The simple point that I made is that having children — becoming a father, becoming a mother — I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way.
“This is not about criticizing people who, for various reasons, didn't have kids,” he added. “This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child.”
He didn’t directly mention the comments or the backlash at his first stop in Nevada on Tuesday, but he did retell a story about his grandmother, who he called “Mamaw” that ended with him expressing gratitude to women. He described her response to him signing up for the Marines in 2003, as the United States was at war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“She was a little scared for me, and so she was pissed off with the Marine Corps recruiter. And I'll never forget when he came over to talk to her about what boot camp would mean for the family,” Vance recounted. “She stood on the porch and he started to walk up, and she said, if you put one foot on my porch, I'm going to blow it off.”
“And that was the woman who gave me all the opportunities that I've had, and I'm so grateful for all the strong women out there, especially the strong grandmas and the strong moms,” Vance added.
Spectrum News spoke to voters in Nevada prior to Vance’s arrival who gave him a mixed review.
“Most of the people who live in Henderson are very pro-family, and for anybody who isn’t following him or whatever to hear that we are not pro-family is frustrating,” said Joan Peck.
Nevada resident Karl Lyons called Trump and Vance “birds of a feather.”
But Jim Van Loo said he thinks Vance is “good so far,” though admitted he didn’t know much about him until Trump picked him as his running mate.
Vance’s first couple of weeks as Trump’s running mate have been about introducing himself to the electorate, joining the Republican ex-president at rallies in Michigan and Minnesota and holding solo events in Virginia and his home state of Ohio.
Spectrum News' Susan Carpenter and Ryan Chatelain contributed to this report.