GOP VP nominee JD Vance told an Eau Claire crowd that while he is “not perfect,” Democrats need to “tone down the political rhetoric.”
Vance’s remarks came two days after a man with an AK-47-style rifle was arrested at one of Donald Trump’s golf courses in Florida in what the FBI said was an apparent assassination attempt on the former president. The incident came two months after Trump was wounded during a July 13 shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“We have an opportunity to put [Trump] back in the White House, but only if he makes it seven weeks to Election Day,” Vance said. “Because we know that in this environment, unfortunately, it’s not out of the question that somebody else might try to take another shot.”
Vance added: “The American media, the Democrats and the Kamala Harris campaign — they’ve got to cut this crap out, or they’re going to get somebody killed.”
Much of his speech covered similar themes he has used in other visits to the state, knocking Harris on immigration, the economy and her lack of media appearances.
Vance took questions from reporters, who pressed him on recent claims by him and Trump that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating pets. Vance said what is happening in Springfield is a “microcosm of what Kamala Harris’ open border is going to do in every town and every city in this country.”
“You have people getting evicted, thrown out of their houses to make way for migrants who are on housing benefits, paid for by your tax dollars,” Vance said.
Ahead of Vance’s speech, Harris’ Wisconsin campaign released a statement from Wisconsin Democratic Coordinated Campaign Rapid Response Director Kristi Johnston criticizing Project 2025 — a conservative outline for a second Trump presidency that Trump says he wasn’t involved in creating. It would give Trump “unchecked power and control over our lives, allowing him to ban abortion nationwide and spike taxes on our families while giving tax breaks to the wealthy,” according to Johnston’s statement.
“Vice President Harris has a different vision,” the statement said. “She’s running to turn the page on the chaos and division of Donald Trump and build a future where our freedoms are protected and everyone has the opportunity to get ahead.”
It was Vance’s fifth trip to Wisconsin and second to Eau Claire since he was formally nominated for vice president at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
