JD Vance Rally in Williamsport, Pennsylvania | October 17, 2024

 Auto-transcribed on Friday, October 18, 2024.media and text playback available on this page: https://aliceapp.ai/recordings/67xVHJIcniOY1ltTjmPNXU9hygLKDQqs

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Speakers:

 Speaker A - 4.32%

 Speaker B - 90.35%

 Speaker C - 1.0%

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 Speaker F - 0.89%

 Speaker G - 1.19%

 Speaker H - 0.69%

Notes:

- Senator JD Vance is holding a rally there in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. We got the great Carla Sands here and appreciate her being here. We've also got Congressman John Joyce and Congressman Gt Thompson. Thank you all for joining us.- Before I take questions from the reporters, I want you to think back to 2020. You all have got to make the margin so big in Pennsylvania that it doesn't matter what shenanigans Democrats pull at the very last minute. That is the people power that is going to make Donald Trump the next president.- Harris supporters are continuing to say that Trump is going to enact Project 2025 if he gets in office. Project 25 has no relation to the Trump campaign. Donald Trump will govern according to his own plans and his own wishes.- With Pennsylvania being a big battleground state in the upcoming election, what makes you want to come to communities like Johnstown? Do I condemn the riot at the Capitol? What Donald Trump's presidency represents more than anything is that we're not leaving behind the communities.- Pennsylvania has the fourth largest population of veterans in the country. A significant portion faces homelessness. The federal government recently announced $17 million in grants for services directed to help veterans find housing if elected. Vance: Donald Trump wants to put american citizens and veterans first.- Senator JD Vance is touring JWF Defense systems in Johnstown, Pa. According to RCP polling right now, Trump is up in the state by just..1%. And coming up again, we will continue some of our coverage of Hurricane Milton in Florida.

[00:00:00]  Speaker A 
 Just got this live now. Senator JD Vance is holding a rally there in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Let's listen in to those remarks right here on live. Now. 

[00:00:11]  Speaker B 
 Where are you, Carla? Stand up and say hello. Where's Carla? She's somewhere. Maybe she's backstage. Anyway, we got the great Carla Sands here and appreciate her being here. We've got Congressman John Joyce. John, where are you? Thank you, Mandez. We're in John's district and he told me that we're going to get the votes we need in this district to win the state of Pennsylvania. 

[00:00:33]   
 So, John, I'm going to hold you to that. We've got Congressman guy reshondaler. Where's guy at? Thank you, guy. Appreciate it. I met guy's parents. Great people. Thank you all for being here. And then finally we got Congressman gt Thompson. Thank you. Thank you, Gt. And I know, I know we've got some other state elected officials here. 

[00:00:59]   
 Thank you all for joining us. I want to give a special shout out to Amy Bradley, who, I'm Amy. Stand up. And Amy, I'm proud to endorse you along with Donald Trump. So we're thrilled to be behind you. So I love western Pennsylvania. And I, you know, as a lot of you know, I grew up in a part of the country, southwestern Ohio, that's very similar to western Pa. 

[00:01:29]   
 And I know that Bethlehem Steel, a great american steel manufacturer, really built this town in a lot of ways. And like my hometown, lost a lot of jobs over the last 30 or 40 years thanks to bad leadership. But I want to promise to those watching at home and to you in this room, Donald Trump and I are committed to american manufacturing. 

[00:01:48]   
 We're committed to american workers. We're committing to making things in the United States of America. And this town is going to thrive because of Donald Trump's policies. Now, I actually got, you know, before I got up on the stage, you know, will and Bill showed me around these great vehicles that they're building for the next generation of our warfighters. 

[00:02:15]   
 And I imagine we've got some of your employees here in the room today. But I'm just so proud of you guys. I mean, the craftsmanship, the skill, the incredible, just these unbelievable vehicles. They're not just going to save a lot of american lives. They make us proud. They make us proud of what american workers are able to do. 

[00:02:34]   
 We're proud of you for building them. And they're going to save a lot of the lives of our troops. Thank you all. Thank you for what you do. Thanks for building great product here in the United States of America. Now, there are a few things I want to talk about before we really get started into the meat of my remarks here. 

[00:02:53]   
 And then afterwards, we'll take some questions from some of the reporters. But the first and most important thing, and I'll tell you a little story, one of the things I've noticed when I go out on the campaign trail is I talked to 100 people who planned to vote for Donald Trump in 2020. 

[00:03:08]   
 And to their credit, 95 of them actually voted for Donald Trump in 2020. And the other five, it's not like they changed their mind. It's not like they, you know, Donald Trump did something to piss them off. What happened is something came up on election day. You know, their kid got sick at school, and so they had to go take care of their kid, or, you know, they had to take their mom to a doctor's appointment unexpectedly, or they had to work late that night. 

[00:03:31]   
 And so that by the time they showed up at the polling location, the polling location had already closed. We have got to swamp the vote in the state of Pennsylvania to make Donald Trump the next president. And what I would ask everybody to do is go to this website, write this down if you need to, but it's pretty simple. 

[00:03:52]   
 Swampthevoteusa.com. that's swampthevotusa.com. dot on that website, you check your registration, you check your polling location, you make sure your registration is up to date. And I'd encourage you to get nine of your family members out there and go to that website. Cause a lot of folks, they plan to vote, but maybe they haven't checked their registration. 

[00:04:12]   
 You never know. Maybe your registration is not up to date. And I always like to say that when we get out there and vote, I don't want you just to vote once. I want you to vote ten times. But I mean, vote ten times in the legal way. That's by getting nine of your friends and family, plus yourself out there to the polls. 

[00:04:29]   
 It's the only way that we're going to make Donald Trump the next president. So let's get out there and vote, my friends. We got to do it. We got to do it. Now. Here's the crazy thing about running against Kamala Harris is that, you know, she. She basically just takes everything that Donald Trump says and pretends that she agrees with it. 

[00:04:54]   
 And I see a few of you have read MAGA hats out there, and I think that, you know, Kamala Harris is stealing so many of Donald Trump's ideas that I think she's gonna show up in our next rally in a red MAGA hat because she, she realizes that nobody wants to vote for defunding the police, which Kamala Harris supported. 

[00:05:12]   
 Nobody wants to vote for banning fracking, least of all, not in western Pennsylvania. But Kamala Harris is on video saying that she supported an end to fracking. Nobody wants to open the border. And yet Kamala Harris came into office promising that she would open the american southern border. And nobody wants to pay thousands of dollars per person in higher taxes. 

[00:05:33]   
 Yet Kamala Harris has explicitly promised that she's gonna get rid of the Trump tax cuts, which would raise taxes by an average of $2,500 per person on Pennsylvania families. So Kamala Harris said all that stuff. There's even video clips of her saying that stuff. But now she pretends that she got religion and she doesn't support all the crazy ideas that she supported during her entire career in public office. 

[00:05:58]   
 A big part of what we got to do, my friends, over the next 25 days of this election, is just to remind our fellow Americans that Kamala Harris is not who she pretends to be. Kamala Harris is who she's been in government for the last three and a half years. A tax and spend San Francisco liberal who wants to open our borders and destroy american manufacturing. 

[00:06:19]   
 Are we gonna give Kamala Harris a promotion to president, United States? Hell, no. We're gonna tell Kamala Harris, you're fired. We hired Donald J. Trump to be our president. Now, you all probably have noticed, you probably noticed that Kamala Harris has been doing some more interviews lately. You notice that she went from doing, like, zero interviews to doing four or five. 

[00:06:56]   
 Now, the problem is that they're not tough interviews, right? She's going on the view. She's going to friendly outlets to do these interviews because, of course, she can't stand up to the scrutiny of a tough interview. So she's doing all these softball interviews instead. Now, my friends, the problem with a softball interview is that you still have to be able to hit a softball. 

[00:07:17]   
 And as we've learned from Kamala Harris over the last couple of days, she can't even do that. And, you know, if you notice, there are a lot of folks, not just me, not just the president, but a lot of our campaign staff. And we're feeling pretty excited about this campaign right now. And in part, it's just, we're getting down to the final stretch. 

[00:07:36]   
 In part, it's because we feel the momentum of Pennsylvania and some of the other critical states. But, you know, a big part, it's that every time Kamala Harris opens her mouth, we gain about 100,000 votes. And, and we don't have a tv in here. Well, I guess we got this one. But I should have queued it up beforehand. 

[00:07:57]   
 So I'm gonna have to remember off the top of my head what Kamala Harris, she said earlier in this week, she had an interview with the View. Have you seen this interview? A few of you had, a few of you decided not to have the nightmare fuel of watching Kamala Harris on the View, so you skipped it. 

[00:08:15]   
 But I do these things. This is the way that I sacrifice as the person who wants to be your vice president. I watched her interview. Now, we had to remember that Kamala Harris, her entire argument for her campaign is that she's not going to be like Joe Biden. In fact, you would be forgiven for listening to her and thinking that Kamala Harris had never even met Joe Biden, despite the fact that she's been his vice president the entire time in office. 

[00:08:40]   
 And of course, we know she cast the deciding vote on trillions of dollars in new spending because the vice president often has to cast these tie breaking votes. She bragged about being the last person in the room during the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. She bragged about undoing Donald Trump's wildly successful border policies and opening the american southern border. 

[00:09:02]   
 So now she wants to run away from that stuff. So she'll stand up at her rallies and she'll say something like, well, on day one, we're going to tackle the affordability crisis affecting Pennsylvania families, or on day one, we're going to get serious about that southern border. And anybody with a lick of common sense is saying, Kamala, day one was 1400 days ago. 

[00:09:21]   
 What the hell have you been doing that whole time? Stop talking about doing your job and actually go and do it. But she blew up the whole narrative of her campaign in this view interview because they asked her, well, what would you have done differently? You've been the vice president. What would you have done differently than Joe Biden? 

[00:09:46]   
 And she says, well, nothing comes to mind. So she just, for two months tried to tell the american people she was going to be different from Joe Biden. And now she shows up and openly brags in her own words, well, nothing comes to mind. She wouldn't have done anything differently from President Biden. 

[00:10:06]   
 Now, I told the Trump campaign senior staff, because one of them, you know, Jason Miller, you've probably seen him on tv. Jason's a good guy. So Jason calls me earlier this week and he tells me about this interview and then I watch it, and I'm like, wow, it's even worse than you said. 

[00:10:21]   
 And I said, Jason, what we ought to do is take that clip and add on the end of it. I'm Donald J. Trump, and I approve that message and just run it in every battleground state in the United States of America. And it's amazing, my friends, that's exactly what they did. Go on my social media. 

[00:10:39]   
 You'll see Kamala, in her own words, destroying the entire narrative of her campaign. And I will say, you're probably shocked to hear me defend Kamala Harris, but I'm gonna do it, because when she says nothing comes to mind, that's probably a pretty accurate characterization, whatever the topic is. Right. That's just kind of unfortunately. 

[00:11:01]   
 Well, yeah, there's a famous saying that a Ydezenhe a political blunder is when a politician actually tells the truth. Well, Kamala Harris just accidentally told the truth. And here's the thing. We can joke about it, and we can joke about the fact that she runs away from anything that isn't a softball interview. 

[00:11:20]   
 But we got to be honest. And I know this because I grew up in a family where we suffered when politicians didn't do their jobs. We have got real suffering in the state of Pennsylvania because Kamala Harris isn't doing her job. And so as much as we can joke about what she does in an interview, this is very serious business, my friends. 

[00:11:39]   
 And let's just recount some of the ways in which Kamala Harris failed. Leadership has made the people of the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania worse off. You know, Pennsylvania, and I didn't know this until I started running for vice president. Pennsylvania has the worst grocery price affordability problem in the entire country, meaning groceries have gone up in Pennsylvania more than in any other state in our country. 

[00:12:02]   
 And I think that's a disgrace. And as a person who was raised by a grandmother who would sometimes negotiate with meals on wheels to try to get a little extra food, we got to think about the people who are suffering when, thanks to Kamala Harris policies, groceries go up by 25%. That is the legacy of her leadership. 

[00:12:21]   
 You know what another legacy of Kamala Harris leadership is? We've got almost 10% credit card delinquency rates. So, on the one hand, Kamala Harris wants to go out there and brag about how great the economy is. Is the economy actually doing well for Pennsylvania workers and families right now? Of course it's not. 

[00:12:39]   
 That's why we've got 10% delinquency rates on our credit cards. Now, we, of course, got another big problem. It's not just economic, but it is the crisis at the southern border. And more than any person in public life in the last 30 years, Kamala Harris has encouraged that wide open southern border. Now, think about it. 

[00:12:59]   
 She wants to give Medicare to illegal aliens, which would bankrupt that program and throw our seniors into poverty. Are we gonna let Kamala Harris give Medicare to illegal aliens? Are we gonna let Kamala Harris give Social Security to illegal aliens? Here's our message. Here's President Trump and I's message to the millions upon millions of people that Kamala Harris has let into this country illegally in four months. 

[00:13:24]   
 Pack your bags. Cause we're sending you back home. And here, here's the thing. The media doesn't want to talk about this, but it's an important part of what's going on in this country. You know, when you let in 25 million illegal aliens who have no right to be here, that drives up the cost of housing. 

[00:13:48]   
 Because think about it. If you got millions upon millions of people who shouldn't be here, we got to house them somewhere. And we know that thanks to Kamala Harris, we got veterans sleeping in park benches and under bridges, but we're given a legal aid. Aliens first class hotel rooms. So here's the Donald Trump approach to american housing and the way that we're going to make the american dream more affordable for american citizens. 

[00:14:13]   
 The american dream of homeownership is american homes ought, by rights, go to american citizens, not to people who don't have the legal right to be here in the first place. And because, unfortunately, we haven't listened to Donald Trump's wisdom over the last three and a half years. And because Kamala Harris is sitting in the oval office, Pennsylvanians are paying $1,400 more per month to afford what they could have afforded just three and a half years ago. 

[00:14:43]   
 That is an unbelievable record of failure from Kamala Harris. And, you know, when I hear at these rallies, lying to the american people. Cause that's what she's doing. And I hear her talk about how she wants to make groceries more affordable or she wants to close the southern border that she opened, all I can think is that, Kamala, if you really believe those things, you are welcome to vote for Donald J. 

[00:15:03]   
 Trump for president. Cause he actually got it done, and he's gonna do it again. Here's the final point I wanna make. And I know I've beaten up on Kamala a little bit, but that's why you all probably came here it's okay, right? It's okay to beat up on Kamala a little bit. It's important to be honest about the record, right? 

[00:15:26]   
 And her, and her record is one of failure for the american people. Here's what bothers me most about Kamala Harris leadership. It's not just that she's been bad about all these policies, is that she has the audacity, she has the gall to call the american people bad names for daring to have an opinion about her disastrous record. 

[00:15:47]   
 Think about this. What her and Tim Walsh are doing right now is going around the country and telling everybody who's pissed off about Kamala Harris open border that they are racists, that they're xenophobes, that they're bad human beings for daring to have an opinion about what's going on in their own country. And you know what? 

[00:16:05]   
 DONALd TRUMp and I believe, even if we disagree with you on a given issue, we will fight for your right to speak your mind in the United States of America because we believe in the first Amendment. And, you know, my message to Kamala Harris is the border is open because of you. Inflation is higher because of you. 

[00:16:28]   
 Americans can't afford groceries and housing because of you, Kamala Harris. If you want somebody to call a bad name, look in the damn mirror, stop attacking your own people and start making the country better. So I'm going to stop here in a second, but I want to leave you with just one final thought, and I'm going to repeat myself, and I apologize for doing it, but I'm going to repeat myself because it's important. 

[00:16:58]   
 Before I take questions from the reporters, I want you to think back to 2020. And if you were like me, you went into the election on 2020, and of course, we voted for Donald Trump. And, you know, I'd be honest with you, I kind of believed the fake polls and the fake media. 

[00:17:14]   
 I maybe didn't think that we had such a good chance. And then the returns started rolling in. And remember how it felt around 930 on Tuesday night? Like, oh, my God, he did it again. We actually elected this guy president again. And then, of course, things went in the wrong direction. Here's the way to prevent that from happening. 

[00:17:33]   
 One, I've got a job to do. And the RNC and the Republican Party, we've got a job to do. We've got to fight for election integrity in a way that, honestly, we didn't in 2020. And we are doing that. We're making real changes to fight for election integrity. But here's what you all have to do. 

[00:17:52]   
 You all have got to make the margin so big in Pennsylvania that it doesn't matter what shenanigans Democrats pull at the very last minute. And the only way to do that, we're never going to have the fake media. We're never going to have the Democrats telling the truth. But we do have our own voices and we have our own networks, our friends and our family. 

[00:18:12]   
 That is the people power that is going to make Donald Trump the next president. So think about this. You all have, I'm sure every single one of you, you're on Facebook, you're on X.com, comma, formally Twitter, you're on whatever social media that you're on. Or maybe you just got a lot of people in your address book that you can text or call or send an email to. 

[00:18:33]   
 We have got to get everybody to the polls. So I'm going to repeat this website, swampthevoteusa.com dot. If we get out there and vote, if we make our voices heard, we are going to take this country back. We're going to make Donald J. Trump the next president of the United States. We got 25 days to go. 

[00:18:49]   
 Let's do it, my friends. Let's work our rear ends off and let's make this happen. God bless you guys. Thank you. Thank you. So we're going to take some questions from reporters, but we've got some beautiful babies in the crowd of how old is she? That's right. That's right. Well, if we were Democrats, we'd try to get them all to vote, but we're not going to do that. 

[00:19:29]   
 They're not allowed to vote until they're 18. But I want to thank you all for bringing your families, and not just beautiful kids, but well behaved kids. I'm surprised we've made it this, this whole time without anybody really complaining. Maybe I should trade you my kids for a couple of weeks. You can knock some sense into them. 

[00:19:46]   
 Anyway, guys, let's start with local reporters first. I'll take as many questions as we got time for, and then we'll move on to the national, folks. 

[00:19:56]  Speaker C 
 So Harris supporters are continuing to say that Trump is going to enact Project 2025 if he gets in office. Can you reassure people whether or not that's going to happen? 

[00:20:06]  Speaker B 
 Yes. Yes, ma'am. I think you heard the booze from the crowd because look, love Donald Trump or not. Does anybody speak for Donald Trump except for Donald Trump? No. So here it's funny, because the Kamala Harris campaign has nothing to actually run on. They are taking a 900 page report from a conservative nonprofit organization and saying, somehow that organization speaks for Donald Trump. 

[00:20:34]   
 Again, I don't know if you've noticed, but Donald Trump speaks for himself. Project 25 has no relation to the Trump campaign. It doesn't control what we do. No one controls what we do on the Trump campaign except for the man at the top of the ticket, and that's Donald J. Trump. So if you. 

[00:20:54]   
 And you know what I find so weird about this accusation that Donald Trump is going to, he's going to implement some mysterious agenda instead of his own policy plans, is Donald Trump was already president, and he did a damn fine job without Project 2020 five's help. Just remember the record. We had 1.5% inflation. 

[00:21:17]   
 We had the rises, the fastest rising take home pay in 40 years in the United States of America. We had a secure southern border, and we had world peace at a level we haven't had in this planet in a generation. Donald Trump speaks for Donald Trump. Donald Trump is going to govern according to his own plans and his own wishes. 

[00:21:37]   
 And because of that, I think the american people are going to be more prosperous, and the world is going to be more peaceful than it's been in 40 years. That's a great thing. And nobody else, certainly not project 2025, speaks for Donald J. Trump or for me. Go, guys. 

[00:21:59]  Speaker D 
 With Pennsylvania being a big battleground state in the upcoming election, what makes you want to come to communities like Johnstown? Wherever it kind of swings blue, it kind of swings red. It's very up in the air. It's a very key county to determine the state of Pennsylvania. 

[00:22:15]  Speaker B 
 Sure. Well, one of the things I've learned, I'm sure you all will be happy about this, is I now try to make sure that I call Pennsylvania a commonwealth. Right. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I don't want to. I don't even run me out of town here because I say the state. I'm trying to say the commonwealth. 

[00:22:29]   
 And I appreciate y'all reminding me of that from time to time. I mean, look, one thing I'll say about Johnstown is I love. I love this community. And, you know, when I was coming in here, you know, you come across the bridge, you go over this beautiful river, and, you know, there's a view that you get where you're driving up to this factory, and you look behind you and you see a church kind of set against the mountains, and the mountain is sort of on fire right now with. 

[00:22:56]   
 With the colors of fall. And I just think to myself, what a beautiful town. Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Is. And y'all ought to be proud of it. I'm sure as hell proud to be here. But it also, to me, represents the greatness of America. And frankly, what happens when american leaders screw up. Because as much as we're proud to be standing in this great facility, Johnstown has went through some pretty tough times because a generation of american leaders, and let's be honest, it was Republicans and Democrats, decided we didn't need to make things in the United States of America anymore. 

[00:23:30]   
 And Johnstown, Pennsylvania, bore the brunt of that failure of american leadership. Just like Johnstown bears the brunt of the failures of Kamala Harris leadership. To me, what Donald Trump's presidency represents more than anything is that we're not leaving behind the communities like Johnstown, Pennsylvania, anymore. We're going to build him up. We're going to invest him in it. 

[00:23:50]   
 We're going to make more stuff in places like Johnstown, and everybody's going to prosper when we do exactly that. Sir, sir, do you or do you. 

[00:24:03]  Speaker E 
 Not condemn the attacks on the Capitol. 

[00:24:05]  Speaker B 
 From the last election incited by Donald Trump? Do I. Do I condemn the riot at the Capitol? Sure, I condemn the riot at the Capitol. Do I think that as the media pretends that the riot of the Capitol four years ago is a bigger deal than people not being able to afford groceries? 

[00:24:30]   
 No, I don't. I think people not being able to afford groceries. It's a much bigger problem in the United States of America than what happened four years ago. And most importantly, do I concede the point that was implicit in your question, that Donald Trump somehow was at fault when he told people to protest peacefully? 

[00:24:47]   
 Absolutely not. Go back and look at the tape. Go back and look at some of the record. That's a come out in the last couple of weeks. Donald Trump asked people to protest peacefully. He, of course, he had every right to encourage people to protest peacefully. And the fact that a few knuckleheads went off and did something they shouldn't do, that's not on him. 

[00:25:06]   
 That's on them. That's on them. 

[00:25:17]  Speaker F 
 You mentioned, you mentioned veterans. PA has the fourth largest population of veterans in the country. And as a veteran yourself, you know, a significant portion faces homelessness. The federal government recently announced $17 million in grants for services directed to help veterans find housing if elected. With the Trump administration, continue to prioritize these efforts, or how else would you help? 

[00:25:39]  Speaker B 
 Of course we would. But let's be honest here, $17 million, while it will help, is not nearly enough to meet the challenge of the homeless veteran population in this country. And I think, I mean, think about this. These guys went off to war. Some of them came back with wounds. Some of them with wounds you cannot see. 

[00:26:00]   
 But all of them came back with the pride that they served their country and did what our country asked them to do. How disgraceful is it that millions of our veterans are getting left behind in some form or another, and thousands of them are homeless when we're housing illegal aliens in first class hotels? 

[00:26:19]   
 It's a disgrace, and it drives home the entire, the entire agenda of Kamala Harris. You hide behind, she hides behind her slogans and she hides behind, you know, she says she's very joyful. I don't think she's very feeling very joyful this week after the interviews that she gave. But she hides behind these slogans or fake attacks on Project 2025, which has nothing to do with Donald Trump's campaign because she can't answer for the fact that her government has given hundreds of billions of dollars to illegal immigrants. 

[00:26:54]   
 When our own citizens suffer and our veterans are at the top of that list, you know what a big difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris? Donald Trump wants to put american citizens and american veterans first. He thinks the government of this country exists to serve the people of this country, not people who shouldn't be here in the first place. 

[00:27:13]   
 That is one of the biggest differences between the leadership of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Sir, good to see. 

[00:27:20]  Speaker G 
 Good to see you, Senator Vance. 

[00:27:21]  Speaker B 
 Thank you. 

[00:27:22]  Speaker G 
 Two quick questions. One, who's going to potentially replace you in Ohio if you become vice president? Maybe the vague Ramaswami. The second question is a lot of supporters of yours I've spoken to in western pa, I'm based in Pittsburgh, have asked me, when is Senator Vance going to endorse the pro act or, you know, some kind of act to protect the right to, for unions to organize nationally? 

[00:27:49]   
 Sure. Will you support such legislation? 

[00:27:51]  Speaker B 
 So, look, on the first question, I don't know if you all agree with me, but I'm pretty superstitious. So knock on wood, we'll worry about who's going to replace me after Donald Trump and I are elected president and vice president. And until then, I'm not going to think about it. Now on the question about the pro act. 

[00:28:10]   
 So, first of all, one of the things that we're very proud of on this campaign is that if you look, according to the Teamsters own poll, 65% of Pennsylvania's Teamsters support Donald J. Trump for president. That is something we're very proud of, because these are people who build this country, who make it run. 

[00:28:26]   
 We're thrilled to have their support. Now, look, you asked about the pro act. Now, here's the problem with the pro act is in some ways, it doubles down on a lot of the failed things that we've done, instead of looking at american labor policy as something that's going to be better for the 21st century than it was in the 20th century. 

[00:28:47]   
 If you actually, and look, I believe in the right of workers to unionize if they choose to do so. But private sector union participation went from about 33% when my papal was a union steel worker. He was actually a welder, just like Bill, 33% to now it's about 7%. So we have to ask ourselves, what public policies have we enacted that have driven private sector union participation so low? 

[00:29:13]   
 I don't think we double down on what's on the failed model. We got to think about a new model for the 21st century because that's going to be better for american workers, it's going to be better for american companies, and most importantly, it's going to mean higher pay for people who work hard and play by the rules. 

[00:29:28]   
 And that's what Donald Trump and I are all about. Thank you. 

[00:29:35]  Speaker C 
 Senator Vance. Thank you so much for doing this and for taking time to take questions from the press. No matter who wins after the election is over in November, do you commit to a peaceful transfer of power? 

[00:29:50]  Speaker B 
 Yes, of course. Of course we do. Look, this is very simple. Yes, there was a riot at the Capitol on January 6, but there was still a peaceful transfer of power in this country. And that is always going to happen. Donald Trump's committed to it and so am I. Here's what is a little odd about this question. 

[00:30:13]   
 Under Kamala Harris's leadership, we have way more fentanyl in our community than we ever have had before. Under Kamala Harris's leadership, Americans can't afford groceries. Young people can't afford to buy a home. Credit card delinquencies are through the roof. That is what I'm focused on, and that is what the campaign and the media should be focused on. 

[00:30:32]   
 How do we solve America's problems rather than focus on a fake issue from four years ago when again, Donald Trump said, protest peacefully. 

[00:30:49]  Speaker H 
 All right, senator. 

[00:31:00]  Speaker B 
 I love Western Pa. Look, we're going to hit the road a little bit. We'll take a couple more questions. Two more questions. 

[00:31:06]  Speaker H 
 Senator Vance. In Pittsburgh on Thursday, former President Barack Obama admonished black men for not, for not, for being hesitant about voting for Kamala Harris, I was wondering if you could contrast your approach to hesitant voters and how you tried to earn them over. 

[00:31:29]  Speaker B 
 You know, first of all, I don't believe whether you agree with me or disagree with me, whether you agree with Donald Trump or disagree with him. I don't believe in hectoring voters. I believe in persuading voters. Support is not something I'm given or something I'm owed. It's something you got to go out there and work for. 

[00:31:48]   
 So, one, I just don't like the tone of going in. I mean, look, has the better question for Barack Obama or anybody to ask is not why black men? It's not. It's not, how dare you not vote for Kamala Harris? It's maybe they're thinking about voting for Donald Trump because they're sick of being censored. 

[00:32:04]   
 They're sick of being told what to do, and they're sick of not being able to afford the american dream. Maybe that's why we're getting a lot more black voters than republicans in the past. You know, the last point I want to make is, you know, I got to say, in shocker news flash here, I've defended Kamala Harris once. 

[00:32:23]   
 I'm about to defend Barack Obama once. Okay, so set to the side, the hectoring and the tone of Obama when he went in and talking about black voters, like, whatever. Obviously, I just criticize that. You know what? I was watching him talk. You know, what I thought to myself is agree or disagree. 

[00:32:46]   
 And obviously, I disagreed with about 99% of what he did when he was in office. He had substance. And Kamala Harris does not. Like he actually had thoughts in his head. And what a contrast that is to Kamala Harris, who just repeats slogan after slogan after slogan. I gotta be honest with you. 

[00:33:04]   
 I am offended, not as a person running to be your vice president, but as a fellow citizen. I am offended that a person who is so substanceless as Kamala Harris dares to think that she could be the president of the United States. It is a disgrace. I mean, you know, what does she want to do about Israel and the Middle east? 

[00:33:28]   
 She'll give you a slogan. How does she want to lower the price of groceries? She'll give you a platitude. How is she going to make the lives of her fellow citizens better and runs from the camera? A person like that has no business near being near the oval office of this country. We cannot let it happen. 

[00:33:45]   
 And I'd ask you, I mean, to all of you out here, this is one of the things that's at stake. I mean, look, I imagine at least I hope that you guys aren't thinking about voting for democrats in the future. But look, we cannot reward this kind of politics where they switch Joe Biden I from the ballot two months ago without a single vote being cast. 

[00:34:10]   
 She runs from the basement. She does a few softball interviews, and we think that person is tested enough to be president of the United States. It is insulting to american voters, and we have to reject it on November 5 by voting for Donald J. Trump. Let's do one more question. Yeah. 

[00:34:33]  Speaker E 
 Senator, really quickly, I watched your interview with New York Times. You brought up concerns about corporate censorship in the 2020 election. 

[00:34:43]  Speaker B 
 Sure. 

[00:34:44]  Speaker E 
 Was asked five times, do you think Donald Trump lost in 2020 so definitively? Can you say, separate from your concerns about corporate censorship, do you believe Trump lost in 2020? 

[00:35:03]  Speaker B 
 What, what I find, look, as I, as I said in that interview, and I'm going to say to you right now, I think the election of 2020 had serious problems. You want to call it rigged? Call it whatever you want to. It wasn't okay. It wasn't okay. Now, you guys, again, you look at President Trump's campaign, you look at what I'm doing out there. 

[00:35:25]   
 We are focused on fixing the disastrous consequences of Kamala Harris's governance. Why is the american media focused so much on relitigating 2020? Trust me. I know what I think. I've told you. I know what Donald Trump thinks. He's told you. I know what the people in this room think they've told you. You know what I'm a hell of a lot more worried about than what happened in 2020? 

[00:35:47]   
 I'm a hell of a lot more worried that american citizens can't afford a good life in their country because Kamala Harris has been the vice president. And that is what I'm trying to change. But, but look, but, but this is, I appreciate, y'all, but look, this, this is fundamentally, this is fundamentally, I think, the difference between how Republicans think about this issue, how Kamala Harris thinks about this issue, and frankly, I think how most Americans are on the side of the republican ticket here. 

[00:36:39]   
 What, what is a bigger, I mean, the american media ought to ask itself this question. What is the bigger threat to democracy that Donald Trump, even if you disagree with him, this is assuming you disagree with him, that Donald Trump litigated, as was his right, the 2020 election, or that major technology firms that are in bed with the Communist Chinese Party censored american citizens? 

[00:37:03]   
 Censorship is a way bigger threat to american democracy than anything the Republicans have done over the last five years. And I, this is something that I think is so important because what we really are at risk of and losing in this country if we lose this election is the right for you to speak your mind. 

[00:37:26]   
 If you thought that it was dumb that we were masking toddlers, three year olds at the height of COVID you ought to be able to speak your mind. If you think that it is ridiculous that Kamala Harris opened the border and let in tons of fentanyl. You ought to be able to speak your mind. 

[00:37:41]   
 If you think that it is disgraceful that we are spending billions of dollars on illegal aliens while our own veterans suffer from homelessness. You ought to be able to speak your mind. Agree or disagree? DOnald TRUMp and I will fight for the First Amendment because that is the most important right we have in the United States of America, and we're not going to forget it. 

[00:38:08]   
 And so that was the last question. But let me leave you with this final thought, because, look, this is what's at stake in this election. You see what the media, I think I was asked two or three questions about 2020. I don't know if I was asked a single question about inflation. I think I was maybe asked one question or maybe zero about american manufacturing and how to rebuild the middle class in this country. 

[00:38:36]   
 I think I was asked zero questions about the american southern border. What Kamala Harris and the media are doing is trying to tell us that we should care more about what happened four years ago than about her failure of governance. I think that on November 5, we are going to reject it, we're going to push back against it, and we are going to say the people's president, Donald J. 

[00:38:57]   
 Trump, is coming back to town to fight for all of us. God bless you guys. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here, and I'll see you soon. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Gentlemen, please welcome the next vice president of the United States. 

[00:39:11]  Speaker A 
 All right, we were just listening in as Senator JD Vance answered questions there at a rally in Pennsylvania, also driving home some of those points that he is doing in the battleground state. As we know, those numbers are usually really close as of right now. I do want to let you know, according to RCP polling right now, Trump is up in the state by just. 

[00:39:32]   
 .1% they're showing that the average polling shows Trump at 48.2% of the vote and Harris at 48.1. So certainly a race that we will continue to watch as several of these candidates have been visiting the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Trying their best to see if they can get their candidate in office. And before he did step up to the stage there, I do want to show you this tweet that was posted by reporter Reese Gorman. 

[00:39:58]   
 Senator JD Vance is touring JWF Defense systems in Johnstown, Pa. So you can see a look there as he's viewing some of the defense systems and technology that's coming out of that organization. So, another thing that was important with Senator Vance visiting the state there of Pennsylvania to get on the ground and meet with community members. 

[00:40:21]   
 So, of course, we did bring that to you live, raw and unfiltered, without any breaks. So we are going to step away now for our first break of the hour. And coming up again, we will continue some of our coverage of Hurricane Milton and the aftermath and the toll that is now taking on the state of Florida. 

[00:40:37]   
 Stay right here with us on live now.