J.D. Vance shuts down ‘haters’ who BOOED him during firefighters speech by revealing his initial thoughts on Donald Trump
- Senator Vance told the crowd: ‘I wasn’t a Trump man before, either’
Senator JD Vance called for firefighters to be booed during a conference in Boston on Thursday.
The Republican vice presidential candidate settled for the overwhelming boos that came atop the cheers at the International Association of Firefighters conference as he urged firefighters to give him a chance to make his “pitch” and earn their votes.
“It seems like we have fans and haters, and that’s fine,” Vance said.
But he urged the audience to “listen to what I have to say here and then I will tell my story.”
Senator JD Vance gave his “talk” about the booing of firefighters’ votes at a conference in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday: “This may come as a shock to you, but I was not a Trump guy once either.”
The Ohio Republican delivered a speech in the liberal city just one day after his Democratic opponent for the vice presidential nomination, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, delivered a speech to the same audience.
Vance acknowledged that many of those at Thursday’s conference are not Trump fans and recounted his history of not supporting the former president and now joining his ticket for 2024. He explained that it was a firefighter friend, Matt, who changed his mind.
“I know, this is a diverse union, some of you love President Trump and some of you clearly don’t. I’ve heard from both sides who just gave this little speech,” Vance said.
“This may come as a shock to you, but there was a time when I wasn’t a Trump guy either,” he joked. “And believe me, the president will never let me forget that.”
“What you may not know is why I changed my mind,” he continued. “And a big part of that was actually a firefighter friend from Dayton, Ohio, who convinced me that I was wrong about Donald Trump and that he was right.”
Vance’s pivot from “never Trump” to “supporting him” and now joining him in the race for the White House has been widely reported in the news.
And the Republican senator has looked that reality straight in the eye, claiming his thoughts about the former president changed over time as he saw how good his policies were for America.
“Over the last 70 years, union membership in this country has declined, and that’s not good. The influence of unions has declined, and the wages of working people, both union and non-union, have not kept pace with inflation over the last three and a half years,” Vance said during his speech in Boston on Thursday.
“I want to ask you a question that Donald Trump asked America in 2016: What on earth do you have to lose?” he concluded.
Vance’s comments came the day after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke at the same firefighting conference
Vance also drew boos from the audience when he said at another point in his speech, “President Trump and I are proud to be the most pro-labor Republican ticket in history.”
Unions and their members generally prefer to vote for the Democrats because the party is known for promoting policies that are more favorable to this demographic.
But this year, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien made history by speaking on the first night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in July.
Democrats typically get a coveted endorsement from the Teamsters, a union that represents more than 1.3 million members from a wide range of industries, from truck drivers and transportation workers to health care, food and beverage and construction workers.
The Teamsters have yet to officially endorse a candidate for the 2024 race.