Vance opposes military aid to Ukraine and defends Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Biden. (Photo: PTI)
Donald Trump’s running mate for vice president, Sen. J.D. Vance, presented himself to the nation Wednesday night as the son of a forgotten industrial town in Ohio who, if elected in November, will fight for the working class.
Vance, 39, described his journey from a troubled childhood to the U.S. Marines, Yale Law School, venture capitalism and ultimately the U.S. Senate. He introduced himself to Americans and used his story to show that he understands their daily struggles.
“I grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands, and loved their God, their family, their community, and their country with all their hearts,” Vance said at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “But it was also a place that had been pushed aside and forgotten by America’s ruling class in Washington.” “Career politicians” like President Joe Biden, Vance said, were responsible for trade policies and foreign wars that hurt communities like his.
“President Trump’s vision is simple — we will not cater to Wall Street, we will cater to the working man,” he was scheduled to say, according to excerpts released earlier. “We will not import foreign labor, we will fight for American people.” In a sign of his potential value to the ticket, he also planned to speak directly to working-class and middle-class voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — three Rust Belt swing states that will likely decide the Nov. 5 election.
Vance will remember his mother Beverly, a single mother who struggled with money and addiction.
“I’m proud to say tonight that my mother is here, 10 years clean and sober,” Vance will say, according to the excerpts.
Vance’s youth and populism make him well-positioned to continue Trump’s Make America Great Again movement beyond a potential second term.
His primetime debut, less than two years after taking his first public office, is the result of a meteoric rise and transformation from a fierce critic of Trump to one of his most loyal defenders.
As the author of the bestselling Hillbilly Elegy, he has helped translate Trump’s populist instincts into a policy agenda to reclaim the US from its dominant role on a global scale.
Vance opposed military aid to Ukraine and defended Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. At half Trump’s age, Vance may still have decades of influence ahead of him in the Republican Party.
He has argued that the government should do more to help the working class by restricting imports, raising the minimum wage and cracking down on corporate largesse. Those positions, which run counter to the Republican Party’s traditional pro-business stance, nevertheless closely follow Trump’s platform.
Democrats have already attacked Vance, highlighting his strict anti-abortion positions and claiming he will pursue a far-right agenda if in office.
Biden, their candidate, was forced off the campaign trail on Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19. The illness capped a tumultuous three weeks in which Biden struggled to reassure panicked Democrats that he could still beat Trump in the election after a lackluster June 27 debate performance.
Trump, whose right ear was still bandaged after being hit by a bullet from a would-be assassin during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, walked into the convention for the third night in a row to loud cheers, with James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” blaring throughout the arena. He shook hands with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the VIP box and pumped his fist in the air, muttering “thank you” to the crowd.
Hard speeches
The evening included a moving, emotional video in which families of soldiers killed during the 2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan blamed Biden for their deaths. The families then took the stage and expressed their anger, with some delegates wiping away tears.
Several speakers also launched aggressive and at times unfounded attacks on the Biden administration. The heated tone contradicted the message of national unity that Trump had promised to deliver after the attempt on his life at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House official who was released from prison earlier in the day after serving four months for contempt of Congress, received a huge round of applause as he took the stage on Wednesday.
Navarro, who was convicted for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters, said he, like Trump, was a victim of Biden’s “Ministry of Injustice.” Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that his four indictments since leaving office were part of a Democratic conspiracy to prevent his election.
Others focused on Biden’s border policies, a favorite target of Trump and his allies.
Tom Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Trump, said Biden was the first president in history to make the border “unsafe.”
“This is not a choice,” he said. “This is national suicide.” As he spoke, delegates waved signs reading “Mass Deportation Now!”
While border crossings reached record highs during Biden’s tenure, apprehensions plummeted in June after the president implemented a blanket asylum ban.
Trump has promised to launch the largest deportation effort of illegal immigrants in U.S. history.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: Jul 18, 2024 | 08:52 AM IST