J.D. Vance: I Can Ignore What My Constituents Are Telling Me, Like the Media Does, Or I Can Listen to Them

BASH: “Here with me now is Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, who represents Ohio in the U.S. Senate. Thank you for being here, sir. So, the mayor of Springfield, Ohio, Rob Rue, said, ‘All these federal politicians that have negatively spun our city, they need to know they’re hurting our city, and it was their words that did it.’ Before Donald Trump talked about eating dogs and cats on a debate stage, it was you, Senator, who first elevated this baseless rumor. These are your constituents. So, why are you putting them at risk by continuing to spread claims about Haitian immigrants, despite officials in your state saying that there’s no evidence and pleading for you to stop?”
Vance: “Well, Dana, first of all, what’s putting the residents of Springfield at risk, which was a town completely ignored by the American media until Donald Trump and I started surfacing some of these concerns, is that they can’t afford housing, they can’t afford health care. The schools have been overwhelmed. The hospitals have been overwhelmed. And they’re overwhelmed because Kamala Harris allowed 20,000 Haitian migrants to get dropped into a small Ohio town of about 40,000 people, and it’s completely overwhelmed the services. Now, you ask, why have I talked about some of the things that I have been talking about? Let me just say this. My constituents have brought approximately a dozen separate concerns to me, 10 of them are verifiable and confirmable, and a couple of them I talk about because my constituents are telling me firsthand that they’re seeing these things. So I have two options, Dana. I could ignore them, which is what the American media has done for years to this community, or I can actually talk about what people are telling me. And, of course, many of the things that the media says are completely baseless have since been confirmed. For example, I was told, Dana, that the American — by the American media that it was baseless that migrants were capturing the geese from the local park pond and eating them. And yet there are 911 calls from well before this ever became a viral sensation of people complaining about that exact thing happening. So my attitude is, listen to my constituents. Sometimes, they’re going to say things that people don’t like, but they’re saying things that people don’t like because their town has been overwhelmed, and it’s my job to try to fight for them and to protect them. Kamala Harris opened the border, and now these people are suffering. That’s what I’m focused on, Dana.”