US Senator JD Vance delivered his first speech after being formally nominated as Trump’s running mate on the third day of the Republican National Convention (RNC).
During his participation, the conservative from Ohio presented himself as a candidate open to concessions who seeks, as other big names in the party have already expressed, unity.
“My message to you, my fellow Republicans, is this: We love this country and we are united to win. And our differences actually make us stronger,” he opened his speech.
Vance then presented a political record of President Joe Biden, linking the Democrat’s policies while he was a senator to the challenges facing his hometown.
The Republican candidate recalled Biden’s support for outsourcing American jobs to other nations and the defense of the Iraq war, issues already addressed by Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, which elected him at the time.
Vance indirectly touched on a major challenge Biden currently faces within his own party: age. The 39-year-old Ohio senator listed a series of moments he experienced during his life when Biden, 81, was already holding political office.
When the Republican was in fourth grade, President Joe Biden, then a senator, voted in favor of a North American Free Trade Agreement that hurt many working-class voters.
“When I was in fourth grade, a career politician named Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good American manufacturing jobs to Mexico,” Vance said.
He continued: “When I was a sophomore in high school, a career politician named Joe Biden gave China a lucrative trade deal that destroyed even more good middle-class jobs. And when I was a senior in high school, Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq.”
Vance then accused the Democratic president of contributing to the problems in his Midwestern hometown. “And every step of the way, in small towns like mine in Ohio, or in neighboring Pennsylvania, or in Michigan and other states across our country, employees were sent overseas and children were sent to war.”
“Joe Biden made a mistake, and my community paid the price,” he said. “I was lucky. Despite the factory closures and the growing addiction in towns like mine, in my life, I had a guardian angel by my side. She was an old woman who could barely walk, but she was tough as nails,” Vance said, recalling his difficult upbringing by his grandmother, whom he considers his mother.
Trump’s running mate also took advantage of the speech to praise the former president.
He defended Trump by portraying him as a resilient figure in the face of criminal charges he faces in court and, more recently, an assassination attempt that left the former president with an injured right ear.
“They accused him of being a tyrant. They said he must be stopped at all costs. But how did he respond? He called for national unity, national calm, literally in the aftermath of a murderer nearly taking his life. He remembered the victims of the horrific attack, especially the brave Corey Comperatore, who gave his life to protect his family.” [menção ao bombeiro morto durante o comício do dia 13 de julho]. And then President Trump flew to Milwaukee and went back to work,” he said.
Senator JD Vance was introduced as a vice presidential candidate on Monday (15).
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