North Carolinians would fare better economically under a second Trump administration than they have under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance said Wednesday during a rally at Raleigh’s Union Station.

Vance acknowledged that he is a former critic of former President Donald Trump and said it would be impossible for the running mates to be in 100% lockstep agreement on every issue. But Harris, he said, has abandoned the agenda she ran on during her 2020 presidential campaign. 

“She has flip-flopped on literally every single proposal that she ran on in 2020 and now she says she doesn’t believe,” Vance said. Harris, he continued, could walk into the room and put on a red “Make America Great Again” hat, because she is “running on a Trump agenda.”

“I actually stand in front of the American people and explain why [“I’ve changed my mind on certain issues],” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind in this country, but when you change your mind, you ought to explain to the American people why.”

An oft-cited criticism of the Harris campaign has been her lack of scheduled interviews. Vance stated that he believes she’s only sat down for two interviews since the start of her campaign. 

“If you want to be the American people’s president, you ought to not be afraid of the friendly American media,” Vance said. Subsequently, he fielded questions from the media for 25 minutes. 

During an Asheboro campaign stop in August, Vance criticized the Biden administration for failing to secure the United States-Mexico border over the last three and a half years. Vance received a question regarding his comments about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, a town which he represents as a United States Senator. 

Vance responded that while the media often states the 15,000 Haitian immigrants are legally documented, the Biden-Harris administration used two separate programs — mass parole and temporary protective status — to “wave a wand” and choose not to deport these immigrants. 

“Who in this room, who in this country, consented to allowing millions of aliens to come into this country?” Vance asked. “None of us did.” The “shamelessness” of the current president, he added,  prevents border patrol agents from doing their job while simultaneously declaring those who complain about the influx as racists. 

“Very often, the people who suffer the most from Kamala Harris’s open borders are people of Latino descent or they’re Black Americans whose family has been in this country for nine or 10 generations,” Vance said. 

In his final pitch to voters, Vance shared details from Trump’s phone call to him following a second assassination attempt on his life last Sunday. 

“What you really want is not a person you agree with all the time,” Vance said. “What you really want is a person who is level-headed and calm in the midst of a crisis, and that is Donald J. Trump.”

Vance recognized Lieutenant Governor candidate Hal Weatherman, North Carolina Republican Party chair Jason Simmons and House Speaker Tim Moore, who were all in attendance. He also acknowledged Congressional candidates Addison McDowell, Brad Knott and Pat Harrigan. 

For questions or comments, or to pass along story ideas, please write to Matthew Sasser at [email protected] or contact the NC Insider at [email protected] or @StateAffairsNC 

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