- JD Vance spoke to supporters in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, on Monday.
- READ MORE: You can follow the latest developments on our live politics blog
Sen. JD Vance on Monday held his first solo campaign event since being selected as Donald Trump’s running mate and criticized elite Democrats for the way they catapulted Kamala Harris into the presidential race.
He returned to his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, where he showed off the attack-dog style that won Trump over.
He accused Harris of lying about Biden’s suitability for office as she sought to portray her party as the party of democracy.
“The idea that you’re going to select the Democratic Party nominee because George Soros, Barack Obama and a couple of elite Democrats got together in a smoke-filled room and decided to throw Joe Biden overboard… That’s not how it works,” he said.
“That is a threat to democracy… not to the Republican Party, which fights for democracy every day.”
JD Vance holds his first solo campaign event since becoming Donald Trump’s running mate in Middletown, Ohio, where he attacked Kamala Harris.
Harris has been anointed as Joe Biden’s successor by party leaders and power players since the president shocked the world by announcing he would not seek re-election on Sunday.
The move offers a gift to the Trump campaign, which has been repeatedly attacked by Biden for endangering American democracy.
Trump and his allies have been able to accuse their opponents of organizing a partisan coup.
Vance, 39, described Harris as entitled and arrogant, and said he was disappointed he would now be unlikely to face her in the vice presidential debate.
“I was told I was going to debate Kamala Harris and now President Trump is going to debate her,” he said. “I’m a little angry about that.”
The Trump campaign plans to make the most of Vance’s tough upbringing in Ohio and deploy him in Rust Belt states that are central to Democrats’ path to the White House.
She echoed Republican attack lines and ads that portrayed Harris as an enabler for Biden, when he was in decline.
“Kamala Harris lied about it. My Senate Democratic colleagues lied about it, the media lied about it,” she told the crowd. “Every single person who saw Joe Biden knew he wasn’t capable of doing the job.”
Vance took the stage with his wife Usha, a driving force in his political awakening.
Supporters wait in line outside a rally for Republican vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) at Middletown High School in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio.
He said he and Trump were grateful for the opportunity to serve.
“If you want to lead this country, you have to be grateful for it. You have to feel a sense of gratitude,” he said.
“And I never hear that gratitude when I hear Kamala Harris.”
Vance was named Trump’s running mate last week and appeared alongside the former president at the Republican convention and at a rally in Grand Rapids over the weekend.
He took the stage on Monday with his wife Usha and quickly demonstrated that he has learned a few Trumpisms.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, fired up the crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan, before the former president made their first appearance together at a rally.
“It’s great to be back home for once, isn’t it?” he said. “We have an amazing crowd here.”
“We had hundreds of people outside who couldn’t even get in.”
Trump frequently exaggerates the size of his audiences and frequently claims that thousands of people are trapped outside rally sites (as he did on Saturday).
Vance’s attack on Harris shows how quickly he had to change his stance after Biden announced he was withdrawing.
“President Trump and I are ready to save America, whoever is at the top of the Democratic ticket,” he posted on X on Sunday. “Bring it on.”