Read the full transcript of Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s Q&A session during rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday, September 17, 2024.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Childcare and Family Policies
AUDIENCE: Family members should help out more. Unfortunately, that is not a reality for every Wisconsin family. So what policies do you and former President Trump support that would make childcare more accessible for our hardworking Wisconsin families?
J.D. VANCE: Yeah, so one, I didn’t say that grandparents should help out more. I said that our government should make it easier for grandparents to help out more. And that’s a very important distinction because if you look at the public policies we have in this country, we spend a lot of money on childcare and rightfully so. There are a lot of families out there who are struggling with childcare and we wanna make it easier for them. Look, the way I think about it is we want options, right?
If you’re a young mom or you’re a young dad, you wanna spend more time at home with the kids, we should make that easier. If you want to go back to the work after a couple years, we should make that easier. If you wanna go to work right away, we just want people to be able to fulfill their dreams as they see them. That’s what’s great about this wonderful country of ours is everybody’s got something a little bit different, but here’s the issue right now.
Right now, government policy prioritizes one model of business-provided daycare. And there’s nothing wrong, by the way, with that one model, but we ought to be promoting other access options for a lot of families. Like for example, maybe you wanna send your kid to a daycare, but maybe you wanna send your kid to a church daycare. Or maybe you’d like to be able to get together with other families in your neighborhood to try to do something where each of you is taking care of the kids in your own way.
Maybe one person takes one day off, one person takes Tuesday off, one person takes Wednesday off. Maybe that means that grandparents would actually like to be able to help out a little bit more, but they can’t financially because they can’t afford to take off from their own jobs to help out with mom and dad and the kids. There are so many different options out there, but what does the government subsidize? Just one.
We only subsidize, we only support one model in this country. And what President Trump and I believe is that we ought to support every model. We ought to let people make their own choices in family care, not try to force one government-sized, fits-all approach on everybody. But look, we have gotta get this right.
And we talk a lot about inflation, we talk a lot about groceries being more expensive, we talk a lot about housing being more expensive, but I meet families every single day out on the campaign trail, and some of the stories they’re telling me, I mean, you get two kids in daycare paying $25,000 a year in childcare. I actually heard from somebody just yesterday who has two children in daycare and actually is losing money by going to work because of how expensive daycare is. And again, we gotta just give people options, we gotta give people choice. And there are two programs here, the Child Development Block Grant, and there’s another block grant where the federal government sends a lot of money to the states.
We ought to be using that money in a way that benefits all families, not just the one-size-government-fits-all method. And that’ll promote options in childcare, that’ll make our kids happier, that’ll make our moms and dads happier, too. Thank you.
Rural Healthcare Crisis
AUDIENCE: Hi, James Kelly with Civic Media. Right now in the Chippewa Valley, we’re facing a healthcare crisis with the abrupt closure of two hospitals earlier this year, as well as a number of clinics. I’m glad you mentioned providing actual concrete answers to questions. What concrete plans would your administration have to protect rural healthcare access?
J.D. VANCE: So there are a couple things here. So first of all, this goes back to the immigration issue. And why does it go back to the immigration issue? Because a lot of our rural hospitals are bearing the burden of providing healthcare to millions of people who shouldn’t be in this country to begin with. And so those hospitals go bankrupt, and then a lot of American citizens can’t afford healthcare.
Now, you might not think that rural healthcare access is an immigration issue. I guarantee it is an immigration issue because we’re bankrupting a lot of hospitals by forcing these hospitals provide care for people who don’t have the legal right to be in our country. We’ve got to stop that. Kick these illegal aliens out, focus on American citizens, and we will do a lot to make the business of rural healthcare much more affordable.
Now, there are a couple of other things that we can do, too. So one option, and this is something that President Trump is very proud of, and rightfully so, he provided a lot of choice to veterans in healthcare because, look, a lot of folks in rural areas, they live maybe 15 minutes away from a viable clinic, but two hours away, an hour and a half drive from a VA medical center. So why does it make sense to make a Vietnam veteran drive three hours or four hours round trip to get healthcare when it would actually be cheaper for the government and also better access for that veteran to get it 15 minutes away from his home? So give more choice to people, and then that veteran’s going to a local service provider, which, again, makes that business model a little bit more viable.
And here’s the problem. The reason why all these rural health systems are going out of business is we’re sending everybody to get healthcare services two hours away, and if there aren’t enough patients for those rural health systems, then they are going to go out of business.
So we’ve got to promote access. We’ve got to make it easier for folks to get to those hospital systems in the first place.
I just gave you a couple answers, cut down on illegal immigration, promote veteran choice, but there’s a lot more that we could do beyond that. And I think when Donald Trump and I are president, we will.
IVF Bill and Senate Vote
AUDIENCE: Hi, again. I’m Kim with WEAU. I didn’t say that before. My bad. The Senate today blocked an IVF bill. Do you have any comments you want to share about that, especially considering last time Trump was in western Wisconsin, he shared his support for that?
J.D. VANCE: So I think we have to be careful here because the Senate did not block an IVF bill. The Senate blocked a ridiculous show-vote bill that had no chance of passing. And I think it highlights one of the problems that I really have with Kamala Harris’ entire approach to government. We have to remember, Kamala Harris is the vice president of the United States.
Chuck Schumer, her ally in Congress, is the Senate majority leader. You have in the U.S. Senate right now probably 100 votes or maybe 99 votes that support fertility treatment and want to make it easier for young women to get access to fertility treatment. Now, did Kamala Harris and Chuck Schumer come together and produce a bipartisan bill?
No. They shoved through a vote today knowing it would have no chance of passing because they wanted to be able to say, we support IVF and the other guys don’t. But that’s not a real support of IVF. That’s political showmanship, and I think Wisconsinites are sick of it.
Let’s do real legislation and real policy in this country, not these ridiculous show-votes. And I, by the way, I take this a little personally because the most significant bipartisan legislation to get out of any committee the last two years in the United States Senate was a railway safety bill that I authored with some of my Democratic colleagues, okay? And the basic idea of this bill, by the way, is trains shouldn’t be able to crash into rural communities or urban communities without any consequences. So we’re going to make those train companies operate a little bit more safely.
That bill right now could pass the United States Senate. Chuck Schumer’s not bringing it up because he’s not interested in making policy. And Kamala Harris, she’s not interested in making policy. They’re interested in ridiculous show-votes so that they can win elections.
The American people deserve more. They deserve competent government. They deserve people who do things who don’t just talk about doing stuff.
AUDIENCE: Thank you, Senator. This is Veronica from CNN. If I could ask a follow-up question on the IVF bill. How can voters trust lawmakers’ sincerity to protect IVF if both parties keep blocking every proposal from moving forward?
J.D. VANCE: Well, look, I just answered that question. And what I said is it is not an IVF bill. It’s a Democrat show bill to say that they support IVF, when if they really supported access to fertility treatments, they would pass legislation that did exactly that, and they would get every single person in the United States Senate to vote for it.
It’s really not that complicated here. The problem that Republicans have, just substantively, the problem Republicans have with the bill that they’re pushing in the Senate right now is that it would be a huge infringement on religious liberty. I want to protect people’s access to fertility treatments. I’d also like to protect Christian hospitals’ right to conduct their hospitals as they see fit.
And you can do both of those things. We’re a big enough country. And again, I think it highlights something where Kamala Harris’ record is so, so different from her actual, what she says on the campaign trail. Her record’s totally different from what she talks about.
Because look, this is a person who says that she wants to turn the page on the culture wars. Well, we have a piece of legislation that could get 99 or 100 senators right now that would protect fertility treatments and promote access to fertility treatments. She’s not working on that. She’s not working on that legislation.
She would rather use fertility treatments as a weapon politically instead of get something done for the American people. Donald Trump and I think totally differently about government. Let’s get things done for the American people, even if you have to take political costs to do it.
Immigration and Media Coverage
AUDIENCE: Hi, Senator Vance. Katrina Kaufman, CBS News. So, a woman who was behind an early Facebook post about the Haitian migrants in Springfield has now apologized for spreading false rumors. You say that you have a responsibility to share what your constituents tell you, but don’t you also have a responsibility to fact-check them first?
J.D. VANCE: Well, I think the media has a responsibility to fact-check the residents of Springfield, not lie about them. And look, I think this is really interesting. I actually think this is really interesting, and I’ve learned a lot about the American media over the last week, and none of it’s good, by the way, ladies and gentlemen. But look, what I’ve learned here is, first of all, I’ve got residents of Springfield who are coming to me with a dozen different problems.
They’ve been talking about it for months or, in some cases, years. The American media totally ignored it until they showed up to fact-check what some people were saying about pets. Well, why weren’t you in Springfield, Ohio, six months ago talking about the housing crisis? Why wasn’t the American media in Springfield, Ohio, six months ago talking about skyrocketing rates of accidents, of car insurance?
Why weren’t they talking about the rural health care problems? Why weren’t they talking about the rural health care problem because the hospitals have been overwhelmed? Why aren’t they talking about the fact that in a small town, you’ve got a school district that now has 1,000, that’s not an exaggeration, 1,000 children who don’t even speak English. How are the American children supposed to get a good education when everybody’s focused on the other kids?
Who, by the way, are innocent children, but that doesn’t mean they should be at 1,000 in every single American school. So here’s the issue. So there’s one story out there from multiple people, by the way, multiple, multiple people have come to my office, have said on video, they talk about the pet story. And that’s all the American media wants to talk about.
And, of course, the American media goes into Springfield, dives in, harasses everybody who dares to complain about the condition of the town. That is not journalism, and that’s not speaking the truth. That is bullying on an industrial scale. And I think the media ought to be ashamed of itself.
And let me just highlight this in a very real way. Yesterday, we got a call from a constituent in my office, a person who’s very worried about a lot of the problems in Springfield and has direct eyewitness evidence bearing on a lot of them. You know what this person said? Please do not share my name with anybody because the minute somebody in Springfield speaks out, a dozen camera crews show up on their front door trying to destroy their lives.
That is disgraceful. That is a disgraceful way to think about journalism and speaking of truth in this country. You ought to go in and listen to everybody. By all means, listen to local officials. By all means, listen to the people who say everything’s fine. But listen to the people who say this town has been overwhelmed by 20,000 migrants and they can’t take it anymore. And by the way, that story of a small town overwhelmed by Kamala Harris’s open border, it is coming to every state in this union under Kamala Harris’s policies. We’ve got to stop it.
Same-Sex Marriage
AUDIENCE: Hey, Senator, Taylor Popielarz with Spectrum News. Thank you for the time. Last night, you spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition dinner in Georgia. The coalition says on its website that it, quote, supports public policies that strengthen traditional marriage. As voters are learning about you as a vice presidential nominee, they’ll learn that you were baptized as Catholic in 2019 and that you speak at events like this. Can you clarify where you stand on same-sex marriage?
J.D. VANCE: Look, Taylor, I think this issue has long sailed in this country. Nobody, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is the law of the land, and nobody is trying to change that. That is not an issue that we’re focused on at all in this country, and I mean not at all whether you’re pro or anti. Most people recognize that ship has sailed, and certainly, President Trump, you know what we’re focused on? We’re focused on making groceries more affordable for American citizens. We’re focused.
Republican Party’s Focus
J.D. VANCE: We’re focused on making housing more affordable. We’re focused on bringing peace back to the world. We’re focused on solving the problems that a national government ought to solve. Whether you’re gay or straight, you are welcome in Donald Trump’s Republican Party, so long as you believe in common sense.
So long as you believe in common sense, you’re welcome in Donald Trump’s Republican Party, and I got to say, we should ask ourselves, how is it that Donald Trump managed a coalition to assemble a coalition that is Brian Kemp, Nikki Haley, Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy, and Tulsi Gabbard? What could that possibly mean other than the Democrats have gone loony and we’re the party of common sense?
Springfield Visit and Communication with Governor DeWine
AUDIENCE: Hi, Senator. Thank you for taking our questions. My question for you is, do you plan to visit Springfield anytime soon, and Governor DeWine said at a press conference today that you guys haven’t spoken since the events in Springfield have played out. Do you plan to reach out to him?
J.D. VANCE: Well, first of all, our office has been in constant contact with the governor’s office, and Springfield, Ohio, I mean, I’ve probably been to Springfield a hundred times in my life. It’s a town about 45 minutes away from where I grew up. It’s got, like, a very famous ice cream place, and if you know anything about me, I love my ice cream, and so I’ve taken my kids there any number of times. We probably have some pretty good ice cream in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, I imagine, right?
But, look, I do want to go to Springfield, and I do want to talk with folks on the ground. We also have to be honest that they’ve got a local law enforcement agency that are stressed out by what’s going on, including the influx of 20,000 migrants. Is it the best interest of Springfield for me to show up with a 40-person-strong Secret Service detail right now? Maybe not. So we’re going to do what’s in the best interest of the citizens of Springfield, but we’re going to keep in contact.
I mean, every single day, we’re hearing from multiple people on the ground in Springfield trying to understand what’s going on and trying to help where we can, and that’s what we’re going to keep on doing, and certainly we’re going to visit, but we’re going to visit in a way that’s consistent with the best interest of the residents of the town.
And finally, let me just remind, just while we’re on the topic of Springfield, we have to remember here, Springfield is a microcosm of what Kamala Harris’s open border is going to do in every town and every city in this country. Now, the promise, these guys actually say the promise is that if we bring in millions and millions of illegal, low-wage migrants, we are going to make America more prosperous. That’s what they say.
Well, check the tape on what’s going on in Springfield. You get people getting evicted, thrown out of their houses to make way for migrants who are on housing benefits, paid for by your tax dollars, evicting American citizens. We’ve got an overwhelmed hospital system, an overwhelmed school system. We’ve got residents, black and white, by the way, who talk about not even driving on certain sides of town because the car accident rates are so bad.
And, of course, that’s jacked up car insurance rates for all the people in this town. It is an unbelievable tragedy, totally unforced, invited by Kamala Harris’s open border, and it must stop.
Response to Vice President Harris’s Comments
AUDIENCE: Hi, Senator. Katelyn Caralle with the Daily Mail. Vice President Harris said again today that the, quote, hateful rhetoric over migrants eating pets is what has caused the bomb threats in Springfield. Can you just respond to her latest, please, on this?
J.D. VANCE: I think… That’s basically my response. Just put that in the paper. Loud boos and two thumbs down. That’s my response to what Kamala Harris said. All right, look.
You guys are going to get me all fired up again. I was really upset when she said that. I was really upset when she said that. I was really upset when she said that. I was really upset when she said that. I was really upset when she said that. You guys are going to get me all fired up again. I was ready to leave.
Here’s the thing about this. What happened in Springfield is not just disgraceful because it’s made people’s lives worse. What’s happened is disgraceful because the way that Kamala Harris and her media allies have tried to silence the people from daring to complain that life has gotten worse in their own community, in their own country. Think about this.
Think about this. The argument was that because Donald Trump and I and the many, many hundreds of residents of Springfield that we’ve talked to in the last few weeks, because we dared to point out that life has gotten worse for those citizens, we are somehow to blame because a psychopath called in a bomb threat. Now that story actually got a little bit more complicated in the last 24 hours because you know who was calling in the bomb threats? People who were living in foreign countries.
Mike DeWine, the governor of Ohio, came out and said the bomb threats are coming from foreign countries and he actually said primarily one country. I’d like to know what country that is. But look, the media is laundering literal foreign disinformation in an effort to silence the citizens of their own country from participating in an American election. It is despicable and it has to stop.
We cannot… Think about it. Let’s just say, God forbid, these bomb threats were being called in from America and not from a foreign country. It actually doesn’t change it that much because look, bomb threats are despicable. We condemn violence and of course we condemn threats of violence but we do not believe in a heckler’s veto in this country. The fact that some psychopath is calling in bomb threats, does that mean the residents of Springfield are not allowed to be annoyed about housing crisis? Does that mean that they’re not allowed to complain about 20,000 migrants being dropped on their doorstep? Does that mean a mom is not allowed to have a baby for so long that her kids can’t get treatment for basic medical conditions?
That is a ridiculous principle and the principle, actually, if you think about it, it’s all about censorship. It’s moral blackmail in the favor of censorship and I reject it, whoever’s doing it.
AUDIENCE: Hi Senator, Jake Traylor, NBC News. You made remarks on Sunday that you don’t speak on behalf of former President Trump before you’ve spoken to him about an issue. I know you said the likelihood of a federal abortion ban coming to a president’s desk is very unlikely but given the topicality of the issue of abortion, don’t you think that’s something running mates should have discussed before?
J.D. VANCE: Well we have discussed the topic of abortion many, many times. To be fair, I think he’s right about this. We shouldn’t take the media bait. We shouldn’t discuss things that aren’t actually going to become law in this country. So when he says I think that abortion should be a state’s issue and he says that I’m not backing a national abortion ban, then that should be enough to end the discussion. You take him for his word or you don’t but the idea… You could ask a million different pieces of legislation would you veto that piece of legislation and I wouldn’t have talked to Donald Trump about it unless he actually supports the substance of those legislations.
So let’s not engage in stupid hypotheticals. Let’s not engage in something that’s never actually going to happen. The president thinks abortion should be decided by the states. He’s been as consistent as he could about that issue.
Springfield Situation and Media Reporting
AUDIENCE: I appreciate you inviting the tough questions and your crowd welcoming the tough questions here. The question is about Springfield, not about the situation but the style. Which I think is something new that we’re seeing on the campaign trail. You’ve said regardless of what the exact precise facts are here, it’s worth it to make the larger point of in town overrun by immigration.
J.D. VANCE: Mike, I’ll let you ask your question but no, I didn’t say regardless of the precise facts. I said you have to listen to what people are saying. The media has tried to say now for days that I’ve made up this story, I haven’t made up anything. I’ve just listened to people who are telling me these things.
And when I said, and the media always does this, they’re very dishonest, when I say that I created a story, I’m talking about the media story. By focusing the press’s attention on what’s going on in Springfield, I’m not making anything up. I’m just telling you what my own constituents are telling me. But ask your question.
AUDIENCE: That’s the point. Your willingness to shine a light on issues you see as important. And I’m wondering if you can describe if you know where your line is on that. At what point, what’s something you’re willing not to say in order to make a point that is important to you?
J.D. VANCE: Well, I mean… Come on, if you know. Mike… Well, Mike… Here’s a question for him, not the crowd. What I wouldn’t say is that the New York Times is a respectable paper. That’s one thing I wouldn’t be willing to say. Look, all kidding aside, if one person had called me and said, I’m seeing this in Springfield, we maybe let that pass.
When four, five, six, seven people are telling me they see something in Springfield and on top of it, that there are certain people who refuse to listen to them, refuse to take their concerns seriously, that’s when it’s my job as a United States Senator to listen to my constituents. That’s really… It’s very simple.
Now… I mean, look, there’s a lot of crazy stuff you read about. One of these things, I don’t know if you saw the story from a couple years ago that the Defense Department had declassified the UFO stuff. Did you see that? That was a crazy story.
I don’t talk about that because I have no idea what’s going on. The standard for whether I talk about something, Mike, is whether enough people that I trust bring it to me, at least to the point where I feel like I’ve got to investigate it myself, not just trust the media to do their job because a lot of times, they don’t. By the way, to all the journalists there, if you do know anything about the UFO story, please tell us because we’re very fascinated by it.
Closing Remarks
J.D. VANCE: Let me leave you with just one final thought here. One thing that people ask me, and it’s very sweet, it’s very kind of them to ask me, but they always ask me how we’re doing. They ask me and Anusha how we’re doing. I’ll say that in a lot of ways, running for the Vice Presidency, I know why they ask, because they assume that running for the Vice Presidency is hard, but honestly, it’s been the great professional honor of my life to get up here and ask you to be your next Vice President of the United States. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
I wouldn’t ever complain about it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The thought I wanted to leave you with is a fellow Waterboy fan over here. I know why people ask, but let me just say this. First of all, it’s a lot easier to run for Vice President than it is to run for Senate. Ohio’s not that different from Wisconsin in a lot of ways.
Running for Senate in the state of Ohio, I rode around in the back of one of my guys’ used Subarus, and now I ride around in a 737. That’s a pretty nice upgrade. Not bad. But what I wish that I could do is give every single one of you the perspective that I’ve gotten over this beautiful country over the last seven weeks.
Because you fly into places like Eau Claire, and we were in Grand Rapids earlier today, and trust me, as a Buckeye, it’s hard to compliment the state of Michigan, but it is a beautiful state. It really is one of the most beautiful states in the Union. You go to Arizona, and you see these beautiful, beautiful deserts and natural landmarks. You go into Nevada. You go into Pennsylvania, the mountains of central Pennsylvania, and I just every single day, I cannot help but think, my God, this is a beautiful, beautiful country. It really is.
And… … I think the one thing that we ought to do, and one thing we have to do over the next seven weeks, is remind the American people that, yes, this is a beautiful country. We’ve got the best workers. We’ve got the best cultural and historical traditions.
We have got every single bounty that God could possibly give a nation, including natural resources, that the Chinese and the Russians, they would love to have. The only thing that’s broken about this country is the failed leadership of Kamala Harris. Let’s send her back to San Francisco, and give the country a president it deserves. God bless you all.
