The political battle heated up in the presidential race as candidates made stops in the Rust Belt, including in Michigan.
Outside the Shelby Township Police Department, Republican vice-presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance focused on Vice President Kamala Harris’s handling of the U.S. southern border while law enforcement and supporters rallied around him.
“We do not consent to an invasion of this country for millions of people who shouldn’t be here, and we’re going to deport people,” Vance said.
During Shelby Township Police Chief Robert Shelide’s introduction of Vance, he shared his department recently had three violent crimes involving suspects who entered the country illegally.
Vance also criticized Harris’s new running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, over his response to the unrest following the murder of George Floyd.
“As he was promoting rioters and looters burning down the city of Minneapolis, Harris was helping to bail the rioters and looters out of jail,” Vance said.
During a Q&A with reporters, I asked Vance what he thought about former President Donald Trump’s remarks on Vice President Harris’s racial background at the National Association of Black Journalists conference last week.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black,” Trump said at the conference. “Now, she wants to be known as Black.”
Will Jones: “You are married to an Indian American woman; you have biracial children. How do you explain his attacks? What is your reaction as a father of biracial children?”
JD Vance: “I took it as an attack on Kamala Harris being a chameleon. She pretends to be one thing when she’s in front of one audience. She pretends to be something else when she’s in front of another audience. She fakes who she is depending on the audience that she is front of.”
Will Jones: “If she is both Indian and Black, how can she fake her race?”
JD Vance: “She fakes who she is depending on the audience that she is in front of.”
Trump supporter Dan Vanlacken agrees.
“She plays to her audience,” said Vanlacken. “If she is in a Black audience, she will play to that part. If she is in front of a different audience, she will play to that part.”
Related: ‘When we fight, we win’: Kamala Harris holds largest rally of campaign at Detroit Metro Airport
