JD Vance in Michigan: Kamala Harris a ‘disaster’ on the economy

• Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance spoke Tuesday in Big Rapids near the site of a controversial planned EV battery plant
• Vance criticized Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, the vice president, for high prices resulting from inflation
• Vance also made some false claims about jobs and trade

In his third solo visit to Michigan, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance on Tuesday accused Vice President Kamala Harris of being “a cog in the wheel of a very corrupt system” who would usher in economic devastation.

Speaking in Big Rapids, Vance told a crowd of supporters “the biggest heist in American history happened right under Kamala Harris' nose: Somebody stole 818,000 jobs that she and Tim Walz have been bragging about.”

He pointed to recent revisions by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

In reconciling its own jobs estimates with state unemployment numbers, the bureau discovered it had overstated national employment growth by about 28%. Michigan job numbers, which have grown in recent years, did not change. 

In a roughly 20-minute speech, Vance presented a vision of a Michigan economic downturn under President Joe Biden and Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. He cast his campaign alongside former President Donald Trump as a chance to reverse course.

“Americans can't afford groceries because of your leadership, Kamala, young people can't afford homes because of the policies that you've enacted as vice president,” Vance said, referencing inflation rate spikes in 2021 and 2022. 

“Now the only serious consequence in November that I'm worried about is giving Kamala Harris a disastrous promotion."

At the outdoor rally Vance was ensconced behind a semi-circle of bulletproof glass, something the Secret Service has also employed for Trump since he survived an assassination attempt July 13.

Ahead of Vance’s event, Harris’ campaign held a press conference in Grand Rapids, where surrogates went on the attack, linking Trump to a conservative policy blueprint his former aides worked on but he has publicly disavowed. 

“Donald Trump and JD Vance are running on a Project 2025 agenda that’ll raise costs on middle-class families while giving more tax breaks to the ultra rich and America's biggest corporations,” said Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Grand Rapids.

Facts fudged on jobs, trade

In his latest Michigan speech, Vance turned to a common argument against Harris, the sitting vice president: That she should be working to enact her proposals now, rather than making promises for the future.

“Stop talking about what you're going to do; start talking about what you are going to do right now, because you're the vice president,” Vance said. “And what she has done has been a disaster.”

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• Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris’ husband, to campaign in Grand Rapids

But Vance's critiques of Harris’ record and key economic numbers under the Biden administration didn’t always hit the mark. 

Vance correctly noted that Stellantis announced it would “lay off nearly 2,500 proud Michigan auto workers making the iconic RAM 1500 Classic” but went further by arguing, “She is undoing the incredible work that Donald Trump did to rebuild American manufacturing.”

Job numbers don’t support that. 

Michigan has added manufacturing jobs at a faster rate under Biden than it had under Trump, even when accounting for the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And even with the Stellantis cuts, Michigan vehicle manufacturing jobs will still be up under Biden. 

As of July, Michigan had 46,700 vehicle manufacturing jobs, up from 41,500 when Biden took office in January 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Vehicle manufacturing job numbers were effectively flat under Trump.

Vance also falsely claimed Harris had “supported the reauthorization of NAFTA,” the North American Free Trade Agreement that Trump and other critics have blamed for manufacturing job losses to countries with cheaper labor.

NAFTA was never reauthorized, but it was repealed during Trump’s tenure and replaced with a renegotiated United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Harris did vote against the USMCA in the Senate.

Gotion in the spotlight

Vance spoke at the Majestic Friesians Horse Farms, whose owner is a vocal opponent of a controversial electric vehicle battery plant that Gotion, Inc., is planning to build in nearby Green Charter Township. 

Gotion has promised to create 2,350 jobs in exchange for state subsidies, but the project has drawn increasing ire from Trump and other Republicans because Gotion’s parent company is based in China and operates under rules that align businesses with the Chinese Communist Party.

The project is evidence that “Democrats are helping China destroy and replace our auto industry from the inside out, and we're going to stop it,” Vance said Tuesday. 

He argued the federal Inflation Reduction Act — which Harris had cast the tie-breaking vote to pass as vice president — had “made Chinese companies like Gotion eligible for millions of your taxpayer dollars."

While the legislation did include new incentives called green energy tax credits, Gotion has said it's not seeking them. It’s not immediately clear if the factory would meet eligibility criteria. Republicans in Congress introduced bills that would block companies with Chinese ownership from eligibility.

Vance also claimed that “even some of the folks in Obama's administration said that the Gotion factory plant is a threat to America's national security.”

He was referencing comments by former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who in January spoke before the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which is chaired by Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Caledonia.

Panetta told the committee the factory could be used to gather “intelligence” and get “the kind of advantages that they want, that are counter, frankly, to the interests of the United States.”

But Panetta hedged his characterization of the project and said if Gotion receives any federal green energy tax credits, “we better make damn sure they’re not being used for purposes that undermine our national security.”

Confronting Chinese IP theft

Other Vance comments on China hewed closer to the facts, including: “China has also, of course, stolen from Michigan car companies and unfairly subsidized its auto industry for years.”

There’s evidence for both of those claims. Two naturalized U.S. citizens from China were convicted in federal court of attempting to steal General Motors’ hybrid technology to sell to a Chinese automotive company in 2013 and intellectual property theft by the Chinese state has long been a widespread problem. 

European regulators recently decided to place additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to counter what officials called “unfair subsidization,” according to the BBC. The Biden administration has placed 102.5% tariffs on electric vehicles from Chinese auto manufacturers.

Michigan’s economy under the microscope

Dueling narratives about the trajectory of Michigan’s economy and automotive sector of the last four — and eight — years won’t go away any time soon as the state remains a top target for both major party presidential campaigns. 

Trump will be in Potterville Thursday to make his own remarks on the economy at a steel manufacturing facility just a few miles outside Lansing. On Monday, he spoke at a National Guard conference in Detroit. 

Harris will return to Michigan on Monday — Labor Day — for an event in Detroit. Her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, will be in Grand Rapids for a campaign event on Thursday.