Vance says in Michigan that the Biden-Harris Administration is "helping China destroy our auto industry"

Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance gave a campaign speech in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he charged against the Biden-Harris administration for helping China "destroy" the U.S. auto industry.

Senator Vance spoke near the site where Chinese company Gotion Inc. plans to build a $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery plant. From the stage, Trump's running mate charged that Harris and the current Democratic administration "are helping China destroy and replace our auto industry from the inside out."

During his address, Vance claimed that the "tie-breaking vote that she cast to send inflation through the roof," referring to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, resulted in "Chinese companies like Gotion eligible for millions of your taxpayer dollars."

According to FARA records, Gotion was registered as the top overseas Chinese company.

"Even some of the folks in Obama's administration said that the Gotion factory plant is a threat to America's national security," Senator Vance said while questioning the Democratic presidential candidate. "But Kamala Harris not only wants to allow the Chinese Communist Party to build factories on American soil, she wants to pay them to do it with our tax money."

In his speech, Vance also questioned the Biden-Harris administration's economic record. He made a fierce defense of American jobs, promising that an eventual second Trump term would generate plenty of manufacturing jobs.

"When I tell people that Donald Trump wants to rebuild American manufacturing, unleash American energy, and bring those factories back, I think that it resonates in Michigan," Vance said when reporters asked about Vice President Harris' small lead in Michigan. "Maybe more than any other state because Michigan saw what happened when those factories closed down."

"We just want to rebuild a good middle class so that people can live the American Dream. Michiganders get that more than most folks," sentenced Vance, who later defended his running mate's tariff proposal.

"Our corrupt leadership said if you put tariffs on China, prices will go up," Vance said. "Instead, Donald Trump did exactly that — manufacturing came back, and prices went down for American citizens, they went up for the Chinese, but they went down for our people."

Michigan is one of the swing states in the election process. In 2020, Biden beat Trump by less than three percentage points, defined by just over a hundred thousand votes. This year, there is also no clear favorite between Harris and Trump, and the blue-collar vote will prove to be defining.

The Michigan campaign event is the first of several being organized by the Trump campaign in Rust Belt swing states. Wisconsin and Pennsylvania will be the next stops.