Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance blamed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for high housing costs and gave credit to former President Donald Trump for lowering the cost of insulin in a wide-ranging interview with TMJ4 News' Charles Benson on Friday.
Benson spoke with Vance before his planned remarks at the Milwaukee Police Association headquarters, located at 6310 W. Bluemound Rd.
Housing costs
Vance argued that Harris is responsible for high housing costs in the US due to her border policy and tie-breaking votes in the US Senate.
"Kamala Harris let in 20 million illegal aliens to compete with Americans for scarce homes," Vance said.
Watch: JD Vance gives exclusive interview to TMJ4 News' Charles Benson:
Data from the Migration Policy Institute shows home ownership among illegal immigrants is at 28 percent, or just over 3 million.
"Second of all, [Harris] cast multiple votes, tie-breaking votes, that raised interest rates which of course makes mortgages totally unaffordable for American families," Vance added.
Vance said that if elected, Trump's administration would build more houses and "kick out the illegal aliens who are competing with Americans for homes."
Prescription drug prices
Many politicians have taken credit for a new $35 cap on insulin for many Americans, and Vance told Benson that President Trump should be chief among them.
"All the policies...that drove the cost of insulin to $35 a unit, are policies that [Trump] actually enacted during his term, and now consumers are starting to see the benefit," Vance said.
"Some of this stuff takes a long time, but President Trump’s leadership did more to drive down cost than any president in my lifetime."
Vance also took issue with American companies selling drugs in Europe for lower prices than Americans pay.
"We have American companies that are selling drugs way cheaper in Europe than they are in the United States of America, so sometimes that means we’re going to have to re-import stuff from Europe," he said. "If European consumers are paying less, then American consumers should pay less too."
Red flag laws
Vance told Benson that he's not opposed in principle to keeping guns out of the hands of violent offenders, but that certain conditions need to be met.
"I think pretty much everybody agrees you want to keep guns out of the hands of violent felons, but only after they’ve had a fair court process under law," the Senator from Ohio said. "We don’t want to take rights away from anybody, whether they’re gun rights or first amendment rights, without due process."
Vance said he and Trump would protect law-abiding gun owners, while at the same time promoting public safety. He also said that they key to reducing the crime rate was to incarcerate more individuals.
"If you look at the reason why we have increased murders, increased homicides over the last few years, it’s because we don’t lock up enough violent criminals. The gross majority of violent crime is committed by a very very small number of people."
Murder rates have decreased by more than 26 percent in 2024 compared to 2023, according to data from the FBI.
Trade and tariffs
Benson and Vance also discussed trade, with recent news that Wisconsin mainstay brand Harley-Davidson is moving some production overseas to Thailand.
Benson asked Vance if domestic workers should be concerned about Trump's call for higher tariffs. Vance said he supports the practice.
"Tariffs are one of the things that actually protect American manufacturing workers. The Chinese are trying to make things in East Asia, they’re using effectively slaves to make them. American workers shouldn’t be expected to compete with slaves, they should be expected to compete with other workers," Vance said.
Vance touted Trump's record on promoting American manufacturing during his term as president, claiming that he opened more than 10,000 factories during his four years in office.
"If you compare President Trump’s record, the 16 years before he was president, 60,000 factories closed down. The four years he was president, 12,000 factories opened up in the United States of America."
The vice presidential candidate's last visit to Wisconsin came on August 7, when he spoke in Eau Claire on the same day as Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her Vice Presidential pick, Tim Walz.
Harris will be in Milwaukee next Tuesday for an appearance of her own.
