Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance delivered a pro-police and anti-immigration message in Milwaukee Friday, as he visited the office of the Milwaukee police union. Democrats contend GOP presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump has not been a friend of law enforcement.
The Trump campaign — without explanation — denied WUWM a media credential for the Vance event. So the soundbites of the senator from Ohio are from the conservative channel Real America’s Voice, which streamed Vance live.
The vice presidential nominee said, while at the police union hall at 63rd Street and Bluemound, he held a private roundtable with law enforcement personnel. Then Vance gave a short speech during which he repeatedly said U.S. political leaders need to be more supportive of police, and falsely blamed a lot of crime on illegal immigration. Trump has repeatedly promised mass deportations.
During questioning from the news media, Vance responded to a reporter quoting Vance remarks in 2021 mentioning problems caused by high levels of immigration from Italy, Ireland and Germany more than a century ago, and the reporter asked if there should have been mass deportations then.
Vance answered, “Well, first of all, I also said there were a lot of benefits to that wave of immigration. But has anybody seen the movie Gangs of New York? That’s what I’m talking about. We know that when you have these massive ethnic enclaves forming in our country, it can sometimes lead to higher crime rates.”
Gangs of New York was a fictional film in 2002, loosely inspired by events in the 19th century.
The Ohio senator also responded to a question about a new ABC/Ipsos poll showing Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz having a higher favorability rating than Vance.
Vance said he doesn’t put stock in polls. But then he criticized Walz. “I mean this is a guy, who actively encouraged rioters to burn down Minneapolis during the summer of 2020. It’s the biggest city in this country."
Minneapolis is the biggest city in Minnesota. The 2020 protest followed the police killing of George Floyd. Gov. Walz has said he initially underestimated the size and level of aggression of the protest crowds, but later he did deploy the Minnesota National Guard to assist local police.
At a Milwaukee news conference earlier Friday morning organized by the Harris/Walz campaign, former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn pointed to audio from June 2020, in which Trump praised Walz for the govenor’s response to the Minnesota protests. Dunn, who served during the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, said Trump is the one with the slow response time.
“Donald Trump sat around for three hours, sixteen blocks away, before he even said a word to call off his mob that he summoned. Let alone get us help," he said.
At a rally Friday morning held by the Service Employees Union, Wisconsin Working Families Party and Power to the Polls Wisconsin, Pastor Mose Fuller of Saint Timothy Baptist Church questioned why the Milwaukee Police Association welcomed Trump’s running mate, in light of the January 6th attacks.
“They didn’t support the police. They beat the police up. That’s what they did," Fuller said. "Now the part I don’t understand is how in the world, can the cops invite him into their house? But anyway, that’s where we are. …. This is a weird election, isn’t it?”
Weird or not, the Milwaukee Police Association endorsed the Trump-Vance ticket today, saying it believes the Republicans can bring solutions to the challenges of policing in the city.
