MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio said at a rally Friday that the failed tenure of Vice President Kamala Harris, President Biden’s nominee for reducing illegal immigration, has contributed to the fentanyl epidemic and turned a “teenage mistake” into a “death sentence.”
Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, said he expects his children will try drugs when they are older, but that they should not lose their lives doing so, as so many Americans have done after unknowingly taking fentanyl laced with unrelated, non-opioid medications.
“Kids are kids, and I’m sure at some point my kids will steal something or do something that I don’t want, but I don’t want them to ruin their life with that mistake. I want them to learn from it. I want their parents to be able to punish them,” Vance said in an address to local police.
“I don’t want kids to be on the streets of America making mistakes that cost them their lives. And in some ways, this fentanyl crisis has done just that. Kamala Harris’ refusal to do her job has made the mistake of an ordinary American teenager a death sentence.”
Vance is the father of three children: sons Euan, 6, and Vivec, 4, and daughter Mirabelle, 2. In his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance wrote that his mother was a recovering addict who turned to prescription painkillers and then heroin.
“I think it’s time for all of us to say to Kamala Harris, ‘You want a promotion? You want a promotion when you have a track record as vice president? We believe you should be fired, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do in November,'” Vance said.
The Biden-Harris administration has seen a significant increase in drug overdose deaths in the United States, driven primarily by fentanyl and related synthetic opioids manufactured in China and smuggled through Mexico.
Synthetic opioids have killed more than 223,000 U.S. residents in the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration — nearly four times the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War — and are on track to kill more than 76,000 in 2022 and more than 75,000 in 2023. According to Preliminary Federal Data.
Vance was questioned by reporters about the fact that overdose deaths had been on the rise during his running mate, Donald Trump’s, four-year term as president, from about 29,000 in his first year in office to about 60,000 fentanyl deaths in his final year.
“When you look at the actual data, the fentanyl crisis has really intensified under Kamala Harris’ leadership, under border control policies that have opened up the southern border and allowed fentanyl to get completely out of control,” Vance argued.
“If you talk to any law enforcement officer, they’ll tell you the fentanyl problem has gotten significantly worse over the last few years.”
“We’ve had an addiction epidemic in this country for many years, and I think President Donald Trump has actually implemented policies to reduce this addiction problem more than any president in my lifetime,” Vance said.
During President Trump’s one year in office (2018-2019), the number of drug overdose deaths overall decreased, but the number of fentanyl deaths increased each year.
“When you look at the number of drug overdose deaths and how they’ve decreased under Donald Trump and then under Kamala Harris, where overdose deaths have skyrocketed, I think it’s easy to say that, like so many other issues, Donald Trump’s record is a record of success and American prosperity,” Vance said.
Law enforcement officials in attendance supported Vance’s assertion that fentanyl has gotten worse under the Biden administration.
“The border crisis is affecting the entire country because of fentanyl and illegal immigration crime,” said Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt, who also serves as president of the Badger State Sheriffs’ Association.
“The number of people dying from fentanyl is unprecedented. The number of people dying from fentanyl is unbelievable. There’s unbelievable amounts of fentanyl coming across the border,” he said.
When asked what he thought of Kamala Harris’ record on law enforcement, the Republican sheriff responded, “She’s never been a supporter of law enforcement.”
Since President Biden decided not to run for a second term on July 21 and endorsed Harris as the Democratic candidate, Harris has not given any interviews to the press.
In his public remarks, the vice president has sought to blunt Republican attacks on his role as the so-called “border czar,” citing his role in criminal prosecutions in the border state of California.
Illegal immigration hit a record high three years into President Biden’s presidency, with most migrants waiting for asylum hearings in the U.S. for months after Biden rejected Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. These migrants are entitled to work authorization after six months, and their asylum cases can take years to be processed.
Border officials say the large influx of migrants has allowed criminal organizations to more effectively smuggle drugs between legal points of entry, though they have also found significant amounts of fentanyl in vehicles passing through legal checkpoints.
Data from the past few months has shown a decline in illegal border crossings since President Trump announced in June that he would close the border to asylum seekers if they met certain criteria.
