During Sunday's broadcast of ABC's “This Week,” Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) spoke out against former President Donald Trump's attacks on the Biden-Harris immigration policy and the Venezuelan people. in response to host Martha Raddatz's criticism that it was the fault of The gang problem in Aurora, Colorado, follows that same line.
Mr. Vance questioned Mr. Raddatz for attacking Mr. Trump when he admitted that a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment complex.
RADDATZ: — Senator Vance, I want to say to local officials, local officials and FEMA officials say that's just plain wrong.
But I want to — we ran other comments about immigration and immigration, like Aurora, Colorado. There, President Trump said the city was being invaded and conquered by Venezuelan gangs. The city's Republican mayor said flatly that neither the city nor the state had been taken over, invaded or occupied by immigrant gangs.
So do you support Donald Trump's claims that Republican mayors have grossly exaggerated and undermined the city's identity and safety?
I understand what you mean about some people being left behind. However, he is making statements that the mayor directly refutes.
Vance: Well, Martha, you just said that the mayor was exaggerating.
RADDATZ: That's totally exaggerated.
Vance: That means there has to be some truth to it. So there must be an element of truth here.
And of course, President Trump was actually in Aurora, Colorado, talking to people there. And, of course, Martha, what we're hearing is that people are scared of what's happened with some of the gangs in Venezuela.
(crosstalk)
RADDATZ: Senator Vance, I know exactly what happened and I'm going to stop you. I'll stop it. The incidents were isolated to a small number of apartment complexes, or apartment complexes, and the mayor said dedicated police officers were acting in response to those concerns. some problems.
Vance: It's just — Martha, can you hear yourself? We've only had a handful of apartment complexes in America taken over by Venezuelan gangs, but the problem is Donald Trump, not Kamala Harris' open borders. Is it?
Americans are so fed up with what's going on, and they have every right to be. Martha, I think this exchange is very interesting. Because you seem more focused on pointing out everything Donald Trump has said than acknowledging the existence of apartment complexes. The United States has been taken over by violent gangs.
I'm more concerned about that issue here than anything else. We must make American communities safe again.
And unfortunately, when you take in millions of people, most of them are unvetted, and you don't know if most of them are real people, so you're going to have problems like this. Kamala Harris' 94 executive orders that undid Donald Trump's successful border policies, we knew something like this would happen.
RADDATZ: That's-
Vance: They were bragging about opening the borders, and now we're living with the consequences.
There's a lot we can do better, but frankly, we're not going to get better unless Donald Trump speaks up about this, Martha. I'm glad he did that.
Raddatz: Okay. Let's end this issue by saying they didn't invade or occupy cities, as Donald Trump said.
What I want to move on to next is —
Vance: There are some apartment complexes, but not much.
RADDATZ: There were some apartment complexes that were encroaching on the entire city that the mayor wasn't looking at.
