Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance confronted Martha Raddatz on Sunday morning during a fact-check segment regarding former President Donald Trump’s assertions that criminal migrant gangs had seized control of portions of Aurora, Colo. On ABC’s This Week, the Ohio senator responded sharply to Raddatz’s statement that only a “handful” of apartment complexes in Aurora had experienced Venezuelan gang activity, challenging the validity of Trump’s claims.
Trump has been accused of exaggerating the threats posed by members of the Tren de Aragua gang to the city. During a rally in Aurora on Friday evening, he vowed to target criminal migrants nationwide and announced that the initiative to deport them to their home countries would be named “Operation Aurora,” after the city. During her show, Raddatz asked Vance about the issue.
“So, do you support Donald Trump making those claims that the Republican mayor says were grossly exaggerated and have hurt the city’s identity and sense of safety?” she asked. “I understand what you’re saying that some people left behind. But he’s making these statements that the mayor is flat-out disputing.” Vance responded that Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman’s claim that Trump’s remarks were an “exaggeration” meant that there was at least some merit to the former president’s claims.
“Senator Vance, I’m going to stop you because I know exactly what happened. I’m going to stop you. The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes – apartment complexes and the mayor said our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns. A handful of problems,” Raddatz said, incredibly.
That set Vance off:
Only, Martha, do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris’s open border? Americans are so fed up with what’s going on and they have every right to be and I really find this exchange, Martha, sort of interesting because you seem to be more focused with nitpicking everything that Donald Trump has said rather than acknowledging that apartment complexes in the United States of America are being taken over by violent gangs.
I worry so much more about that problem than anything else here. We’ve got to get American communities in a safe space again. And unfortunately, when you let people in by the millions, most of whom are unvetted, most of whom you don’t know who they really are, you’re going to have problems like this. Kamala Harris’ 94 executive orders that undid Donald Trump’s successful border policies, we knew this stuff would happen. They bragged about opening the border and now we have the consequences and we’re living with it. We can do so much better, but frankly, we’re not going to do better, Martha, unless Donald Trump calls this stuff out. I’m glad that he did.
Raddatz attempted to move on: “Okay. Let’s – let’s just – let’s just end that with they did not invade or take over the city as Donald Trump said. I want to move on to just –” — which led Vance to retort: “A few apartment complexes, no big deal.”
WATCH:
Raddatz: “The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes… A handful.”
Vance: “Do you hear yourself? Only a HANDFUL of apartment complexes were taken over by Venezuelan gangs and Donald Trump is the problem??”pic.twitter.com/6PlNAPur8y
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 13, 2024
