JD Vance says turning to Harris on inflation like ‘giving Jeffrey Epstein control over human trafficking policy’
Republican VP nominee JD Vance has said tasking Vice President Kamala Harris with reining in inflation would be tantamount to putting notorious sex predator Jeffrey Epstein in charge of anti-human trafficking — and accused the Democratic candidate of “doubling down” on the failed policies of the current administration.
Harris, 59, unveiled a suit of economic policies on Friday aimed at shoring up her standing with voters who blame the Biden-Harris administration for a spike in the cost of living.
“Giving Kamala Harris control over inflation policy, Shannon, it’s like giving Jeffrey Epstein control over human trafficking policy. The American people are much smarter than that,” Vance, 40, told “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream.
“They don’t buy the idea that Kamala Harris represents a fresh start. She is more of the same. It is doubling down on the failed policies of the [current] administration,” he added.
Polls generally show former President Donald Trump, 78, retaining his edge with voters on the economy against Harris, similar to his longstanding polling advantage over President Biden, 81, on kitchen table issues.
On Friday, Harris outlined a few proposals to combat rising prices that have vexed working-class families across the country. This included a national ban on so-called “price-gouging,” a $25,000 tax credit for first-time home purchasers, a beefed-up $6,000 child tax credit, and more.
Some economists described the “price-gouging” proposal her campaign laid out as akin to price control.
“Our message is going to be very simple. If you want to get back to the peace and prosperity, the rising take-home pay, Donald Trump delivered it once and he can do it again,” Vance argued.
“If you want to double down on the failed policies that have delivered higher food prices and higher housing prices, well, Kamala Harris has been vice president for three and a half years, and I guarantee she’s going to make the problem worse,” he continued.
Since Harris catapulted to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden dropped out on July 21, the race has dramatically tightened, according to a litany of polls.
Harris has a 1.5 percentage point lead over Trump nationally in the most recent RealClearPolitics aggregate of national polls in a five-way race. For context, Trump previously notched a 4.2 percentage point lead against Biden in the RCP aggregate at the time.
Battleground states still remain very much a tossup, but polls have generally shown Harris eating away at Trump’s margins there as well. In the RCP’s no-tossup Electoral College map, Trump nabbed a win with 276 votes to 262.
“The polls tend to radically overstate Democrats,” Vance countered about the polls. “We have certainly seen is that Kamala Harris got a bit of a sugar high a couple of weeks ago. But what we’ve actually seen from our own internal data, Shannon, is that Kamala Harris has already leveled off.”
“I’m telling you, every single person who’s watching this, the Trump campaign is in a very, very good spot. We’re going to win this race. We just have to run through the finish line,” he later added.
Vance also took note of criticism from some Republicans, including former presidential contender Nikki Haley urging former Trump to shake up his messaging game and court voters outside of the MAGA faithful.
“I think Ambassador Haley is right that we have to reach a broader group of voters, but I think that we’re doing exactly that,” Vance argued.
“We’re going to prosecute the case that Donald Trump caused peace and prosperity, Kamala Harris caused chaos and lower take home pay. I think that we get that message out there, Shannon. I feel very confident the American people are going to elect Donald Trump president in November,” he added.
