To many, soon after J.D. Vance was elected as Donald Trump’s running mate, he seemed a little surly and unlikable.  However, during his Tuesday, October 1 debate with Democratic Vice-Presidential Nominee Tim Walz, Vance talked less about childless cat ladies and Hattians in Springfield devouring cats and dogs, and more about policy – in a more engaging and pleasant conversation – as well as about the reasons why one should vote for the Republican Donald Trump/ JD Vance Ticket than the Kamala Harris/ Tim Walz ticket.

Those who attended the Town Hall in Greensboro got to see Vance in person on Thursday. Oct 10 at the Koury Convention Center.  Several got to ask questions of the vice-presidential hopeful.

The roughly one-hour meeting was mostly laid back, however, there was one alarming occurrence that took place soon after Vance began taking questions.  It turns out that a chair collapsing behind the speaker sounds remarkably like a gunshot and, when the chair of a person sitting right behind Vance collapsed, he jumped up to see what the commotion was.  One women’s chair had collapsed and, once Vance realized it was a fallen chair and not a threat, he joked, “Kamala Harris built that platform.”

He started off, in response to a question from a pilot in a group of pilots who’ve been helping with the recovery from Hurricane Helene, by criticizing the relief efforts of the Biden/Harris administration – a now common talking point for Vance and Donald Trump.

Vance said Biden and Harris had really forgotten about parts of the country like western North Carolina and said of himself and Trump, “We’re never going to let down the people of that region of our country– the region that really built our country – we’re never going to let them be left behind or forgotten.”

Vance also said that, once people get through the immediate recovery stage, then it’s time to take a hard look at the hurricane response.

“It’s time to focus on the disastrous federal response to this incredible crisis and I think what I’ve learned is, OK, you have the hurricane and western North Carolina’s under water.  What should have happened is that the president and the vice president should have sent the 82nd Airborne in to western North Carolina that day. And it’s got to happen right away – and, instead, of course, we had a president at the beach and a vice president at a fundraiser in San Francisco.  What you need in times like this is you just need leadership.”

Vance also pointed out that Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and SpaceX, used to be a Democrat and now Musk is wearing a MAGA hat because he’s so frustrated by government ineptitude. Vance called Musk “a guy who’s pissed off about government incompetence.”

He also said that those who failed in the response should be held accountable and he pointed out that Trump got famous by saying, “You’re fired” –but that Harris doesn’t seem capable of uttering that phrase no matter how bad someone’s performance is.

 “In this case, you’ve got a lot of people who could have been helped and a lot of lives that could have been saved that weren’t, and there’s a lot of details to figure out there. I’m sure we’re going to learn a lot about how corrupt and incompetent our government is, but I think the most important thing here is that we try to get to the bottom of how we had such a massive failure.”

Vance said that, during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti,  the 82nd Airborne was there two days later and added that the 82nd Airborne is an hour away from western North Carolina “and it took six days to get them there and that doesn’t happen without a failure of leadership.”

Vance also spoke in response to a question about deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally.

 “The plan, to put it simply, is that we’ve got to send them home,” he said.  “We’ve got to send them home ASAP and that’s exactly what we’re gonna do.  They have no right to be in this country and, you know, it’s funny, because the media, which for three and a half years has refused to even cover the terrible problems of Kamala Harris’s open border, will now say things like, ‘Well, how are you going to deport people?”  You know, that it’s just way too hard to deport people.  It’s actually not hard to deport people – you’ve just got to have an administration that’s willing to send people back to where they belong and not let them collect benefits in our country.”

He said that tens of thousands of violent criminals and murderers had been allowed to come into the country – many also bringing in deadly drugs.

He added that not all immigrants were horrible human beings.

“Some of them are good people, but that doesn’t mean they have the legal right to be in the United States of America,” he said.

He added that illegal immigration also puts pressure on institutions, such as public schools, and said that he didn’t know the number for North Carolina, but, in Michigan, 85,000 children of illegal aliens were in Michigan’s public school system.

“What do you think that does to the poor public high school teacher who’s just trying to give kids a good education – but all of a sudden they’re dealing with classrooms that are full of people that don’t even speak the language?”

Vance also spoke about inflation and said much of it was due to the way the Biden/Harris administration had taken actions to drive up energy prices.

“So, think about it like this,” he said. “Groceries are 25 percent higher than they were three and a half years ago.  That’s because the truck drivers are paying way more for diesel fuel and it’s the truck drivers who are getting the groceries to the grocery store.  Our farmers are paying more for diesel and, of course, they’re the ones growing the food – and then, finally, you think about building a house.”

He continued “Well, if all the people who are doing the building and delivering the materials are paying more for gas and more for energy, then that’s gonna raise the price of everything.  So, President Trump has this phrase, which I think is very simple, but it’s also a genuinely specific policy.  The most important thing we’ve got to do to lower prices and make life more affordable is ‘Drill baby drill!’”

About