VP pool report #6: Vance wraps

More than 100 people, many in MAGA hats, composed the crowd in the machine shop. Signs hung that read “no tax on tips” and “America is back.”

The vice president spoke for 22 minutes and wrapped at 1:50 to applause.

As always, please check all quotes against the official transcript.

Vance discussed how his late father worked at a machine shop — like Don’s Machine Shop, where he held the rally — in Hamilton, Ohio. “My dad’s name was Don and this is Don’s machine shop, so I think it’s appropriate to be here,” he said.

Vance said, with the BBB, the US would “take off in a rocket ship with good policy coming from DC.”

The VP touted the Trump administration’s border crackdown and made fun of a recent New York Times Opinion article written by a Biden administration immigration official.

Vance then pivoted to touting the economic benefits in the bill for blue collar workers. “For the first time in a long time, workers’ wages are rising faster than inflation,” he said.

He said one part of the BBB the media doesn’t discuss enough is how it incentivizes young people to take alternative career paths to higher education, including working in machine shops like this one. “Your government should not be forcing you to do what elites in Washington want you to do,” he said.

When the VP said companies that choose to make their goods overseas are “gonna pay a big fat tariff,” the crowd whooped.

Vance said the administration was “getting Washington’s spending under control.”

He also touted a provision in the bill establishing savings accounts with $1000 for American babies. He slammed Democrats for not voting for the provision and said they would have if it extended to “illegal aliens.”

He encouraged the crowd over the next year or year and a half to “talk about what the bill does for American citizens” ahead of the midterms. He gave a shoutout to Rep. Bresnahan. “He’s younger and better looking than I am,” he said.

Vance called the vice presidency “a fun job” and said it was “a lot more fun having somebody you love by your side,” shouting out SLOTUS.

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Irie Sentner (he/him)

White House reporter and West Wing Playbook co-author |POLITICO

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