MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Vice President Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful tenure as President Biden’s designee to reduce illegal immigration has turned “teenager mistakes” into a “death sentences” through the increasing prevalence of fentanyl, Ohio Sen. JD Vance said at a Friday rally.
Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, said that he expects his own children will experiment with drugs when they are older — but that doing so shouldn’t kill them, as has been the case for many Americans unwittingly consuming fentanyl that’s cut into unrelated non-opioid drugs.
“I’m certain, because kids are kids, that one day, one of my kids is going to take something or do something that I don’t want them to take, but I don’t want that mistake to ruin their life. I want them to learn from it. I want their parents to be able to punish them,” Vance said in a speech to local police.
“I don’t want our kids to make mistakes on American streets and have it take their lives away from them. That is in some ways what this fentanyl crisis has done — normal American teenager mistakes have become death sentences because Kamala Harris refuses to do her job.”
Vance is a father of three — sons Ewan, 6, and Vivek, 4, and daughter Mirabel, 2. His mother is a recovering addict who used heroin after getting hooked on prescription pain pills, Vance wrote in his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
“I think it’s time for all of us to say to Kamala Harris: You want a promotion? You want a promotion after your record as vice president? We think you ought to be fired, and that’s exactly what we’re gonna do come November,” Vance said.
US drugs overdose deaths are up significantly under the Biden-Harris administration — driven by fentanyl and related synthetic opioids, which are largely manufactured in China and smuggled through Mexico.
Synthetic opioids killed more than 223,000 US residents in the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration — or nearly four times as many Americans as died fighting in the Vietnam War — with more than 76,000 deaths in 2022 and more than 75,000 in 2023, according to preliminary federal data.
Vance was challenged by a reporter on the fact that overdose deaths trended upward during his running mate Donald Trump’s four-year term as president — topping out with roughly 60,000 fentanyl deaths in his final year in office, up from about 29,000 in his first year.
“If you look at the actual data, the fentanyl crisis really, really took off under the leadership of Kamala Harris, under the border czar policies where she opened up the southern border, where fentanyl got completely out of control,” Vance argued.
“And you talk to our law enforcement officers, and they will tell you that the fentanyl problem has gotten way worse in the last few years.”
“We have an addiction epidemic that’s been long running in this country, and I think more than any president in my lifetime, Donald Trump actually implemented policies to try to get this addiction problem cut down,” Vance said.
During one of Trump’s years in office — from 2018 to 2019 — overall drug overdose deaths decreased, but in each year fentanyl deaths increased.
“If you look at the number of overdose deaths and how they went down during Donald Trump’s administration, and you look at Kamala Harris’ administration where overdose deaths have skyrocketed, I think it’s very easy to say, like so many other issues, the record of Donald Trump is one of success and American prosperity,” Vance said.
Law enforcement in attendance were supportive of Vance’s charge that fentanyl has worsened under Biden’s administration.
Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt, who also is president of the Badger State Sheriffs Association, said, “the border crisis impacts the entire country because of fentanyl and illegal immigrant crime.”
“We have an unprecedented amount of people dying from fentanyl, the people dying from fentanyl is unbelievable. Fentanyl comes pouring across the border in unbelievable amounts,” he said.
When asked what he thought of Kamala Harris’ record on law enforcement, the Republican Sheriff replied: “She’s never been a supporter of law enforcement.”
Harris has not given any interviews to news outlets since President Biden dropped his bid for a second term on July 21 and endorsed her to replace him as the Democratic nominee.
In public remarks, the vice president has sought to blunt Republican attacks on her so-called “border czar” role by citing her role in prosecutions of criminals in border state California.
Illegal immigration hit new record highs during Biden’s first three years in office and during some months most migrants were admitted to await asylum rulings inside the US — after Biden repudiated Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. Those migrants are entitled to work permits after six months and their asylum claims can take years to process.
Border officials said that large influxes of migrants allowed criminal organizations to more effectively smuggle drugs between legal points of entry — though significant amounts of fentanyl also have been found in vehicles crossing at legal checkpoints.
Data from recent months show the number of illegal border crossings trending downward after he adopted in June a message intended to close the border to asylum seekers once certain thresholds are met.
