JD Vance compares Kamala to Jeffrey Epstein in inflation attack

JD Vance took a hard line against Kamala Harris on Sunday. Speaking to Fox News' Shannon Bream, the Republican vice presidential candidate said: “Giving Kamala Harris control of inflation policy, Shannon, is like giving Jeffrey Epstein control of anti-human trafficking policy. The American people are much smarter than that.”

“They don't believe Kamala Harris represents a fresh start,” he continued. “She's more of the same. Promoting Kamala Harris instead of firing her is doubling down on the failed policies of the Harris administration, which is what I think most Americans will do in November.”

The Trump-Vance campaign recently came under fire for its use of Epstein's former plane, prompting many to bring up Trump's own ties to the notorious sex trafficker when Epstein was still alive.

Vance had tried to blame the vice president for domestic inflation, adding that she had done nothing about the problem “for the last 1,300 days.” His reference to “the failed policies of the Harris administration” seemed to be an attempt to blame her for all of the perceived failings of incumbent President Joe Biden, even though the vice president is traditionally not in a position to wield much power.

The Republican vice presidential candidate also stressed that the Trump/Vance team “will be in the right place in November” and that they are not concerned that Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz are clearly in the lead according to poll numbers.

“We can't worry about polls, we have to cross the finish line and encourage everyone to get out and vote. But our message is very simple: If you want peace and prosperity and rising take-home pay back, Donald Trump has done it before and he can do it again,” Vance argued.

Trump inherited a better economy from his predecessor, President Barack Obama, than Biden inherited from Trump himself. It is also true that Trump was at the helm of the United States during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and caused severe problems for the U.S. economy.

Trump claimed that the U.S. economic recovery after those months was “nearly three times the largest in the history of our country…that’s bigger than any other nation” – a statement that proved false when comparing the country’s recovery to that of the eurozone as a whole, as well as to Italy and Germany’s own reconstruction efforts.

Vance also accused “the media” of using “fake polls to depress Republican turnout and sow discord and conflict with Republican voters.” He added: “I'm telling you, every single person who's watching this, the Trump campaign is in a very, very good position.”

It is unclear which “fake polls” Vance was referring to, but he seemed to be repeating a claim Trump made repeatedly during his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton. In 2018, a study from Ohio State University suggested that “fake news” may have helped Trump win that election.

The study, which was not peer-reviewed, found that 4% of Obama's supporters from the 2012 election did not vote for Clinton because of false information they had read. These voters “were 3.9 times more likely to abandon the Democratic ticket in 2016 than those who did not believe any of these false claims, controlling for all other factors,” the researchers wrote.

You can watch the interview with JD Vance in the video above.