Vance speaks about economy and inflation at campaign rally in Wisconsin and criticizes Harris' policies

DE PERE, Wis. (WLUK) — The Republican vice presidential candidate was in Wisconsin on Wednesday evening to influence voters.

The visit was Ohio Senator JD Vance's fourth trip to Wisconsin in the last 21 days as he and former President Donald Trump vie for the White House.

Vance delivered a speech at AmeriLux International, a popular venue for Republican campaign appearances.

Donald Trump Jr. visited the building materials manufacturer in May on behalf of 8th Congressional District candidate Tony Wied. Just days before the 2020 election, Trump Jr. also visited AmeriLux.

In his speech, Vance spoke about the economy, inflation and energy, among other topics. He criticized the policies of Vice President Kamala Harris and her role in the Biden administration – while Democrats claim that Vance represents an agenda that only benefits the super-rich.

Vance also praised Trump after he made headlines on Wednesday for an “incident” at Arlington National Cemetery a few days earlier. The former president visited the burial site on Monday to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the 13 U.S. soldiers killed in an attack during the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.

Citing an anonymous source, NPR reported that a cemetery official attempted to prevent Trump's team from filming and taking photographs in Section 60, after which Trump's staff verbally abused the official and pushed him aside.

Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign spokesman, told X that the team was granted access so that a photographer could be on site, prompting Vance to defend the former president.

“You media people acted like he was doing a commercial at a grave,” Vance said. “He was there to provide emotional support to many brave Americans who lost loved ones they never should have lost, and there happened to be a camera there and someone gave permission to put that camera there. That's not a gross violation of federal law. This is a president who did what all presidents do – he showed up and provided support.”

Cheung also denied the report of a physical altercation and told NPR that the team was prepared to release footage as evidence.

“There was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” he said. “The fact is that a private photographer was allowed onto the premises and for some reason an unnamed individual, who was obviously suffering from a mental disorder, decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony.”

On Truth Social, Trump published a statement from the families of the fallen soldiers expressing their approval of the photographs.

“We have allowed President Trump's official videographer and photographer to attend the event to ensure that these sacred moments of remembrance are respectfully captured and we can preserve these memories forever,” the families said.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The National Desk contributed to this report.