Former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), is defending Trump’s claim that Aururo, Colorado, has been run over by gangs from Venezuela.
Speaking on ABC News’s This Week with Martha Raddatz, Vance declined to acknowledge the mayor’s statement that Trump’s claims were “grossly exaggerated.” On Friday, Trump paid a visit to Aurora, where he claimed South American gangs had taken over the city.
“The Republican mayor of the city said flatly, the city and state have not been taken over or invaded or occupied by migrant gangs. So do you support Donald Trump making those claims that the Republican mayor says were grossly exaggerated and have hurt the city’s identity and sense of safety,” Raddatz said.
“Well, Martha, you just said the mayor said they were exaggerated,” Vance said.
“Grossly exaggerated,” Raddatz corrected.
“There’s got to be some — that means there’s got to be some element of truth here, of course, President Trump was actually in Aurora, Colorado, talking to people on the ground. And what we’re hearing, of course, Martha, is that people are terrified by what has happened with some of these Venezuelan gangs,” Vance said.
Raddatz then stopped Vance to repeat the statement from the Aurora mayor saying the incidents “were limited to a handful of apartment complexes, and the mayor said our dedicated police officers had acted on those concerns, a handful of problems.”
“Martha, do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over, and Donald Trump is the problem, and not Kamala Harris’s open border. Americans are so fed up with what’s going on, and they have every right to be,” Vance said.
“I really find this exchange, Martha, sort of interesting, because you seem to be more focused with nitpicking everything that Donald Trump has said, rather than acknowledging that apartment complexes in the United States of America are being taken over by violent gangs,” Vance continued.
He said he “worries” about this problem more than “anything else.”
“We’ve got to get American communities in a safe space again. And unfortunately, when you let people in by the millions, most of whom are unvetted, most of whom you don’t know who they really are, you’re going to have problems like this,” Vance said before talking on the border policy of President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Let’s, let’s just, let’s just end that with they did not invade or take over the city, as Donald Trump said,” Raddatz said.
“Just a few apartment complexes. No big deal. A few apartment complexes,” Vance said.
“Just a few apartment complexes that the mayor did not say were invading the entire city,” Raddatz said before moving on from the topic.
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During Trump’s 90-minute speech in Aurora, he announced his plan to enact a nationwide effort called “Operation Aurora” to target undocumented immigrant gang members for arrest and deportation. He said the program would be based on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which is a wartime authority that gives a president the power to detain or deport members of an enemy nation.
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said he was excited for Trump to visit the city to show him “that the narrative that is being presented nationally about this city isn’t true, that there are no apartment complexes under gang control, that the city’s not under gang control, Venezuelan gang control.”