AWKWARD: Reporter Asks JD Vance About His Criticism of Chinese Company That Paid Trump Campaign Manager’s Firm $900,000
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance fielded an awkward question regarding the business dealings of the co-manager of the Trump-Vance campaign.
The senator has been critical of a Chinese battery maker called Gotion. Specifically, he ripped a planned $2.4 billion battery Gotion plant that will make components for electric vehicles near Big Rapids, Michigan.
“Kamala Harris not only wants to allow the Chinese Communist Party to build factories on American soil, she wants to pay them to do it with our tax money,” Vance said in August, connecting Gotion to the CCP.
His comments echoed those of his running mate, former President Donald Trump, who wrote that he is “100% OPPOSED” the factory.
Speaking at a rally in Waterford, Michigan on Thursday, the Ohio senator took questions from reporters as he often does at rallies.
“Hi, Senator, my name’s Hannah Mackay with the Detroit News,” the reporter said. “You’ve spoken out against Chinese battery maker Gotion coming to Michigan. Do you have any reaction to the Politico story that says Gotion was paying Trump campaign manager Susie Wiles’s lobbying firm nearly $1 million?”
“No, I don’t have a comment because I’ve never seen that story,” he replied. “I will certainly read that story and try to understand what’s going on there.”
Earlier in the day, Politico reported that Mercury Public Affairs – the firm Wiles co-chairs – was paid $900,000 by Gotion, according to disclosures filed with Congress. Wiles commented to Politico that she has not “been actively working at Mercury since the presidential campaign started” and is “not a partner at the company so I don’t share in any profits.”
Vance pivoted away from the reporter’s question to say the U.S. has become too reliant on Chinese manufacturing.
“But I think the simple fact is we want American businesses to hire American workers and to invest in the American economy,” he said. “The problem with the Gotion facility is fundamentally, we’re talking about Chinese investments, which doesn’t make us more self-reliant. In fact, I think it probably makes us more reliant on the Communist Chinese [sic] Party.”
Watch above via C-SPAN.
