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Vice President Mike Pence campaigns on administration's record during Waterford visit

By Jack Nissen
Updated  October 22, 2020 2:14pm EDT
2020 Election
FOX 2 Detroit

WATERFORD TWP, Mich. - Vice President Mike Pence made a campaign stop Thursday in Michigan, one of 2020's battleground states this election for a Make America Great Again! event in Waterford Township.

During his stop, the VP said Michigan voters were part of a movement that elected Donald Trump president in 2016 and encouraged voters to do the same in 2020.

Mike Pence talks Gov. Whitmer kidnapping plot, civil unrest in one-on-one interview

Vice President Mike Pence talked exclusive to FOX 2 one-on-one with Roop Raj Thursday after campaigning for President Trump in Waterford Township.

"It was a great privilege for me to be able to be there, to talk about all this president has done with the support of all you people in Michigan," Pence said.

During his speech, Pence said Trump signed the largest investment into the American military since Ronald Reagan.

"Finally giving our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guard the resources they need to defend this great nation," he said.

Additionally, Pence criticized Joe Biden and the Obama administration for the treatment of veterans prior to Trump's election and said Trump signed the most sweeping reform for veteran cares in years. 

"Veterans were dying, waiting to get healthcare at VA hospitals. Trump signed the most sweeping reforms of the VA in years. We fired 3,000 employees who were not giving them the care they deserve," he said.

He also hit Biden for the administration's "slow recovery" from the 2008 recession prior to Trump and Pence taking office and that Biden tried to 'tax and regulate' the U.S. into a growing economy but it took Trump three years to fix it.

"In our first three years, unemployment reached a 50-year low, the lowest in 20 years in Michigan. Wages were rising across the board, mostly for hard-working, blue-collar men and women in America," Pence said.

Pence also acknowledged the coronavirus and said Trump took necessary actions to slow the virus.

"Before the first documented case of community spread anywhere in this country, President Donald Trump suspended all travel from China," Pence said.

However, Biden for President released this statement regarding Pence's stop in Waterford.

“Vice President Pence and President Trump’s failed response to this pandemic has devastated Michigan. More than 140,000 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19, more than 200,000 Michiganders have lost their jobs this year, more than 1 in 4 small businesses have shuttered and may never reopen, and there is no end in sight. Nothing that Vice President Pence says today can change that, or erase the fact that in Oakland County alone, more than 53,000 jobs still haven’t come back since the pandemic started. Michiganders know exactly what’s at stake in this election, and they are ready to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris so that we can finally get this virus under control and build our economy back better.”

With only until the election. Michigan's 16 electoral votes are among the most sought after in the race. Trump won Michigan by only 10,000 votes, putting the historically blue state's margins in the crosshairs for Democrats and Republicans. 

The Midwest region's importance to Trump's electoral chances is why he's made several campaign stops in the state, including one last weekend in Muskegon.