Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance has said a lot of strange stuff since he hit the campaign trail, but now he’s blaming Vice President Kamala Harris for Stellantis’ decision to drop the Ram 1500 Classic after being on sale for 16 years. The move is also going to kill a few thousand jobs in Michigan. Somehow, this is Harris’ fault.
“Just a few days ago, Stellantis announced that it was going to permanently cut nearly 2,500 proud Michigan auto workers who make the iconic Ram 1500,” the Vice Presidential hopeful said Wednesday at a rally near Grand Rapids, Michigan, according to Bloomberg. “Kamala has done nothing.”
Amigo, I’m not sure what you’d like Harris to do… as the Vice President. Regardless, I thought Republicans were all about keeping the government out of big business. Wouldn’t her (somehow) interfering with this free-market choice from Ram fly in the face of those principles? What do I know?
Vance continued, saying, “When American businesses threatened to shut down factories and move them to Mexico and China, remember what Trump did? He picked up the phone and said, ‘If you do that, I’m going to introduce you to a little word called the tariff.’” Brother, what the fuck are you talking about?
Vance is, of course, implying here that Stellantis is eliminating 2,450 hourly jobs in Michigan and moving them to China or Mexico. It never crossed his mind that perhaps it was just time to put the old girl to bed after being on the market for four different presidential administrations.
Here’s a little more on the lengthy history of the Ram 1500 Classic, from Bloomberg:
Stellantis has been producing the same truck — the Ram 1500 Classic — at a factory in Warren, Michigan, for 16 years running. The model is so old that when it debuted at the Detroit auto show in 2008, the company building it was still called Chrysler, and private equity firm Cerberus was the manufacturer’s parent. George W. Bush was finishing out his second term, and Barack Obama was months away from clinching the Democratic nomination.
Stellantis will also be keeping the Warren, Michigan factory open – contrary to what Vance suggested, according to Bloomberg. Sure, the plant will stop building the 1500 Classic, but it will continue to produce the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer.
Here’s what the Harris campaign said, when asked for a comment from Bloomberg:
“Thousands more auto workers are employed today under the Biden-Harris administration’s leadership than on even the best day of Trump’s presidency,” Joseph Costello, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, said in an email. A spokesperson for Vance didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
I really just don’t get this guy, man. Vance – at every turn – has proven to be a total weirdo with very little understanding of how things actually work, and blaming the death of an ancient truck on the current Vice President is a prime example of that.