Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, set the record straight on how former President Donald Trump’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’ leadership styles for America’s veterans differ during a campaign stop in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

The Republican vice presidential nominee’s rally was held at JWF Industries, which supplies “Department of Defense prime contractors with reliable, on-time fabrications and sub-assemblies,” according to its site.

Vance, himself a Marine veteran, asked the crowd, “When our own citizens suffer and our veterans are at the top of that list, [do] you know what a big difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris [is]?”

‘WE BELIEVE IN DONALD TRUMP’: MORE THAN A DOZEN MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS ENDORSE FORMER PRESIDENT

“Donald Trump wants to put American citizens and American veterans first. He thinks the government of this country exists to serve the people of this country, not people who shouldn’t be here in the first place,” said Vance. “That is one of the biggest differences between the leadership of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.”

Vance’s comments came on the heels of a question from a reporter asking how the Trump-Vance ticket would prioritize ending veteran homelessness in America, as Pennsylvania has the fourth-highest rate of veteran homelessness in the country.

In late August, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced it would award over $800 million nationwide in grants through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families and Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem programs, with $17 million of the overall grant going to Pennsylvania. 

According to nonprofit Mission Roll Call, an average of 35,574 veterans experienced homelessness per diem in 2023. Veteran homelessness increased 7.4% from 2022 to 2023 during the Biden administration, according to the VA.

TRUMP CAMPAIGN SEEKS INCREASED SECURITY AS ELECTION DRAWS NEAR, INCLUDING MILITARY AIRCRAFT AMID IRAN THREATS

“Let’s be honest here, $17 million,” Vance said. “While it will help, it is not nearly enough to meet the challenge of the homeless veteran population in this country.

“These guys went off to war. Some of them came back with wounds, some of them with wounds you cannot see. But all of them came back with the pride that they served their country and did what our country asked them to do,” he added. “How disgraceful is it that millions of our veterans are getting left behind in some form or another, and thousands of them are homeless? When we’re housing illegal aliens in first-class hotels, it’s a disgrace.”

In New York City alone, 119 migrant shelters contracted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are hotels and motels. An additional 38 hotels are contracted through different agencies.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives at a campaign event at JWF Industries in Johnstown, Pa., Saturday. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)

Veterans 4 America First Institute (V4AF), a self-described grassroots policy organization and nonprofit, responded to Vance’s comments on Trump and Harris’ differing approaches toward veterans.

“Senator Vance is 100% correct, more needs to be done for our homeless veterans, especially at a time under VP Harris when the Department of Veterans Affairs dropped the ball as veteran homelessness went up over 7% last year,” Darin Selnick, V4AF founder and Air Force veteran, told Fox News Digital. 

“Meanwhile, the VA gives special treatment to illegal immigrants by processing and paying their ICE medical claims and to special interests over veterans, such as what is happening at the West L.A. campus where VA has turned its back on homeless veterans while giving illegal leases to UCLA, Brentwood School and an oil company,” continued Selnick.  

The VA was recently ruled against during a case in Los Angeles after it had been discovered that the organization had “quietly sold off” land deeded in 1888 as an Old Soldiers’ Home to private interests instead of building housing units for veterans.

Advertisement

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, gestures while speaking at a campaign event Saturday. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)

U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., introduced a bill last December that would block VA funding for illegal immigrants nationwide called the “No VA Resources for Illegal Aliens Act” after reports came out of the DHS using VA funding for illegal migrants in ICE detention.

Selnick added: “It is time for VP Harris to walk the walk instead of just talking, and to do what is right for veterans instead of using veterans as a political prop.”

The Republican National Committee’s official platform for 2024 includes a subsection titled “Take Care of Our Veterans,” saying, “Republicans will end luxury housing and Taxpayer benefits for Illegal Immigrants and use those savings to shelter and treat homeless Veterans.”

“We will restore Trump Administration reforms to expand Veterans’ Healthcare Choices, protect Whistleblowers, and hold accountable poorly performing employees not giving our Veterans the care they deserve,” the document continued.

Advertisement

Representatives for Vance and the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The White House on Saturday released a report from Vice President Kamala Harris’ doctor declaring her to be in “excellent health.” 

The report, which was previewed by a senior Harris campaign aide, comes as the 59-year-old Democratic nominee seeks to contrast herself with former President Trump, 79, who has not made recent health disclosures. 

“Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” wrote her Army physician, Dr. Joshua R. Simmons. “She possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.” 

VP HARRIS RELEASING DETAILED MEDICAL REPORT, CHALLENGING TRUMP TO DO THE SAME

Advisers to Harris encouraged her office to release her medical history and health information to put a spotlight on Trump’s health and mental acuity, since the 78-year-old Republican nominee would be the oldest president at the end of his potential second term, according to a senior aide.

President Biden, 81, withdrew from the 2024 presidential election in July amid pressure from the Democratic Party given concerns over his advanced age and visible fatigue. Since then, Democrats have sought to go on offense against Trump with what was once their election vulnerability. 

During an August interview with CBS News, Trump insisted that he would “gladly” release his medical records, noting at the time that he had a “perfect score” on a recent medical exam. He has not yet done so. 

READ THE REPORT BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE

The letter from Dr. Simmons calls Harris’ most recent medical exam in April 2024 “unremarkable.” The vice president has no major health issues and “maintains a healthy, active lifestyle despite her busy schedule,” including daily exercise. Harris eats a “very healthy diet,” does not smoke and drinks “only occasionally and in moderation,” according to her doctor.

TOP 5 FRIENDLIEST MOMENTS FROM KAMALA HARRIS’ MEDIA BLITZ: ‘THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES’

Vice President Harri’s doctor reports that she is in “excellent health.”  (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

“Vice President Harris is a healthy 59-year-old female who has a medical history notable for seasonal allergies and urticaria,” the letter states. Urticaria is a common skin condition that can cause itchy, red raised bumps or welts to appear on the skin. It can be triggered by certain foods, medications or stress. Harris takes Allegra to manage her allergies and urticaria, and for the past three years she has undergone allergen immunotherapy (ATI).

Other details from the report include that Harris is nearsighted and wears corrective contact lenses, that she has a family history of colon cancer (her mother died of colon cancer in 2009) and that she is “up to date on all preventative care recommendations, including colonoscopy and annual mammograms.” 

WHY TRUMP IS HEADED INTO ‘THE BELLY OF THE BEAST’: THE STREATEGY BEHIND HIS BLUE STATE STOPS

Former President Trump told CBS in Augutst that he would release his medical records. He has not yet done so.  (AP)

The decision to release Harris’ medical information comes after a New York Times report asserted that Trump has not been transparent with his own health, even after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his head at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania this past July.

Trump did not release his medical records in his first White House campaign in 2016, the report notes. Neither did the Trump White House release accurate updates on his condition after a 2020 COVID diagnosis, with reports detailing that the president was more sick than his doctors said in public, according to the report.

“In 2024, days before becoming the official Republican presidential nominee for the third time, he was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet, yet his campaign did not hold a briefing on his condition, release hospital records or make the emergency physicians who treated him available for interview,” the report said. It goes on to quote several medical experts who raise concerns that Trump could enter the Oval Office in a second term with several “potentially worrisome issues.” 

The last health update from Trump came in November 2023, when his personal doctor, Bruce Aronwald, said in a letter Trump’s “overall health is excellent.” 

“His physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional,” Aronwald wrote.

In response to a request for comment, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung pointed to the letter released by Aronwald and reports from former White House doctor Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who treated Trump after the failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.

“President Trump has voluntarily released updates from his personal physician, as well as detailed reports from Dr. Ronny Jackson who treated him after the first assassination attempt,” Cheung said. 

“All have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief. He has maintained an extremely busy and active campaign schedule unlike any other in political history, whereas Kamala Harris has been unable to keep up with the demands of campaigning and reveals on a daily basis she is wholly unqualified to be President of the United States. Her schedule is much lighter because, it is said, she does not have the stamina of President Trump. Polls are reflective of this.” 

If President Trump is elected in November, California voters have a clear message for the Golden State’s next senator: Protect us.

If Kamala Harris is elected, however, Californians want to see their next senator focus on legislation that helps the state as much as possible.

Those divergent findings come from a new poll released Friday by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, sizing up how voters feel about the two Senate candidates: Democratic Rep. Adam B. Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey.

The poll, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, shows how the largest state in the nation may act as a political counterweight if Trump is elected in November — or as an ally to Harris, if she becomes the first California Democrat to win the White House.

With less than a month to go in the race to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the poll shows that Schiff has maintained his wide advantage over Garvey. About 53% of likely voters say they prefer Schiff, a number that hasn’t budged all year, while about 36% prefer Garvey and 11% remain undecided.

The poll of 3,045 Californians was conducted Sept. 25 to Oct. 1, before this week’s testy debate between the Senate candidates in Burbank.

Schiff’s high-profile positions as chair of the House Intelligence Committee and lead manager of Trump’s first impeachment trial vaulted him to national prominence.

At the Tuesday debate, Garvey tried to portray Schiff as someone too caught up in a vendetta against Trump to focus on issues important to California voters, asking him: “How can you think about one man every day and focus on that when you’ve got millions of people in California to take care of?”

But if Schiff is elected to the Senate and Trump is elected to the White House, California’s likely voters want to see the Burbank congressman continue that role, said Mark DiCamillo, the director of the Berkeley IGS poll.

“Schiff has portrayed himself as the anti-Trump, and these data conform to that,” DiCamillo said.

Nearly 6 in 10 likely California voters would want to see the state’s next senator prioritize “protecting California’s interests and opposing federal legislation that would undercut existing state laws and policies” if Trump is elected, the poll found.

More than 4 in 5 Schiff supporters, and more than half of undecided voters, say that protecting California’s interests should be a top priority.

But California’s likely voters also want to see their next senator reaching across the aisle to work with the other party, with 50% saying he should focus on passing bipartisan legislation. And 49% said that if Trump is elected, the state’s next senator should prioritize “standing up to the president and challenging his executive orders.”

The priorities of the California electorate shift dramatically when considering a Harris administration.

A 56% majority said they would want California’s next senator to prioritize policies and laws that bring as many benefits as possible to the state.

Meanwhile, 48% would want to see Schiff or Garvey collaborate with the Harris administration on her legislative agenda, while 31% said he should prioritize defending Harris from partisan attacks in the Senate.

The poll found that Garvey, who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres for nearly two decades, leads Schiff in the Inland Empire and the Central Valley.

The two men are in a dead heat in purple Orange County, with 46% of voters supporting each candidate.

Garvey, DiCamillo said, “is doing fairly well for a Republican statewide.” But he faces the same “structural problem as any Republican running statewide.” Among California’s registered voters, Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost 2 to 1.

Schiff has maintained a wide lead in California’s two most populous areas, which represent nearly half of the electorate. In Los Angeles County, 59% of likely voters planned to back Schiff, and in the San Francisco Bay Area, nearly 7 in 10 said they would.

Garvey said at Tuesday’s debate that he has voted for Trump three times, including in the 2024 presidential primary. But he hasn’t sought Trump’s endorsement, which Trump said last month was “a big mistake.”

“If he doesn’t have MAGA he’s got no chance,” Trump said, referring to the acronym that stands for his motto, “Make America Great Again,” and his political base.

The data suggest that Garvey does, in fact, have support from Trump’s loyal fans. Among respondents who characterized their political views as MAGA, 92% said they planned to support Garvey.

By contrast, Schiff’s support was highest among people who identified as progressive (89%) and pro-choice (79%).

The two men had relatively similar disapproval ratings. Among likely voters, 43% said they had a favorable view of Schiff, compared with 34% unfavorable. For Garvey, about 35% of voters had a favorable view, 35% said they had a negative view, and 30% had no opinion.