[0:05]Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, Michael Watley.
[0:20]Well, God bless North Carolina. It is so good to be back here in Rocky Mount. I think uh we had not been here since about Saturday of last week. But it is really, really good and it's really good to uh welcome our Vice President, JD Vance, back to Eastern North Carolina. and thank him for his great service. We're also very excited to have SBA Administrator Kelly Leffler, uh who's going to be joining us as well today and the great work that she is doing to make sure that we are building up small businesses all across the country but particularly here in North Carolina. You know, when we look at this election cycle, we have to realize that this is an election focused on a choice. Focused on a choice between President Trump's vision for America, which is rebuilding our economy, restoring our borders, keeping our community safe and making sure that America is going to be strong and respected again around the world. Or do we want to go back to the Democrat platform that we saw over the previous four years of open borders, inflationary spending and a woke, weak America. We do not want to go back to Joe Biden's America. We do not want to go back to Roy Cooper's North Carolina. We want jobs. We want economic growth. We want bigger paychecks. We want lower prices. We want safe communities and safe kids. And we want the men and women in uniform from North Carolina, who are protecting our interests and our allies around the world to have everything that they need to carry out their mission. In fact, that's worthy. In fact, we have more veterans who live here in North Carolina than any other state in the country. 720,000 of them. Do we have any veterans in the room today?
[2:36]Thank you. And one veteran I see down front, Lori Buckhout, it is great to see you, ma'am. She's going to do an absolutely fantastic job representing us in Congress and making sure to represent all of our men and women in uniform as well as as our veterans. Lori, thank you and congratulations. Look, this election cycle really does come down to a contrast. It really does come down to a choice for all of North Carolina. Donald Trump every single day is working to create jobs. He's working to make sure that we have bigger paychecks, that we have lower costs. He's working to make sure that we have regulatory and tax and trade policies that are going to work for North Carolina manufacturers, for North Carolina small businesses and North Carolina farmers. We've got to remember that North Carolina economy is built on farming and we are right here in the heart of tobacco country and we know that we've got to do more for them. We've got to make sure that our trade policies are going to work. And we've got to make sure that the tax policies that we just passed in the one big beautiful bill. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security, plus extending President Trump's tax cuts that are putting thousands of dollars into every family's home so that they can turn around and spend it on education. They can spend it on their families. They can spend it on the needs that they have. I don't know about you, but I sure trust you to spend your money better than a federal government in DC or a state government in Raleigh.
[4:28]So it is absolutely fantastic to have the Vice President down here today. Because no President has fought harder for Eastern North Carolina than Donald Trump and Vice President Vance has been here and he knows this region and he knows you and we're very glad to have him down here. But, as for me, I love being back in Rocky Mount. I love being back in Eastern North Carolina. I am very, very grateful for your support in our primary and in the general election that's going to be coming up, because we do not need Roy Cooper anywhere near the United States Senate.
[6:19]Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, Small Business Administrator, Kelly Laffler.
[6:33]Well, good afternoon, North Carolina. Who's excited to hear from our great Vice President? Let's go. All right, I am thrilled to be back to join him and all of you out on the road again. This is my second trip here this week and the third in the last year. I was actually here in your great state earlier this week with 900 small business manufacturers that are working to hire and grow right here in this great state. And that is thanks to President Trump's fair trade, low tax, low regulation agenda that is driving job growth in this country and in this state. And it's great news. But I hear it in every single state I travel across in this wonderful nation we of ours. I've been in 15 states this year already and that's what I hear from state to state to state. Now yesterday, I was in Pennsylvania, actually this morning too, and I heard from a restaurant owner who said things are already so much better. But under Joe Biden, his costs increased $4,000 every single week under Joe Biden. Now under President Trump, he's able to start to grow and invest and hire in his business again, thanks to President Trump's tax cuts. And the common thread is this. The last four years of reckless Bynomics crushed you, hard-working families. But today, the comeback is real. It's unfolding on Main Streets across America, in households and communities just like this great one.
[8:33]But for the last year, the Trump administration and our Republican partners in Congress have focused on just that one thing, putting American families and workers first again.
[8:57]And President Trump said it best when he said, the great betrayal is over and hard-working Americans will never be forgotten about again. We're working every single day to restore greatness in this nation for the next 250 years. Together, we're cleaning up massive wasteful spending and the abuse of government programs, and you've seen that. The fraud that sent your hard-earned tax dollars overseas and the Democrats open borders, defund the police agendas that invited violent crime into what should be safe communities, taking the lives of innocent victims like Arena Zarutska. After four disastrous years, that turnaround is well underway, and yes, there is much more work to do, but we're making fast progress for you. We've cut Biden's massive inflation and high interest rates to five-year lows. We're eliminating trillions of dollars of bureaucratic red tape that crushed our job creators and we're restoring drill baby drill to make us energy dominant again.
[10:10]And and I'd be remiss if I didn't say clean beautiful coal. So, we are bringing back made in America. That's what made us a great nation of builders, it's going to make us a great nation of builders again. Now, the mainstream media and the liberal elites said that it couldn't be done that we should just simply manage America's decline. Well, they were dead wrong because all we needed was a new President.
[10:41]Now just, you know what the working family tax cuts means, you, you know that it's no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. It's thousands of dollars back in your pocket this year and for years to come. It's expanded child tax credits, expanded health savings account, $1,000 Trump accounts for children. It's the 20% passthrough deduction for small businesses. It's the immediate expensing that is rocket fuel for Main Street. And in fact, this is the most Main Street bill in American history.
[11:19]But yet, every single Democrat in Congress voted against it, which means when you get your tax refunds this year, you will not be thanking Don Davis. But you can thank President Trump, Vice President Vance, and congressional Republicans for that. So now, look, President Trump and Vice President Vance, they didn't break it, but they're trying to fix it and they're working quickly.
[11:45]And they're fighting for you, not for green new deal radicals, not for illegal aliens, not for big government spending or fraudsters stealing your tax dollars, but for workers, for veterans, for hard-working families like yours, who make our nation strong. We are working every day to make this country great again. Now, my friends, we are on the cusp of America's golden age, and certainly the best is yet to come. But none of this would have been possible without the incredible leadership of President Trump and Vice President Vance. And you all know our great Vice President's story, his humble beginnings. He's a man of deep faith, the father of soon to be four with his beautiful wife and first second lady, Usha Vance. You know, something important to know about our Vice President, he was the deciding vote on the one big beautiful bill. He single-handedly stopped Democrats from driving your tax bill through the roof and preventing a $4 trillion tax hike. And now he's leading a sweeping effort to end massive fraud and prosecute criminals who are stealing your tax dollars. He's a man who above all fights unapologetically for American values. He and President Trump do it all for the hard-working men and women of our nation who make this nation exceptional. And it's why he's back here in the great state of North Carolina, standing proudly with you to restore the American dream. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce the 50th Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance.
[13:44]Thank you all. Thank you all. Please, please, take a seat and uh we've got, got some time to spend with one another.
[14:00]So, I want to first thank a few of the great people who are here who make this possible and are leading, I think, helping us lead America's and North Carolina's comeback. So first of all, to our great Senate candidate here in the state of North Carolina, Michael Watley. Thank you, Michael, for everything that you're doing.
[14:20]For our great congressional candidate in this district, Lori Buckhout. Where are you, Lori? Thank you so much.
[14:30]And officer in our military and now a person who wants to serve this great district and actually do something good for the people of this district instead of just voting with Nancy Pelosi, which is exactly what Don Davis does every single day. He's in Washington D.C. So, Lori, thank you. We're going to talk a little bit more about your race here in a second, but a lot of you know that this state has a very special place in my heart because I grew up in a poor family. I was raised by my grandmother, and then when I graduated from high school back in 2003, I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. And I really spent the first four years of my adulthood not too far from here in the Eastern part of our state, um, you know, becoming a a young Marine and frankly becoming a young man. And I'll never forget one of the the first major purchases I ever made in my entire life was when I wanted to buy for the first time, I wanted to buy my own car as a young Marine. I was probably 19 years old. And I go to one of these off-base used car dealerships and I find a Honda Civic. It's practical, it's cheap, it does everything I needed to do, and I'm going to get the dealer's low, low interest rate financing of 21%.
[15:46]And and by the grace of God, I had a great United States Marine Corps gunnery sergeant, Gunny Arlidge. I went back, I said, "Gunny, I got a great, great news for you." He said, "What?" He said, "I'm going to I'm going to buy my first car." I said, "Congratulations, Marine, that's a big step for a young Marine." He said, "What's your interest rate?" I said, "21%." And he nearly smacked me upside the head. And he said, "Stop being an idiot." And he didn't say that, he used more colorful language, but I said, we have a couple of couple of young people out there. He said, "Go to Navy Federal Credit Union, and I got an 8% interest rate and bought my car without breaking the bank." So that was my, that was one of many, uh many lessons the state of North Carolina taught me. But what we're trying to do, I talk about a difference between a 21% interest rate that the used car dealer offered me, and the 8% interest rate that I got offered at a credit union. And that's pretty much the difference between the Joe Biden and Donald Trump economic plan for the United States of America, because
[16:54]And just a very brief time, we've seen new home purchases rise to their highest level in five years since the last time Donald Trump was President. We've seen the cost of rents drop for six months in a row. We've seen the average tax refund that's going to come to the people of North Carolina, about $3,700 per family. And we see interest rates that are the lowest they've been since the last time that Donald J. Trump was President. My friends, the President is impatient. He's the most impatient person I have ever met, in fact. He constantly is pressing on the gas. He wants us to do more, but I stand here proud to say that after the first year of President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans leadership, we are rebuilding the American dream and we are taking back this country for the people of this state.
[17:50]Now, there are a number of things that I'm proud of, a number of things I want to brag on, but I actually want to take a little bit of an audience poll because I was looking at some of the things that we put in the Working Families Tax Cut, this one big, great, big, beautiful bill. Now, there that bill is over 1,100 pages long, and unlike most of these bills that are way too long, this is chock full of good stuff for the people of this district, the people of this state. But there are a few things in particular that I think are important for this state. Number one, number one, that piece of legislation, the Working Families Tax Cuts, had the biggest tax cut for social security benefits that we've ever seen in the United States of America.
[18:34]Number two, it wasn't just social security recipients. Number two, that legislation had the biggest tax cuts for people making under $100,000 that we have ever seen in tax legislation in this country.
[18:50]And number three, that wasn't in the Working Families tax cut, but one of the things I'm very proud of is that we forced all localities, whether they're red states or blue states, to report crime accurately so we could go to war against violent crime and the criminals who do that violent crime.
[19:12]Now, those are three things and I on on this part, I only want you to clap once because again, I'm going to take an audience poll here. I'm going to ask you what your favorite of those three pieces of legislation, those three accomplishments are that we've had so far in the Trump administration. So, if your favorite thing of those three is no taxes on social security, let me hear it.
[19:37]Okay. And if your favorite thing is the biggest tax cuts for people making under 100k, let me hear that. Okay. And if your favorite thing is that we've gone to war against violent criminals, let me hear that.
[20:00]Now, I said only applaud once and there's a guy up here. He applauded at least twice. He cheated the system, but I guess he wanted to save it, he wanted to save his applause till the very end. But we all heard the response. You know who did not clap for a single one of those great accomplishments of the Trump administration, Don Davis, because he voted against every single one of them. Don Davis voted against cutting taxes on social security. Don Davis voted against cutting taxes on those making 100, under $100,000 a year, and Don Davis voted against going to war against criminal illegal aliens and violent criminals. Then Don Davis doesn't really represent you. Let's vote for Lori, a person who will and will do so proudly.
