Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance went off on ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz Sunday after she tried to fact-check the senator from Ohio about the presence of Venezuelan migrant gangs in Aurora, Colo.
Former President Donald Trump, 78, stumped in the Denver suburb Friday and vented that the Tren de Aragua (TdA) crime syndicate had “overrun” the city.
“The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes — apartment complexes and the mayor said our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns,” Raddatz, 71, told Vance on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Martha, do you hear yourself?” asked Vance, 40, visibly taken aback by the reporter’s objection. “Only ‘a handful of apartment complexes’ in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris’ open border?
“Americans are so fed up with what’s going on,” Vance went on, “and they have every right to be and I really find this exchange, Martha, sort of interesting, because you seem to be more focused [on] nitpicking everything that Donald Trump has said rather than acknowledging that apartment complexes in the United States of America are being taken over by violent gangs.”
Raddatz later tried again, saying TdA “did not invade or take over the city, as Donald Trump said.”
“A few apartment complexes, no big deal,” Vance quickly fired back.
At least 10 individuals with ties to TdA were arrested in September after gang members obtained a “stranglehold” on the Whispering Pines Apartments complex and engaged in extortion, child prostitution, and other criminal acts, according to a Denver law firm that investigated the situation.
TdA is estimated to have some 5,000 members between the US and Venezuela.
“We’ve got to get American communities in a safe space again,” Vance said Sunday. “And unfortunately, when you let people in by the millions, most of whom are unvetted, most of whom you don’t know who they really are, you’re going to have problems like this.”
During his rally last Friday, Trump vowed to crack down hard on gangs, pledging: “We will send elite squads of ICE, Border Patrol and federal law enforcement officers to arrest and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left in this country.”
Raddatz’s fact-check referenced Republican Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman’s rebuke of the former president’s comments.
“The city and state have not been ‘taken over’ or ‘invaded’ or ‘occupied’ by migrant gangs,” Coffman said following Friday’s rally. “The incidents that have occurred in Aurora, a city of 400,000 people, have been limited to a handful of specific apartment complexes, and our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns and will continue to do so.”