Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance has sparked controversy by referencing the movie “Gangs of New York” during a discussion about immigration. At an event hosted by the Milwaukee Police Association, a reporter asked Senator Vance about comments he made in 2021 when running for the US Senate. At the time, Vance described waves of Irish, Italian, and German immigration and said this had led to higher crime rates and ethnic enclaves. The journalist asked Vance if he stood by those remarks and if he would have enacted current deportation proposals to tackle those problems.
Ohio Senator Vance responded by asking reporters if they had seen the film “Gangs of New York” and using that to demonstration his point. “We know that when you have these massive ethnic enclaves forming in our country, it can sometimes lead to higher crime rates,” he said.
“Gangs of New York” is a 2002 Martin Scorsese movie that depicts gang warfare between the Confederation of American Natives and the Irish Catholic immigrant organization the Dead Rabbits.
Critics accused Vance of alienating yet more voters by launching attacks on the Irish, German, and Italian communities in the United States, with some pointing out that the movie’s most violent character was an American native who hated immigrants.
The episode is the latest in a string of controversies associated with Senator Vance’s previous remarks. Since he joined the Republican Presidential ticket, videos of past interviews or speeches have resurfaced, including several involving women, which analysts say may drive female voters away from Donald Trump.
His now-notorious “childless cat ladies” comments to Tucker Carlson in 2021 sparked outrage among Democrats, whom he said were dominated by people without children.
In separate interview footage that went viral online, Senator Vance is heard agreeing with the notion that the “purpose of post-menopausal women” is to care for grandchildren.
Critics said Vance had, therefore, managed to offend women of all ages, but a spokesperson for the Senator dismissed the outrage as manufactured by the liberal media to undermine Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign. “Liberal influencers on Twitter don’t like JD Vance? Truly shocking,” a statement from the Vance team read.
