Getty ImagesVice President JD Vance celebrated the 250th anniversary of the US Marine Corps at an event that included a live artillery demonstration.
That demonstration – which took place at Camp Pendleton in Southern California – drew the ire of the state’s governor Gavin Newsom, in part because the exercise closed a section of a popular interstate.
“Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn’t just wrong – it’s dangerous,” Newsom, a Democrat who has often disagreed with the Trump administration, said in a statement.
During his remarks, Vance recalled his time in the Marines, railed against what he called a Democrat-caused government shutdown and critiqued previous military diversity initiatives.
Getty ImagesThe demonstration was the largest in a decade in the continental US, the Marines said, and involved fighter jets, Navy vessels, helicopters and live fire from a towed howitzer.
In response to the exercise, Newsom said he closed a section of Interstate 5 in Southern California “due to extreme life safety risk and distraction to drivers, including sudden unexpected and loud explosions”.
But officials in the vice-president’s office disputed Newsom’s remarks that the demonstration was dangerous and accused the California governor of trying to stoke fears.
“If Gavin Newsom wants to oppose the training exercises that ensure our Armed Forces are the deadliest and most lethal fighting force in the world, then he can go right ahead,” William Martin, Vance’s communications director, told CNN. “It would come as no surprise that he would stoop so low considering his pathetic track record of failure as governor.”
Vance, who spoke in front of hundreds of marines, praised his time in the military.
“I would not be here today, I would not be the vice president of the United States, I would not be the man I am today were it not for those four years that I served in the Marine Corps,” he said.
Vance spent four years in the Marines and served a tour in Iraq in 2005.
But his remarks largely focused on politics, and in part he attacked “woke” aspects of the military.
“It is our common purpose, it is our common mission and it is the fact that every single person here bleeds Marine Corps green,” the vice president said.
Getty ImagesOne of the Trump administration’s focuses has been eliminating diversity initiatives, particularly within the Pentagon.
Vance also used the stage time to rail against the nearly three-week long government shutdown and put blame on Democrats, particularly Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“I bring greetings today from our commander in chief, Donald J Trump, and he wanted me to tell each and every single one of you that he’s proud of you, that he loves you and that despite the Schumer shutdown, he is going to do everything he can to make sure you get paid exactly as you deserve,” he said.
While thousands of federal workers are working without pay, the Defence Department is paying troops.
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