In a fireside chat-style conversation held in a Phoenix-area church with conservative activist Charlie Kirk, GOP vice presidential hopeful Sen. JD Vance carried former President Donald Trump’s favorite football and ran with it, blaming immigration for everything from the cost of housing to the fentanyl boom to employment and unemployment to what he expects will be the destruction of social services.

Vance accused Walz of supporting legislation he considers “legalized kidnapping” — legislation that allows judges to consider parental support of a child’s identity in family disputes. (Similar laws have been passed in other states, including California.)

“He supported legislation that would take children away from their parents if their parents don’t want to do sex changes,” Vance said, a statement that has no basis in fact.

The conversation with Kirk, much like Trump’s recent conversation before a Moms Demand Action event in Washington, D.C., was a friendly rally with a friendly moderator designed to throw red meat to members of their political base. Both were lobbed softball questions about “allowing men to compete in women’s sports.” Both made baseless comments about gender reassignment surgery regarding minors. Both also blamed Democratic policies for the high cost-of-living issues across the country.

But when asked how the Republican ticket might lower the cost of day care for working families, Vance stumbled. He first suggested that families find other family members or friends to take care of kids, then offered the idea of lowering qualification requirements for day care workers.

“We’ve got a lot of people who love kids, who would love to take care of kids, but they can’t, either because they don’t have access to the education that they need, or, maybe more importantly, because the state government says you’re not allowed to take care of children unless you have some ridiculous certification that has nothing to do, nothing to do with taking care of kids,” Vance said.

The event, which promoted Turning Point’s “Chase the Vote” initiative, also allowed Vance to touch on another favorite talking point of Trump and his allies, election security.

“A senate colleague of mine, another great conservative, would say when he was out campaigning for me in the state of Ohio in 2022, he would say, I want you to go out and I want every single person in this room to vote 10 times,” Vance said. 

The room was silent for a moment until Vance stumbled forward. “Look, we don’t — we’re Republicans, we don’t vote 10 times. We just vote once. The way you can vote 10 times legally, you take yourself and nine of your friends and family and make sure they get to the polls on or before election day.”

Vance will continue his Arizona campaign swing in downtown Phoenix on Thursday with an event at the Arizona Biltmore.