Vance celebrates Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary with California event that sparks back-and-forth with Newsom

By Isabelle D’Antonio, Kaanita Iyer, CNN

(CNN) — Vice President JD Vance celebrated the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps on Saturday at a California event that drew some pushback from Gov. Gavin Newsom over a live artillery demonstration.

The Camp Pendleton demonstration, which the Marines called the largest in a decade in the continental US, involved fighter jets, helicopters, Navy vessels and live fire from a towed howitzer.

Newsom 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.”

“Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn’t just wrong — it’s dangerous,” Newsom, a Democrat who has frequently sparred with the Trump administration, said in a statement.

Vance’s office disputed the claim that the demonstration was dangerous. William Martin, Vance’s communications director, said in a statement to CNN that the Marine Corps deemed the demonstration “an established and safe practice” and “part of routine training at Camp Pendleton.”

“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,” Martin said. “It would come as no surprise that he would stoop so low considering his pathetic track record of failure as governor.”

In remarks from Camp Pendleton, Vance — the first Marine to serve as vice president — spoke of his time in the military, saying, “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.”

Vance enlisted in the military after high school, spending four years in the Marines and serving a tour in Iraq in 2005 as a combat correspondent.

In his remarks, he also focused on the Trump administration’s campaign against “woke” aspects of the military. “It is not our diversity that makes us stronger,” Vance said. “It is our common purpose, it is our common mission and it is the fact that every single person here bleeds Marine Corps green.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who took the podium before Vance, made a similar argument.

“I look out at this crowd, I see a lot of different types of faces. The truth is your diversity is not your strength. Never has been,” Hegseth said. “Your strength is in your unity of purpose.”

Since President Donald Trump returned to office in January, the Pentagon has cracked down on diversity initiatives and rolled back efforts made over the last decade attempting to eradicate toxic culture in the military.

During Saturday’s celebration, Vance also delivered a message from the president, acknowledging the weekslong government shutdown but placing 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,” Vance said.

As CNN has reported, as thousands of federal workers remain furloughed or are working without pay, the Department of Defense is continuing to pay troops by using “unobligated research development testing and evaluation funds.”

The-CNN-Wire
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