JD Vance was probably always an appalling person, long before he joined Donald Trump on the Republican national ticket. When Vance was running for his Senate seat in Ohio – and after he was already a senator – Vance’s language towards women had already begun to sour and become more and more condescending and hateful. Vance was demeaning “childless cat ladies” long before Trump chose Vance as his running mate. In fact, Vance’s ingrained sexism and need to insert himself in women’s business was probably what sealed the deal for Trump. God willing, we will send Vance shuffling off from the national stage. Unlike Trump, Vance is not trying to go out sad and pathetic. He spoke to NBC News on Monday as he made his final campaign stops, and he was actually sort of nice to Democrats? As many have noted, Vance probably wouldn’t assume this kind of conciliatory air if he thought he was on a winning campaign. Some highlights:
Harris voters are decent people: “I really don’t like Kamala Harris and her policies, but most of the people who are voting for Kamala Harris are fundamentally decent people. I just believe that.” Monday afternoon, Vance reminded hundreds of supporters cramped inside a theater that those who “vote the wrong way” are “our fellow citizens.” On Sunday in Pennsylvania, Vance made a similar pitch for civility while vowing that, if they are elected Tuesday, he and Trump are “still going to love” Harris voters, “and we’re still going to serve them.”
Vance really said this with a straight face: “I’ve never heard Trump in private or in public just sort of say, ‘We’re going to call everybody who votes for the other side bad people.’ That’s just not how he thinks. It goes back to the ‘basket of deplorables,’” Vance added, referring to the disparaging remarks Hillary Clinton made about Trump supporters in 2016 and acknowledging his own past as a Trump critic. “Even when I was not a Trump guy back then … that really pissed me off.”
He’s lost friends in recent months and years: “Going back to the Senate race, certainly, but more accelerated, I would say, over the VP race is just people … that my kids have hung out with, that I would have trusted to like, you know, babysit my children, who over politics are just like, ‘No, we’re washing our hands of you. This is unacceptable,’” Vance said. “I think it’s very tragic when you have family members and friends discarding lifelong relationships over political disagreements. I’ve never once thought to myself, ‘Oh, I’m not going to be your friend because you voted for Bernie [Sanders] or you voted for Biden,.’ It’s just not the way that I think. And you know, I have many flaws, but I think that’s one of my virtues.”
He had fun in his final campaign stops: “We’re having fun,” Vance said. “It’s the last day. Feels kind of weird, but here we are.” Reflecting at the end of his campaign, Vance said he most enjoyed the opportunity to travel with his children and with Usha, who sat beside him paying household bills. “Seeing the country from the perspective of a 7-year-old, a 4-year-old and 2-year-old, with all the crazy s— that they say, the observations that they have,” Vance added. “The way that my 4-year-old points to some of your colleagues who have cameras and says, ‘Daddy, is that the fake news?’ It’s like, ‘No, we’re not allowed to say that, son.’”
“I think it’s very tragic when you have family members and friends discarding lifelong relationships over political disagreements.” Women’s bodily autonomy isn’t a political disagreement. Women bleeding to death in hospital parking lots isn’t a political disagreement. Children being slaughtered in schools with automatic weapons isn’t a political disagreement. Spreading lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets isn’t a political disagreement. This has always been about life and death for millions of Americans because of Republican politics and policies. It’s actually amazing to hear that there were people in JD Vance’s life who stopped talking to him and cut him out of their lives because of “politics.” That’s what should happen. After this election, which I hope he loses, I do wonder what Vance will morph into next. Will he go even more extreme, or will he try to be more moderate?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.