The 2024 GOP Vice Presidential nominee, U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), told a crowd at a campaign rally that Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris “can go to hell.”
As seen and heard in the video below, Vance, who is reading off a teleprompter, pushed the claim that President Joe Biden and Harris are responsible for the 13 lives lost during the rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan three years ago. (NOTE: Executed during the Biden administration, the withdrawal was negotiated by Trump and the Taliban.)
Vance on Harris: “She can go to hell.”
You can see his pause as he reads the words on the prompter. He knows it’s disgraceful and isn’t sure who put those words there—but then he says it anyway.
We deserve better leaders than this. pic.twitter.com/gnMIqk5Z68
— Heath Mayo (@HeathMayo) August 28, 2024
Vance said of Harris: “She won’t even do an investigation into what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up. She can,” he raised his hand and took a pregnant pause, “She can go to hell,” which provoked cheers from the crowd.
Heath Mayo, a Christian conservative lawyer who co-founded Principles First (a conservative alternative to the CPAC), responded to Vance wishing hell on the Vice President of the United States: “You can see his pause as he reads the words on the prompter. He knows it’s disgraceful and isn’t sure who put those words there—but then he says it anyway. We deserve better leaders than this.”
Mayo isn’t the only Christian Republican who disapproves of Vance’s speech. Jenna Harris Lester replied: “Agreed. There’s no reason that someone should say this about anyone.”
Brett Orrell, a “theologically orthodox Christian” and Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote of Vance’s dramatic effect: “These geniuses did it on purpose because they know their high school degree holding base likes this and is a little sad right now.” (Note: During the George W. Bush administration, Orrell was Acting Deputy Director at the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.)
MAGA supporters defended Vance’s pause and claim it was a sign of restraint. As one replied to Mayo: “No I think he paused and go to hell was the mild version of what he wanted to say.”