Last week, JD Vance appeared on almost every Sunday show in what we can only describe as a douchebag blitz. Curiously missing, however, was “Fox News Sunday.” This week, though, Vance retreated to Fox’s cozy duvet cover embrace.
What Vance was not expecting was host Shannon Bream actually asking questions about the campaign he is causing to implode faster than a shoddy carbon fiber submarine.
After playing a video of former presidential candidate Nikki Haley and political strategist Karl Rove denouncing the insular strategy of the Trump/Vance campaign, Vance explained that he’s delusional about who their campaign is appealing to.
VANCE: I think Ambassador Haley is right that we have to reach a broader group of voters, but I think that we're doing exactly that, Shannon. […] We've been making a very simple argument. That when Kamala Harris became president, or vice president I should say, she caused policies that led to a rapid increase in inflation and a rise in chaos around the world. When Donald Trump was president we had stable prices, we had prosperity, we had higher take-home pay for American workers, and we had peace across the world.
To refer to Vance as the Trump campaign’s “Baghdad Bob” would be an insult to that oft used comparison.
The argument of “Are you better now than you were four years ago?”, really loses its power when we were all suffering through a pandemic and scrambling for toiletries. While voters sometimes have short-term memories, we can all remember what that was like.
On a separate note, you could also tell the Trump/Vance team is still using its Biden oppo scripts with his name crossed out when Vance accidentally, prematurely called Harris the “president,” while suggesting she has a level of vice-presidential power/control not seen since Dick Cheney.
Vance was also clearly raw that Harris’s campaign has come across joyful and happy, instead of petty and vain like the Trump/Vance campaign, whining that “the media has been giving Kamala Harris a three-week ‘love-fest.’”
Bream then brought up the return of sex-pest Corey Lewandowski to the Trump campaign, and the numerous donors and supporters who keep pointing out that the biggest liability to Trump’s election is Trump himself. Vance kept insisting that there was nothing wrong with their campaign, which prompted Bream to confront Vance with the polling reality.
BREAM: Our Fox News polling does show the economy is the number one issue and that people do give you all the edge on that. And yet this is what we have out from some new polling out of the New York Times. They say Ms. Harris is now leading Mr. Trump among likely voters in Arizona 50 to 45 and is even edged ahead of Mr. Trump in North Carolina, a state Mr. Trump won four years ago, while narrowing his lead significantly in Georgia and Nevada. What is the administration doing, the campaign doing, with that data as it comes in? I mean these are critical states that you got to have to have a path to 270 [electoral votes]. Are there any pivots? Are there any, you know reconfiguring of what you're doing in the strategy? Because you talk about your message, but is it not landing?
Vance tried to discount this polling, and then he just lied:
VANCE: If you talk to insiders in the Kamala Harris campaign, they're very worried about where they are because the American people just don't buy the idea that Kamala Harris — who has been vice president for three and a half years — is somehow going to tackle the inflation crisis in a way tomorrow that she hasn't for the past 1,300 days.
And then he made this creepy, weird JD Vance analogy that didn’t actually make sense:
VANCE: Giving Kamala Harris control over inflation policy, Shannon, it's like giving Jeffrey Epstein control over human trafficking policy. […]
Kind of weird for Trump’s running mate to bring up the name of Jeffrey Epstein. Does he really want to do that?
People also might be reminded that the Trump campaign recently used a re-registered G550 Gulfstream plane formerly owned by Epstein for its campaign travel a week ago.
Bream, after barely containing her shock at Vance bringing up Epstein, noted a new ABC/Washington Post poll that gave Harris a five-point national lead. Be it denial or eagerness to please Trump — who we guess could drop him from the ticket any old time now — Vance continued to ignore facts.
VANCE: Let me just say one final point on this, Shannon, because I think it's important: Consistently what you've seen […] is that the media uses fake polls to drive down Republican turnout […] create dissension and conflict with Republican voters. I'm telling you every single person who's watching this: the Trump campaign is in a very, very good spot. We're going to win this race.
Have a week.
NOTA BENE FROM EVAN: This is your open thread! We might put a livestream of the speeches up later. Or we might not. Sit in suspense.
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10/10 no notes - via Twitter:
"I'm sitting in the front of a DNC shuttle and some new york times people tried to get on screaming "IS THIS THE NEW YORK TIMES SHUTTLE?!?!" and the very Chicago driver said no and closed the door."
My son got the job offer from Indiana School for the Deaf! He’ll interview tomorrow with the school in Massachusetts, but he really wants Indiana-he’s got friends there, it’s a really good school with a strong athletic program. He told the PO that today is his last day-he’s sick and tired of delivering mail. Proud of him.