With Donald Trump's 2024 election win, James David Vance becomes vice president-elect [Post Updated #83]

[The Bald Eagle]

In 2016, when Donald Trump picked Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate, it was widely viewed as an effort to court evangelical Christian voters who may have been wary of supporting Trump, a thrice-married former Democrat.

This time around, he opted for JD Vance. And like his previous choice, the Ohio senator’s selection offers some insight into the former president’s campaign strategy – and, possibly, how he would govern if he returns to the White House.

The pick suggests Trump knows this election will be won and lost in a handful of industrial Midwest battleground states.
A native of Ohio, Mr Vance gained popular attention after the release of his bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which tells of his blue-collar upbringing and how it affected his politics and worldview.

With his background, Vance could be well positioned to connect with and energise the kind of white, working class voters who narrowly delivered those states to Trump in 2016.

The former president said as much, in the social media post announcing his decision, writing that his running mate “will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American workers and farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and far beyond".

Trump went on to laud his pick's military service and his Ivy League law school pedigree.

At only 39, Vance will provide a youthful counterpoint to the candidates at the top of both presidential tickets. Trump’s choice positions the Ohioan to be at the forefront of a new generation of Maga Republicans. And if the former president returns to the Oval Office next year, Vance will instantly join the conversation for the party’s 2028 presidential nomination.

The pair sat next to one another on the first day of the Republican convention - when Trump received a rapturous welcome
Vance did, however, criticise Trump in the run-up to the election in 2016 - something Democrats were quick to point out - but he has since become an outspoken defender of the former president, particularly on television news networks. His recent loyalty, and effectiveness, no doubt factored into Trump’s decision.

When asked whether he believed Trump’s 2020 election defeat was fairly decided, he has said no. He has also said that, unlike Mr Pence, he would have tried to block the certification of the election results in Congress on 6 January 2021, the day of the Capitol riot.

Once 'never Trump', now he's his running mate

Mr Vance also aligns closely with the former president’s political ideology. They have similar views on trade, immigration and foreign policy. Mr Vance has been particularly critical of continued US support for Ukraine.

In areas where the two men differed, Mr Vance has moved toward his new running mate. He has, for example, backed away from an earlier stand against allowing women who are the victims of rape or incest from having access to abortions.
Trump over the course of his campaign has laid out some of his plans for governing in a second term – with across-the-board tariffs, a pledge to deport tens of millions of undocumented migrants and an aggressive realignment of the federal bureaucratic workforce. The Vance pick is further evidence that Trump has doubled-down on Trumpism.

That, too, is something his Democratic opponents are sure to point out. On Monday, Mr Biden told reporters he didn’t see any difference between Mr Vance and the former president.

“He’s a clone of Trump on the issues,” he added.That, of course, may be exactly what Trump wants.

Source: BBC

 

[The Bald Eagle]

How wife's Hindu faith helped JD Vance, Trump's vice-president pick

Usha Vance said her Hindu upbringing led her to support husband JD Vance's own religious quest. Talking about raising their children in a household with two different faiths, Usha said it was important to communicate.

US Senator JD Vance, tapped by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as his running mate, credited his wife and her Hindu faith for helping him navigate personal and professional challenges and come to terms with his own Catholic faith.

Vance made the revelation in an interview to Fox News, which aired weeks before he was selected as Trump’s Vice President candidate. He was accompanied by his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance during the interaction.

Vance, 38, was raised as a Protestant but began considering converting to Catholicism around 2016. He said his wife Usha, a Hindu, encouraged him in search of his Christian faith.

“I was never baptised. I was raised Christian but never baptised. I was first baptised in 2018. Usha was actually raised non-Christian. But I remember when I started to re-engage with my own faith, Usha was very supportive,” said Vance.

Usha, who grew up in a “religious household”, said one of the reasons why she supported her husband in his journey of self-discovery through religion was because of her parents’ influence.

“My parents are Hindu and that’s one of the things that made them such good parents and really good people. And I have seen the power of that in my own life,” said Usha.

“And I knew that JD was searching for something. This just felt right for him," she added.

“My parents’ Hindu faith made them great parents” - Usha Vance

She’s a Hindu & was supportive of her husband’s rediscovery of his own faith

Source: India Today

 

[sweep_shot]

How wife's Hindu faith helped JD Vance, Trump's vice-president pick

Usha Vance said her Hindu upbringing led her to support husband JD Vance's own religious quest. Talking about raising their children in a household with two different faiths, Usha said it was important to communicate.

US Senator JD Vance, tapped by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as his running mate, credited his wife and her Hindu faith for helping him navigate personal and professional challenges and come to terms with his own Catholic faith.

Vance made the revelation in an interview to Fox News, which aired weeks before he was selected as Trump’s Vice President candidate. He was accompanied by his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance during the interaction.

Vance, 38, was raised as a Protestant but began considering converting to Catholicism around 2016. He said his wife Usha, a Hindu, encouraged him in search of his Christian faith.

“I was never baptised. I was raised Christian but never baptised. I was first baptised in 2018. Usha was actually raised non-Christian. But I remember when I started to re-engage with my own faith, Usha was very supportive,” said Vance.

Usha, who grew up in a “religious household”, said one of the reasons why she supported her husband in his journey of self-discovery through religion was because of her parents’ influence.

“My parents are Hindu and that’s one of the things that made them such good parents and really good people. And I have seen the power of that in my own life,” said Usha.

“And I knew that JD was searching for something. This just felt right for him," she added.

“My parents’ Hindu faith made them great parents” - Usha Vance

She’s a Hindu & was supportive of her husband’s rediscovery of his own faith

Source: India Today

I thought Republicans were into Christianity. It seems like many of them are non-practicing cultural Christians.

Anyway, interesting choice for Trump. I thought Trump would select a seasoned politician as his running mate (someone like Mike Pence).

 

[Champ_Pal]

Vance is only 39. What an achievement at such a young age. He could become the face of Republican party if he plays his cards right.

Both Vance and his wife Usha are both Yale educated.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Trump names JD Vance, once one of his fiercest critics, as 2024 running mate​

Donald Trump named JD Vance, the Ohio senator who has aligned himself with the populist right, as his running mate at the Republican national convention on Monday.

“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator JD Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” wrote Trump on Truth Social.

When Trump first ran for office, Vance’s eventual nomination to run alongside him would have seemed implausible. Vance, a venture capitalist who rocketed into the public eye with his 2016 memoir turned Netflix movie Hillbilly Elegy, was once among Trump’s conservative critics.

“I’m a never-Trump guy, I never liked him,” Vance said during an October 2016 interview with Charlie Rose. Trump was, by Vance’s estimation at the time, a “terrible candidate”.

He even wondered aloud, in texts to a former roommate, whether Trump was more of “a cynical asshole like Nixon”, or worse, “America’s Hitler”.

Since then, Vance has undergone a dramatic transformation into a Maga power figure and close ally of the former president who has supported some of Trump’s more authoritarian impulses, like questioning the results of the 2020 election and, in a 2021 podcast interview, suggesting Trump should purge civil servants from the federal government if re-elected.

Vance’s response to the assassination attempt at a Trump rally on Saturday was also notable. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote on X. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Vance has already vied for Trump’s blessing once before, while campaigning for a seat representing Ohio in the US Senate. During the primary, Vance pitched himself as a Trump-style rightwing populist. He criticized “elites”, fired off contemptuous tweets about crime in New York City, promoted the racist and antisemitic “great replacement” theory on Tucker Carlson’s show and grew a beard. He faced a storm of negative ads from the conservative, free market-oriented Club for Growth, which pointed to his past identity as a “never Trumper” as proof of his phoneyness.

The tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who had previously backed Vance’s venture capital startup, poured record-breaking sums of money into the race, and Trump endorsed Vance – ushering in his victory in the primary. When he beat the former Democratic congressman Tim Ryan in the November 2022 general election, it cemented his place on the Maga right.

“I think we need more people like him in politics, who are energetic, dynamic, clear-headed about their ideology,” Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur who ran for president during the Republican party primaries, said of Vance. “The only negative of it – if there is a negative to point out – is he’s probably one of the best we have in the US Senate, and he’s a principled fighter.”

Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, celebrated the announcement on the convention floor.

“I watched JD go into sort of – let’s call it enemy territory, from a media perspective, doing the most liberal TV shows, and prosecute the case for my father and against the Democrat lunacy that we’ve seen,” he said.

Outside the floor of the convention in Milwaukee, news spread slowly on Monday that Trump had picked Vance.

“I think it’s a great choice. I like that he’s young. I like that he’s from Ohio. There’s a lot of positives about him. Future of the party,” said Nick D’Alessandro, an alternate delegate from New York.

Larry Johnson, a convention attendee from West Virginia, said he thought Vance could bring more attention to Appalachia: “I think for a long time that area has been kind of overlooked.”

Asa Hutchinson, the former Arkansas governor who was one of the most outspoken Trump critics during the Republican party said Vance was a “strategic” choice.

In an early response from the Democratic party, the Democratic National Committee chair, Jaime Harrison, wrote that the “Trump-Vance ticket would undermine our democracy, our freedoms, and our future”.

In office, Vance has consistently aligned with the populist right, calling into question the US’s role in foreign conflicts and backing rightwing domestic legislation. In 2023, for example, he introduced a bill that would make English the official language of the US.

Source: The Guardian

 

[Aang_The_last_airbender]

Vance is only 39. What an achievement at such a young age. He could become the face of Republican party if he plays his cards right.

Both Vance and his wife Usha are both Yale educated.

or might remain just a place holder for Donald Jr. or Ivanka in 2028.

 

[rickroll]

or might remain just a place holder for Donald Jr. or Ivanka in 2028.

God, I sincerely hope not.

 

[BouncerGuy]

Vance choice heightens European fears over Trump presidency

European politicians and diplomats had already prepared for changes to their relationship with the US in the event of a second Donald Trump presidency.

Now that the Republican candidate has chosen Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate, those differences appear even more stark on prospects for the war in Ukraine, security and trade.

A vocal critic of US aid to Ukraine, Mr Vance told this year’s Munich Security Conference that Europe should wake up to the US having to “pivot” its focus to East Asia.

"The American security blanket has allowed European security to atrophy," he said.

Nils Schmid, a senior MP in German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party, told the BBC that he was confident a Republican presidency would continue to stay within Nato, even if JD Vance came across as "more isolationist" and Donald Trump remained "unpredictable".

However, he warned of a new round of "trade wars" with the US under a second Trump presidency.

An EU diplomat said that after four years of Donald Trump no-one was naïve: "We understand what it means if Trump comes back as a second-term president, regardless of his running mate."

Portraying the EU as a sailing boat preparing for a storm the diplomat, who preferred not to be named, added that whatever they might be able to tie down, it was always going to be rough.

The US is Ukraine's biggest ally, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week: "I'm not afraid about him becoming president, we will work together."

He also said that he believed most of the Republican party supported Ukraine and its people.

Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump also have a common friend in Boris Johnson, the former UK prime minister, who has consistently championed continued aid for Ukraine and recently met the former president at the Republican National Convention.

Following the meeting, Mr Johnson posted on X that he had “no doubt that [Mr Trump] will be strong and decisive in supporting that country and defending democracy”.

But even if that sentiment is true, it might not apply to Mr Vance, who, days before the full-scale invasion, told a podcast he “doesn’t really care what happens in Ukraine, one way or the other”. He also played a key role in delaying a $60bn military aid package from Washington.

"We need to try and convince him otherwise," says Yevhen Mahda, the Executive Director of the Institute of World Policy think tank in Kyiv.

"A fact we can use is that he fought in Iraq, therefore he should be invited to Ukraine so he can see with his own eyes what is happening and how American money is spent."

The question for Kyiv will be to what extent he can influence the decisions of his new boss.

Yevhen Mahda agrees that Trump’s unpredictability could be a problem for Kyiv in the run-up to the US presidential election.

The biggest supporter of the Trump-Vance ticket in the European Union is Hungary’s Viktor Orban who returned recently from a visit to see the Republican candidate, after visiting Mr Zelensky and President Putin, with whom he maintains close ties.

In a letter to EU leaders, Mr Orban said a victorious Donald Trump would not even wait to be inaugurated as president before quickly demanding peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

"He has detailed and well-founded plans for this," the letter states.

Mr Zelensky has himself said this week that Russia should attend a peace summit possibly next November, and he has promised a “fully ready plan”. But he made clear he had not come under Western pressure to do so.

Viktor Orban's recent "peace missions" to Moscow and Beijing have sparked accusations that he’s abusing his country’s six-month rotating presidency of the European Council. European Commission officials have been told not to attend meetings in Hungary because of Mr Orban’s actions.

During the Trump presidency, the US imposed tariffs on EU-produced steel and aluminium. Although they were paused under Joe Biden’s administration, Trump has since floated a 10% tariff on all overseas imports should he get back into the White House.

The prospect of renewed economic confrontation with the US will be seen as a bad, even a disastrous, outcome in most European capitals.

"The only thing we know for sure is there will be punitive tariffs levelled on the European Union so we have to prepare for another round of trade wars," said Nils Schmid, the Social Democrats’ foreign policy lead in the Bundestag.

JD Vance singled out Berlin for criticism of its military preparedness earlier this year.

While he didn’t mean to "beat up" on Germany, he said the industrial base underpinning its arms production was insufficient.

This will all pile further pressure on Germany, Europe’s largest economy, to "step up" as a principal player in underwriting European security.

After his much-lauded "zeitenwende" (turning point) speech in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Olaf Scholz was often accused of hesitancy on supplying weapons to Kyiv.

But his allies are always keen to point out that Germany is second only to the US in terms of military aid to Kyiv while it has – for the first time since the end of the Cold War – met the 2% GDP defence spending target, albeit via short-term budgeting.

"I think we are on the right track," said Mr Schmid. "We have to build back an army that was neglected for 15 to 20 years."

But observers are far from convinced that behind-the-scenes European preparations are either serious or sufficient.

There are few leaders with the political clout or inclination to champion the future security architecture of an unwieldy European continent.

Chancellor Scholz has an understated style and clear resistance to taking a lead on bolder foreign policy positions – and faces a very real prospect of being voted out of office next year.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been left a severely weakened figure after calling parliamentary elections that have left his country in a state of political paralysis.

Polish President Andrzej Duda warned on Tuesday that if Ukraine loses its struggle against Russia “then Russia’s potential war with the West will be extremely imminent”.

"This voracious Russian monster will want to attack on and on."

BBC

 

[KingKhanWC]

I thought Republicans were into Christianity. It seems like many of them are non-practicing cultural Christians.

Anyway, interesting choice for Trump. I thought Trump would select a seasoned politician as his running mate (someone like Mike Pence).

These clowns have no clue of Christianity, only orthodox Christians are following Christianity.

Seems like just another redneck yank with a few brain cells . His mrs is prob a right wing Hindutva nutjob too . His first idea was to attack British Muslims lol

They could have all the avengers running the country but it won’t change its rapid decline .

 

[sweep_shot]

These clowns have no clue of Christianity, only orthodox Christians are following Christianity.

Seems like just another redneck yank with a few brain cells . His mrs is prob a right wing Hindutva nutjob too . His first idea was to attack British Muslims lol

They could have all the avengers running the country but it won’t change its rapid decline .

LOL. True.

They seem confused about their identities.

 

[Aang_The_last_airbender]

I thought Republicans were into Christianity. It seems like many of them are non-practicing cultural Christians.

Anyway, interesting choice for Trump. I thought Trump would select a seasoned politician as his running mate (someone like Mike Pence).

All the assumptions were incorrect and you are surprised at your conclusions being wrong.

 

[Champ_Pal]

These clowns have no clue of Christianity, only orthodox Christians are following Christianity.

Seems like just another redneck yank with a few brain cells . His mrs is prob a right wing Hindutva nutjob too . His first idea was to attack British Muslims lol

They could have all the avengers running the country but it won’t change its rapid decline .

You have no idea of their faith and you are calling them clowns.

Vance is from Ohio. Far from being a redneck. He is Yale educated. Not a typical religious nutjob who brings religion into everything.

USA is fine and will be fine. We have our issues with woke left bringing in everyone illegally into the country from around the world. At least USA is big and house all these people.

What is declining is the relevance of your adopted country Britain. Its a slow sinking ship.

 

[sweep_shot]

I obviously put my religious identity first. As a matter of fact, that's the only identity I care about internally.

My Canadian and Bangladeshi identities are for employment/paperwork/legal purposes only. There is no emotion involved.

 

[KingKhanWC]

You have no idea of their faith and you are calling them clowns.

Vance is from Ohio. Far from being a redneck. He is Yale educated. Not your typical religious nutjob who brings religion into everything.

USA is fine and will be fine. We have our issues with woke left bringing in everyone illegally into the country from around the world. At least USA is big and house all these people.

What is declining is the relevance of your adopted country Britain. Its a slow sinking ship.

Redneck is a mentality not an education level .

USA and Europe are in decline . Dont take everything personally esp you’re an immigrant with an accent.

 

[Champ_Pal]

Redneck is a mentality not an education level .

USA and Europe are in decline . Dont take everything personally esp you’re an immigrant with an accent.

We all know who a Redneck is. Vance is not even close to anything it describes.

My accent and immigration status has nothing to do with the topic.

 

[sweep_shot]

You have no idea of their faith and you are calling them clowns.

Muslims and Jews are far more likely to understand Christianity than Indians with Hindu backgrounds. Don't you think?

 

[Statpadder Inc]

Redneck is a mentality not an education level .

USA and Europe are in decline . Dont take everything personally esp you’re an immigrant with an accent.

A Yale educated Senator who made millions in Silicon Valley and a best selling author but you living in Bradford will call him a redneck

Everyone in the US is an immigrant and everyone has an accent, you are an immigrant in the UK with an accent too.

The West maybe in decline but you will never move back to Pakistan in a million years and still continue to reside there

 

[KingKhanWC]

We all know who a Redneck is. Vance is not even close to anything it describes.

My accent and immigration status has nothing to do with the topic.

lol

It does , there is a strong wanting of belonging by immigrants to America.

This is chap who months ago thought trump was a clown , now he takes the job .

Western politicians are mere workers of big donors & elite companies to further their agendas & business . This is not even up for debate .

 

[Stewie]

I thought Republicans were into Christianity. It seems like many of them are non-practicing cultural Christians.

Anyway, interesting choice for Trump. I thought Trump would select a seasoned politician as his running mate (someone like Mike Pence).

There are all sorts .. those heavily into it like Mike Pence and then those who are more moderate like JD and then there are those who have nothing whatsoever to do with faith and spirituality at all (Christian or otherwise) but they love to publicize that they are very Christian … like Trump. He loves to wave the Bible but he also loves to grab women by the… well you know the rest.

Christian values are basically religious values in American colloquialism. Don’t lie, don’t cheat, help thy neighbor, etc, etc.

For moderate christians, marrying a Hindu is perfectly acceptable. Someone like Pence may not do it though.

 

[Stewie]

We all know who a Redneck is. Vance is not even close to anything it describes.

My accent and immigration status has nothing to do with the topic.

Have you seen hillbilly elegy, the movie or read his book? I think he does identify as one.

Being a hillbilly or red neck is not necessarily a bad thing. I for once admire what he has achieved.

 

[sweep_shot]

There are all sorts .. those heavily into it like Mike Pence and then those who are more moderate like JD and then there are those who have nothing whatsoever to do with faith and spirituality at all (Christian or otherwise) but they love to publicize that they are very Christian … like Trump. He loves to wave the Bible but he also loves to grab women by the… well you know the rest.

Christian values are basically religious values in American colloquialism. Don’t lie, don’t cheat, help thy neighbor, etc, etc.

For moderate christians, marrying a Hindu is perfectly acceptable. Someone like Pence may not do it though.

I see.

Whatever you want to call Pence, he is not a hypocrite (unlike many Republicans). He doesn't flip flop or acts vague when it comes to belief.

 

[Stewie]

I see.

Whatever you want to call Pence, he is not a hypocrite (unlike many Republicans). He doesn't flip flop or acts vague when it comes to belief.

I will partially agree with that statement. He did not denounce Trump for fear of his own political career taking a tumble after the events of the attempted insurrection. He, his family, and others were out directly in harm’s way thanks to open instigation by Trump and yet Pence chose to remain quiet.


He is only speaking out more recently when he knew he won’t be the running mate anymore.

 

[Stewie]

I have seen a lot of people from India as well as Pakistan in the states who become rich through owning businesses and cheating on taxes. I also happen to know quite a few educated Indians who are doctors who run scam labs overcharging patients for made up tests.

Yes there are genuine and hard working success stories of both Pakistanis and Indians in the states but to claim they are all honest is a falsehood.

 

[KingKhanWC]

People from Bombay and Calcutta go to the USA and end up becoming it's wealthiest community, they don't mooch of social services or become ungrateful religious nutjobs

So do people from China or Mongolia .

But getting rid of an accent is another story .

Vote for him but continue to expect this clown to be criticised.

 

[Stewie]

Mostly its the immigrants that make money in the US. Chinese are probably killing it most of all because immigrants from these countries know most how to a) game the system or b) just get it done through talent or hardwork

I have seen Blacks and Latinos who are considered non-immigrants struggle to be as successful as immigrants. That's just how it has been in the US.

 

[FearlessRoar]

'The Rust Belt boost candidate': JD Vance to draw on his blue-collar roots as Trump's running mate​

When Sen. JD Vance accepts the Republican nomination for vice president here Wednesday night, the Ohioan will draw on his turbulent upbringing in a family that wrestled with drug addiction and other socioeconomic crises in a Midwest steel town.

It’s a story of working-class struggle familiar to those who read “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance’s bestselling 2016 memoir, or who saw the 2020 movie on Netflix adapted from it.

And though Vance’s story will be new to many in a broader primetime audience, former President Donald Trump’s campaign hopes it will ring true and reinforce his strength with blue-collar voters in battleground states. Vance will connect his experiences to issues like trade, inflation, immigration and the fentanyl crisis and to Trump’s policies for addressing them, multiple sources familiar with his speech told NBC News.

Vance also is expected to emphasize his military background. The former Marine is the first post-9/11 veteran to run on a major party ticket, and the first veteran at all on a major party’s ticket since the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., ran for president in 2008.

The themes of the speech line up with lofty expectations for Vance, 39, who also would be the third-youngest vice president in U.S. history.

Republicans here for the party’s national convention see him as a running mate who can rally the base in in Pennsylvania and the industrial Midwest. Meanwhile, recent appearances on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and other mainstream news shows have buoyed confidence that Vance can competently field hardball questions outside the safe and friendly right-wing media sphere.

“People feel like Washington’s forgotten about them,” former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said in an interview. “That’s JD Vance, his family. Those are people across this country, who, like his family, suffered from drug addiction, suffered poverty. He wrote about that, obviously, in his book, and then you saw it on Netflix. And I think that’s going to be compelling — to say that this is someone who can relate to the kind of people that Donald Trump is standing up for.”

Michigan GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra also noted how Vance’s personal story can help amplify Trump’s message and agenda.

“Lots of people can relate to a vice president who can talk about his life as a young person and where it was hard, where life was tough,” Hoekstra, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the Netherlands, said. “That’s a place that a lot of Michiganders find themselves in today.”

In interviews this week, many GOP officials and delegates offered the same three words when asked about Vance’s strengths: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Those states were key to Trump’s winning coalition in 2020, but four years later he lost all three of them by narrow margins to President Joe Biden.

“He’s going to connect so well with these states that are so important in this upcoming election — Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan,” Riley Moore, a congressional candidate and the Republican state treasurer in West Virginia, said. “He represents those kinds of values and a lot of those struggles that he’s went through.”

Charlie Kirk, a young right-wing leader within Trump’s MAGA movement who advocated for Vance’s selection, believes his youth and geographic base will complement Trump.

“We have the lowest number of undecided voters of any major presidential election in the modern era,” Kirk said. “This is a base turnout election, and it’s a regional election. It’s closer to 20 or 30 mayors’ races than it is a presidential election. It’s western Pennsylvania, southwestern Michigan, right where we are, right here, southeastern Wisconsin. JD Vance is the Rust Belt boost candidate.”

'The Rust Belt boost candidate': JD Vance to draw on his blue-collar roots as Trump's running mate

In his speech at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night, Vance is expected to draw on his turbulent upbringing and his military background.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Champ_Pal]

Muslims and Jews are far more likely to understand Christianity than Indians with Hindu backgrounds. Don't you think?

It depends on how much you understand all religions. The background does not matter.

 

[Champ_Pal]

lol

It does , there is a strong wanting of belonging by immigrants to America.

This is chap who months ago thought trump was a clown , now he takes the job .

Western politicians are mere workers of big donors & elite companies to further their agendas & business . This is not even up for debate .

That is what politics is about. No one is an exception. But you called him a clown for not knowing his religion and you called his wife a Hindu rightwing nutjob. You would not call any of this if they both were Muslims.

 

[rickroll]

Any of the Non-American Pakistanis here touting for Trump from afar, this is what South Asian communit (including Pakistani Americans) have to put up with if/when Trump and his neo nazi cronies come to power. I'm not even touching on their Islamophobic comments which is a whole other pandora's box.

 

[Bhaijaan]

Happy to see the spread of Sanatan dharma in the states. May the shakti remain strong with you all.

 

[SpiritOf1903]

Crazy. How much Indians are powering the far right

 

[rickroll]

Crazy. How much Indians are powering the far right

Well forget the Indians, I had to debate and argue in vain with many non-American Pakistanis about why supporting Trump is wrong if you are a true muslim. I'm shocked that many people have such cognitive dissonance about a blatantly obvious thing.

 

[SpiritOf1903]

Well forget the Indians, I had to debate and argue in vain with many non-American Pakistanis about why supporting Trump is wrong if you are a true muslim. I'm shocked that many people have such cognitive dissonance about a blatantly obvious thing.

Bonkers he's still better than Senile Joe

 

[BouncerGuy]

Trump VP pick Vance vows to fight for 'forgotten' Americans

Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick JD Vance vowed in a primetime speech to fight for working-class Americans that he argued had been “cast aside and forgotten” by the Democrats.

Introducing himself to millions of Americans watching on TV at home, the Ohio senator channelled his humble roots in the Midwest as he assailed “career politicians” like President Joe Biden.

He argued in his address at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that Trump was the "last best hope” for Americans.

Trump and his running mate will challenge the Democratic White House ticket, currently Mr Biden and his Vice-President, Kamala Harris, in November’s election.

Mr Biden’s account on X, formerly Twitter, hit back at Mr Vance on Wednesday night, over his positions on abortion and Ukraine.

Mr Vance, 39, is hoping to become one of the youngest vice-presidents in US history.

In the speech, he charted his journey from a difficult childhood in small-town Ohio to the US Marines, Yale Law School, and finally the US Senate.

The author of best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, about his impoverished family in Appalachian coal country, said “America’s ruling class” had destroyed communities like his hometown with trade agreements and foreign wars.

“From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the Great Recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again,” he said.

He continued: “Donald Trump represents America’s last best hope to restore what – if lost – may never be found again.

“A country where a working-class boy, born far from the halls of power, can stand on this stage.”

The running mate, who is married to Usha Vance, a lawyer and daughter of Indian immigrants, said the US had traditionally welcomed newcomers, but that it ought not to import foreign labour.

“When we allow newcomers, we allow them on our terms,” he said.

Mr Vance was previously an opponent of Trump, once dismissing the Republican as an “idiot” who could become “America’s Hitler”.

By then a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, he later mended fences with Trump.

He won the former president's endorsement and was elected to the Senate in 2022, taking office the following year.

Democrats have seized on some of Mr Vance’s past statements, including that he doesn’t “really care what happens to Ukraine” and support for a nationwide abortion ban.

He has recently moderated his stance on abortion to align with the official Republican platform, which says the issue should be decided by individual states.

He did not mention the war in Ukraine during his speech, or say much at all about foreign policy, which was the theme of the third day of the party conference.

Mr Vance did say that US allies must share in the burden of securing world peace and America would avoid conflict but “punch hard” if provoked under a second Trump presidency.

He began his speech by talking about last Saturday's assassination attempt on Trump.

"They accused him of being a tyrant," he said. "They said he must be stopped at all costs. But how did he respond? He called for national unity, for national calm.”

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Mr Vance blamed it on Mr Biden’s rhetoric and his warnings that his Republican rival poses a threat to democracy.

A CNN poll conducted last month showed that 13% of registered voters said they had a favourable opinion of Mr Vance and 20% an unfavourable one – nearly two-thirds either had never heard of him or had no opinion.

Some convention-goers on Wednesday said they were still learning about his biography.

Cindy Dore and Jackie Canon, two Republican delegates from Louisiana, said they were excited by Trump’s pick.

“He’s young, vibrant,” Ms Dore said.

She said she appreciated Hillbilly Elegy, but other than that, she didn’t know a lot about Mr Vance.

The speeches began shortly after it was announced that President Biden had been diagnosed with Covid-19 and temporarily suspended campaign activities.

The climax of the Republican convention will be Donald Trump’s speech on Thursday night.

Chris Devine - an associate professor of politics at the University of Dayton and co-author of Do Running Mates Matter? - told the BBC that vice-presidential picks tend to have quite a small effect on the overall race.

“If it’s the case that people look at JD Vance and see him as insufficiently experienced, they will think less of Donald Trump and his judgement,” he says. "Not by a lot, but potentially on the margins."

But Mr Devine also noted that Mr Vance is an “incredibly talented communicator” despite being a relative political newcomer.

BBC

 

[BouncerGuy]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1813744335789121551

 

[KingKhanWC]

That is what politics is about. No one is an exception. But you called him a clown for not knowing his religion and you called his wife a Hindu rightwing nutjob. You would not call any of this if they both were Muslims.

There’s politics & there’s spouting leaving no credibility. It’s due to their views not because I randomly think this lol

He called Trump as bad as hitler. You do know who hitler was ? Now he’s running with him . This is clownish behaviour & it’s strange trump chose him but he’s been encouraged clearly .

His wife is Hindu & he makes anti Muslim hate in his first speech , add it up.

You have no understanding of politics or the world but like many immigrants esp India jump as high as a Bollywood movie hero to those who you feel you need to submit too in your new land of honey .

 

[Aang_The_last_airbender]

Its going be fun seeing JD Vance get more hate than Trump just because of the religion and skin color of the person he is married too .

 

[Champ_Pal]

There’s politics & there’s spouting leaving no credibility. It’s due to their views not because I randomly think this lol

He called Trump as bad as hitler. You do know who hitler was ? Now he’s running with him . This is clownish behaviour & it’s strange trump chose him but he’s been encouraged clearly .

His wife is Hindu & he makes anti Muslim hate in his first speech , add it up.

You have no understanding of politics or the world but like many immigrants esp India jump as high as a Bollywood movie hero to those who you feel you need to submit too in your new land of honey .

You are implying that his RSS wife told him to blast Muslims.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

These clowns have no clue of Christianity, only orthodox Christians are following Christianity.

Seems like just another redneck yank with a few brain cells . His mrs is prob a right wing Hindutva nutjob too . His first idea was to attack British Muslims lol

They could have all the avengers running the country but it won’t change its rapid decline .

I think you are being unfair calling her a hindutva nutjob, if she was a devout Hindu then I think she would have preferred to marry a hindu rather than a devout Catholic.

 

[Stewie]

I think you are being unfair calling her a hindutva nutjob, if she was a devout Hindu then I think she would have preferred to marry a hindu rather than a devout Catholic.

This is very true. Most Hindus who are liberal enough to be married to non Hindus cannot be religious zealots. If anything, this dude has a challenge on his hands now to court RW White nationalists, a large Trump voter base, due to his wife and his strong pro Israeli views.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

This is very true. Most Hindus who are liberal enough to be married to non Hindus cannot be religious zealots. If anything, this dude has a challenge on his hands now to court RW White nationalists, a large Trump voter base, due to his wife and his strong pro Israeli views.

I don't know anything about Vance, as I don't follow American politics I had never heard of Vance before yesterday. But if he has married an Indian lady then it seems unlikely that he is a white nationalist. Unless he sees it as his duty to marry foreign women and breed their Indian genes out for the future of white America. It seems unlikely but not impossible I suppose.

 

[Stewie]

I don't know anything about Vance, as I don't follow American politics I had never heard of Vance before yesterday. But if he has married an Indian lady then it seems unlikely that he is a white nationalist. Unless he sees it as his duty to marry foreign women and breed their Indian genes out for the future of white America. It seems unlikely but not impossible I suppose.

He married her years ago, before he started his career in politics. I think he was still in law school at the time.
Leads me to believe his political views may have changed over time, or that he is simply another demagogue who does not believe what he likes to blast on the loudspeaker.

 

[Aang_The_last_airbender]

He married her years ago, before he started his career in politics. I think he was still in law school at the time.
Leads me to believe his political views may have changed over time, or that he is simply another demagogue who does not believe what he likes to blast on the loudspeaker.

He was the strongest Never Trump guy in the Republican party in 2016. He just changed entirely since then.
Typical Politician.

 

[Stewie]

He was the strongest Never Trump guy in the Republican party in 2016. He just changed entirely since then.
Typical Politician.

Even Trump himself was a widely acknowledged liberal guy till he decided he wanted to run for president and identified a large voter base on the far right he could tap into, use the Obama backlash to his benefit and completely fashioned himself into an alt right pseudo white race savior messiah hero. He is none of that. he is just a demagogue

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

He married her years ago, before he started his career in politics. I think he was still in law school at the time.
Leads me to believe his political views may have changed over time, or that he is simply another demagogue who does not believe what he likes to blast on the loudspeaker.

But if his views have changed, does that mean he is now regretting marrying an Indian lady? How else could you square that with white nationalist views?

Unless she is also a white nationalist and supports her husband as a lesser race born to serve perhaps?

It is very confusing, but then I don't know how hindu thought process works.

 

[KingKhanWC]

I think you are being unfair calling her a hindutva nutjob, if she was a devout Hindu then I think she would have preferred to marry a hindu rather than a devout Catholic.

You may be correct . But as told on here a Hindu can be anything, as long as they accept Muslims in India are invaders . It was a guess based on her husband’s first statement attacking British b Muslims , when he’s supposed to be making America great again.

This VP choice is as confused as Biden without the dementia.

 

[Aang_The_last_airbender]

Even Trump himself was a widely acknowledged liberal guy till he decided he wanted to run for president and identified a large voter base on the far right he could tap into, use the Obama backlash to his benefit and completely fashioned himself into an alt right pseudo white race savior messiah hero. He is none of that. he is just a demagogue

Well, Trump entering politics to be the President was basically a revenge for Obama publicly humiliated Trump for about full 5 mins at the WH correspondent's dinner in 2011.

That was classic beginning of the villain arc of Trump, and honestly Trump won!

Do you remember this:

 

[Stewie]

But if his views have changed, does that mean he is now regretting marrying an Indian lady? How else could you square that with white nationalist views?

Unless she is also a white nationalist and supports her husband as a lesser race born to serve perhaps?

It is very confusing, but then I don't know how hindu thought process works.

I think you are trying to look at everything in black and white. That's not how real life works.
We cannot speak to the intertwining complexity of human emotion and political beliefs. But I honestly do not think this guy is a racist, right wing bigot. neither is Trump. they are both rebels who needed a cause and picked up something they would be good at.

 

[Stewie]

Well, Trump entering politics to be the President was basically a revenge for Obama publicly humiliated Trump for about full 5 mins at the WH correspondent's dinner in 2011.

That was classic beginning of the villain arc of Trump, and honestly Trump won!

Do you remember this:

I do and its true this had a lot to do with it.

 

[Aang_The_last_airbender]

I do and its true this had a lot to do with it.

These 5 mins of comedy have impacted the world more than any speech in recent history.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

I think you are trying to look at everything in black and white. That's not how real life works.
We cannot speak to the intertwining complexity of human emotion and political beliefs. But I honestly do not think this guy is a racist, right wing bigot. neither is Trump. they are both rebels who needed a cause and picked up something they would be good at.

Ironic given the nature of this discussion about someone who is supposedly jumping on the black and white bandwagon.

 

[rickroll]

Bonkers he's still better than Senile Joe

That he could be in a generic sense, no questions about that. Biden is better for American muslims in particular though. I said this in another thread and saying it again ...

Trump and his racist cronies getting elected is due to corrupt DNC, similar to fascist Modi elected in India is due to corrupt Congress party (and the Maino family hegemony).

 

[DeadlyVenom]

What's with this alliance of Hindu women and right wing whites?

Priti Patel married a white dude and is a loon.

So is Braverman

So is this lady.

Anyway I don't trust a man who can change his religious outlook at the drop of a hat. Christian to the republicans, wears the Jewish hat when in Israel and red dot when at home with the missus.

Seems like he can change costume whatever the occasion.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Even Trump himself was a widely acknowledged liberal guy till he decided he wanted to run for president and identified a large voter base on the far right he could tap into, use the Obama backlash to his benefit and completely fashioned himself into an alt right pseudo white race savior messiah hero. He is none of that. he is just a demagogue

Yep exactly he tapped the fears among White Americans especially anglo saxons and paved the way for his presidency

 

[Stewie]

What's with this alliance of Hindu women and right wing whites?

Priti Patel married a white dude and is a loon.

So is Braverman

So is this lady.

Anyway I don't trust a man who can change his religious outlook at the drop of a hat. Christian to the republicans, wears the Jewish hat when in Israel and red dot when at home with the missus.

Seems like he can change costume whatever the occasion.

Being a Christian does not mean he cannot support the Jews or marry a Hindu, just saying.
I do believe though that politically speaking this does not make sense but Christianity is a lot more flexible than Islam when it comes to choosing partners and also supporting Israel is a constant amongst right wingers or left wingers.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Being a Christian does not mean he cannot support the Jews or marry a Hindu, just saying.
I do believe though that politically speaking this does not make sense but Christianity is a lot more flexible than Islam when it comes to choosing partners and also supporting Israel is a constant amongst right wingers or left wingers.

I just find it odd out how people can wear religious costumes depending on how they feel.

Yes the Christianity more flexible seems more flexible when sex with other religions is involved but these republicans don't have the same flexibility on issues like abortion or calling out genocide.

 

[rickroll]

I just find it odd out how people can wear religious costumes depending on how they feel.

Yes the Christianity more flexible seems more flexible when sex with other religions is involved but these republicans don't have the same flexibility on issues like abortion or calling out genocide.

Welcome to politics and politicians

 

[Stewie]

I just find it odd out how people can wear religious costumes depending on how they feel.

Yes the Christianity more flexible seems more flexible when sex with other religions is involved but these republicans don't have the same flexibility on issues like abortion or calling out genocide.

That’s what politics is.

It’s the same thing with the hundreds of religio political leaders in Pakistan. How many stood up for Palestine?

 

[DeadlyVenom]

That’s what politics is.

It’s the same thing with the hundreds of religio political leaders in Pakistan. How many stood up for Palestine?

What do you want them to do? They speak up for Palestine on a daily basis.

The hypocrisy in the US republican party and the US Christians is unparalleled anywhere in the world.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Welcome to politics and politicians

Of course. It's just weird how it gets so much traction ain't it.

 

[Stewie]

What do you want them to do? They speak up for Palestine on a daily basis.

The hypocrisy in the US republican party and the US Christians is unparalleled anywhere in the world.

Do you remember TLP? Do you remember how they came out in droves and caused what I could call domestic terrorism over some alleged blasphemy?

You think thousands of Muslims dead in Palestine is in any way smaller in scale to that offense? Did TLP take any action or send any of their people to Gaza to fight and cause tor phor like they did internally in Pakistan? What about Diesel? He loves to come out and hold dharnas and protests when he has to sit in opposition over rising aloo Pyaz tamatar rates, but did he take any action? They have taken action over much less severe threats to Muslims in the past but when its really time for action, these so-called Muslims sit down like peshab ki jhaag.

Maybe speaking out is good enough for you, but not for me given the track record of these people. So please, don't lecture on on the hyprocrisy of the US republicans or US Christians because that's not lost on any of us but you insult our intelligence buy making our own Muslims seem like they are touched by Angels.

When it comes to hypocrisy, I am hard pressed to find anybody in the world more guilty of it than our religious leaders.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Do you remember TLP? Do you remember how they came out in droves and caused what I could call domestic terrorism over some alleged blasphemy?

You think thousands of Muslims dead in Palestine is in any way smaller in scale to that offense? Did TLP take any action or send any of their people to Gaza to fight and cause tor phor like they did internally in Pakistan? What about Diesel? He loves to come out and hold dharnas and protests when he has to sit in opposition over rising aloo Pyaz tamatar rates, but did he take any action? They have taken action over much less severe threats to Muslims in the past but when its really time for action, these so-called Muslims sit down like peshab ki jhaag.

Maybe speaking out is good enough for you, but not for me given what the track record of these people. So please, don't lecture on on the hyprocrisy of the US republicans or US Christians because that's not lost on any of us but you insult our intelligence but making our own Muslims seem like they are touched by Angels.

When it comes to hypocrisy, I am hard pressed to find anybody in the world more guilty of it than our religious leaders.

Before addressing the rest of the post can you explain how the TLP would reach Gaza?

Can you also show where they have put a TLP candidate as vice president to run the whole country one seat away from a nuclear bomb?

There was no lecture. Just a statement of fact around the hypocrisy of JD Vance.

Now if your gut instinct to this hypocrisy is to try and deflect and find it in others. Then please go ahead to your hearts content. It doesn't change the original hypocrisy in the slightest. I am not a spokesman for the TLP I'm just commenting on a thread lol

 

[Stewie]

Before addressing the rest of the post can you explain how the TLP would reach Gaza?

Can you also show where they have put a TLP candidate as vice president to run the whole country one seat away from a nuclear bomb?

There was no lecture. Just a statement of fact around the hypocrisy of JD Vance.

Now if your gut instinct to this hypocrisy is to try and deflect and find it in others. Then please go ahead to your hearts content. It doesn't change the original hypocrisy in the slightest. I am not a spokesman for the TLP I'm just commenting on a thread lol

And I am not a spokesperson for the Republicans, but I just hate smug self righteous people who find fault with others yet cannot take a good hard look at their own people when they are more guilty.

 

[Champ_Pal]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1813744335789121551

USA should keeping spending billions on Ukraine war while the national debt keeps rising to astronomical levels.

Biden has already spent billions on Ukraine war. World problems are not US problems.

US should not send any financial aid or logistical aid to any country unless its interests are directly under threat.

 

[Champ_Pal]

Being a Christian does not mean he cannot support the Jews or marry a Hindu, just saying.
I do believe though that politically speaking this does not make sense but Christianity is a lot more flexible than Islam when it comes to choosing partners and also supporting Israel is a constant amongst right wingers or left wingers.

Right wing nationalists always support Jews due to religion.

Left oscillates and tries to play on both sides of the court when it comes to Jews and Muslims. On one hand, they need Jewish money, on the other hand they need Muslim votes.

 

[Champ_Pal]

What's with this alliance of Hindu women and right wing whites?

Priti Patel married a white dude and is a loon.

So is Braverman

So is this lady.

Anyway I don't trust a man who can change his religious outlook at the drop of a hat. Christian to the republicans, wears the Jewish hat when in Israel and red dot when at home with the missus.

Seems like he can change costume whatever the occasion.

Many 2nd generation Indian women are married to white men.
Both parties are flexible. So no issues there.

 

[Stewie]

Right wing nationalists always support Jews due to religion.

Left oscillates and tries to play on both sides of the court when it comes to Jews and Muslims. On one hand, they need Jewish money, on the other hand they need Muslim votes.

lol.. due to religion?

NO! That’s a completely false statement. You should read first what right wing nationalism is about.

They support Jews due to their influence and money, that’s it.

 

[Bhaijaan]

Is he by any chance related to Bob Vance from Vance refrigeration

 

[BouncerGuy]

JD Vance pushes Republicans as champions of working class in first speech as Trump’s running mate

JD Vance formally accepted the Republican vice-presidential nomination on Wednesday with a deliberate, and at times divisive, pitch to re-elect Donald Trump in November.

Addressing delegates in Milwaukee on the third night of the convention, Vance, the junior senator of Ohio, presented the Republican party as a champion of working-class Americans while denouncing Democrats as out of touch and ineffective. The populist-tinged rhetoric offered the latest sign of how Trump has reshaped the Republican party and rejected much of the traditional conservatism of its past.

“From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the Great Recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again,” Vance told the energized crowd. “That is, of course, until a guy named Donald J Trump came along. President Trump represents America’s last, best hope to restore what, if lost, may never be found again.”

Vance leaned into his own personal story, first shared in his bestselling and controversial memoir Hillbilly Elegy, to bolster his message. He recounted experiences with childhood poverty in Middletown, Ohio, and his later acceptance to Yale Law School as he introduced himself to a much larger audience of Americans for the first time. In an emotional moment, Vance acknowledged his mother in the crowd and celebrated her 10 years of sobriety after decades of struggling with drug addiction.

With a mention of the battleground states that could determine the outcome of the election, he vowed that a Trump-Vance administration would deliver economic opportunity for working-class communities.

“In Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio and every corner of our nation, I promise you this: I will be a vice-president who never forgets where he came from,” Vance said. “And every single day for the next four years, when I walk into that White House to help President Trump, I will be doing it for you, for your family, for your future and for this great country.”

Democrats scoffed at Vance’s attempt to appeal to working Americans, accusing him of backing “an economic agenda that will raise costs on American families, while giving billionaires and corporations tax cuts”.

Michael Tyler, communications director of the Biden campaign, added, “JD Vance is unprepared, unqualified and willing to do anything Donald Trump demands.”

In his speech, Vance joined the scores of Republican lawmakers who have condemned the assassination attempt against Trump on Saturday. Vance urged Americans to unify in the face of violence, even as he vilified Democrats who previously criticized Trump.

“I want all Americans to go and watch the video of a would-be assassin coming a quarter of an inch from taking his life,” Vance said. “Consider the lies they told you about Donald Trump, and then look at that photo of him defiant, fist in the air. When Donald Trump rose to his feet in that Pennsylvania field, all of America stood with him.”

In another sign of Trump’s takeover of the Republican party, Vance echoed the former president’s “America first” approach to foreign policy. Since joining the Senate last year, Vance has become one of the most outspoken critics of US aid to Ukraine and he doubled down on that isolationist stance in his speech.

Top of Form

“Together we will make sure our allies share in the burden of securing world peace – no more free rides,” Vance said. “We will put the citizens of America first, whatever the color of their skin. We will, in short, make America great again.”

The selection of Vance has unsettled some Republican lawmakers who embrace America’s active role on the global stage, and his speech underscored how Trump’s re-election could fundamentally reshape the relationship between the US and its European allies at a perilous moment. One senior European diplomat told the Guardian that Trump’s choice of running mate was “terrible news” for Ukraine, adding, “[Vance] is not our ally.”

Nodding at the ideological differences within his party, Vance encouraged Republicans to engage in a robust debate over key policy issues.

“Shouldn’t we be governed by a party that is unafraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution?” Vance said. “That’s the Republican party of the next four years, united in our love for this country and committed to free speech and the open exchange of ideas.”

Voters will determine in November if that Republican party will indeed have the opportunity to govern for the next four years.

THE GUARDIAN

 

[BouncerGuy]

J.D. Vance Spends Weird, Low-Energy Speech Praising Diet Mountain Dew

J.D. Vance’s weird, anti-woke punch line fell flat at his own sleepy speaking event on Monday.

Vance held a rally at his former high school in Middletown, Ohio, where hundreds gathered to hear the views of Donald Trump’s newly minted vice presidential candidate. But even as a hometown hero, the Ohio senator suffered some brutally awkward moments.

“It is the weirdest thing to me: Democrats say that it is racist to believe—well, they say it’s racist to do anything,” said Vance. “I had a diet Mountain Dew yesterday, and one today. I’m sure they’re probably gonna call that racist too.” Around the room there were some scattered laughs.

“It’s good,” he said after a beat, drawing more polite laughter from the rally attendees. Vance let out his own breathy laugh at his comment, slapping the podium in front of him. “I love you guys,” he said, smiling and laughing.

Vance’s weak swing at a joke landed as a lazy attempt to score some culture-war points. And that wasn’t the only cringey moment during his time on stage. While there was a lot of laughter throughout Vance’s 40-minute speech, much of it appeared to come from him.

“I was told I was going to get to debate Kamala Harris; now President Trump is going to get to debate her?” Vance said, laughing again. At one point, he lost his train of thought after the crowd began to boo Harris, and started nervously laughing again.

While this would escape the interest of any normal person, it’s worth noting because his running mate has repeatedly called Vice President Kamala Harris “Laughing Kamala.” Like Vance’s quip about diet soda, this approach to criticism seems to stem from having absolutely nothing of substance to say about a subject, but giving it their best shot anyway.

Overall, the Republican’s performance was so underwhelming that even Fox News stopped airing coverage of Vance’s speech in the middle of his remarks.

Vance’s speech at the Republican National Convention last week was similarly kind of boring. At the time, it seemed like it could be an intentional play not to overshadow Trump, which the former president famously hates. But with Vance’s most recent display, it seems that sluggish performance might’ve been unavoidable.

SOURCE: https://newrepublic.com/post/184127/jd-vance-weird-low-energy-speech-diet-mountain-dew

 

[BouncerGuy]

Aniston criticises JD Vance's 'childless cat ladies' comment

Jennifer Aniston has criticised Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, for resurfaced comments calling Democrats a "bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives".

The Friends actress, 55, posted a 2021 interview with Mr Vance that has been widely shared since his selection as Mr Trump's running mate for November's presidential election.

"I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States," she wrote on Instagram.

"All I can say is… Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day."

Mr Vance has a two-year-old daughter, and two sons.

"I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option," Ms Aniston wrote.

"Because you are trying to take that away from her, too."

The actress has previously spoken openly about her struggles while trying to have children through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Last month, Mr Vance voted to block Democrat-proposed legislation to guarantee access to IVF nationwide.

Ahead of that vote, Mr Vance and the other 48 Senate Republicans signed a letter saying they supported IVF, but that the Democratic bill was overly broad and "false fearmongering".

In the clip, Mr Vance criticised Vice-President Kamala Harris because she has no biological children.

Ms Harris is stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children.

But Mr Vance told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson the US was run by "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too".

"Look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children," he said.

"How does it make any sense we've turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?"

Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, posted a reaction to Mr Vance's comments on Instagram on Thursday.

“How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like cole and I?” the 25-year-old daughter of Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, and his ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, wrote. Cole Emhoff is her 29-year-old brother.

The BBC has contacted the Trump-Vance campaign team for comment.

'Heartbreaking setback'

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also addressed the comments earlier this week, speaking about adopting twins with his husband, Chasten.

"The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey," Mr Buttigieg told CNN’s The Source programme.

"He couldn’t have known that - but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children."

There has also been backlash from fans of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, who has no children - and three cats.

"It's bold, for someone seeking votes, to hone in on 'childless cat ladies' when the leader of Childless Cat Ladies is Taylor Swift," British writer Caitlin Moran posted on X.

Another X user shared the Time magazine cover where Swift posed with one of her cats, writing: "Hell hath no fury like a certain childless cat lady who has yet to endorse a presidential candidate."

In 2022, Aniston told Allure she wished someone had told her to freeze her eggs.

"It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road," she said.

"All the years and years of speculation... it was really hard.

"I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it."

But she had "zero regrets".

"I would've given anything if someone had said to me, 'Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favour.' You just don't think it. So here I am today," she told the magazine.

"The ship has sailed."

BBC

 

[BouncerGuy]

JD Vance defends 'childless cat ladies' comment after backlash

Donald Trump's vice-presidential candidate JD Vance has defended resurfaced comments in which he called Democratic politicians a "bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives".

His remarks, made in 2021, have been roundly criticised this week, with Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston among those to have hit out at the 39-year-old Republican.

"Obviously it was a sarcastic comment. People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said," Mr Vance told the conservative media personality Megyn Kelly on Friday.

"The substance of what I said, Megyn - I'm sorry, it's true," he added.

Mr Vance, who has three children, said he was not criticising people who do not have children in the interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, which he gave while running for the Senate.

"This is about criticising the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-children," he told The Megyn Kelly Show.

"The simple point that I made is that having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way," he said.

"I'm making an argument that our entire society has become sceptical and even hateful towards the idea of having kids."

In the original interview, he questioned why some leading politicians did not have children. One of those he named was Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for November's election, who is stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children.

"The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children," he said at the time. "How does it make any sense we've turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?"

The Senator from Ohio said the country was being run "by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too".

On Friday, Mr Vance said: “I wish her step-children and Kamala Harris and her whole family the very best. The point is not that she’s lesser. The point is that her party has pursued a set of policies that are profoundly anti-child.”

Mr Vance made similar remarks against Democrats in a 2021 speech at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, in which he also said his criticism was not directed at those who could not have children for biological or medical reasons.

Jennifer Aniston, who has spoken publicly about her struggles while trying to have children through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), was among those who criticised his comments.

"I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States," she said on Thursday.

Pete Buttigieg, who was another Democratic politician named by Mr Vance in the original interview, also addressed the comments earlier this week, speaking about adopting twins with his husband, Chasten.

"The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heart-breaking setback in our adoption journey," Mr Buttigieg told CNN’s The Source programme.

Speaking to Fox News, Trump co-campaign chairman Chris LaCivita rejected any suggestion that Trump might regret his choice of running mate.

"JD was the best pick," Mr LaCivita said. "The president loves him. We love him."

BBC

 

[iRfaN_LA]

poor choice of VP by trump. I don't know what he was thinking

 

[dubeTheGoat]

Any of the Non-American Pakistanis here touting for Trump from afar, this is what South Asian communit (including Pakistani Americans) have to put up with if/when Trump and his neo nazi cronies come to power. I'm not even touching on their Islamophobic comments which is a whole other pandora's box.


View attachment 145310

His climate policies alone would spell disaster for the entire South Asian region. I can understand people hating Biden (well now Kamala) and Trump, but I have no idea how someone can support Trump over Kamala considering he literally withdrew from Paris Accords

 

[DeadlyVenom]

JD Vance may be the most catastrophic decision Trump has made.

Even mumbling Biden has more charisma than this guy.

 

[BouncerGuy]

'He likes family': Trump defends running mate's cat lady slur

Donald Trump on Monday defended his running mate's claims that "childless cat ladies" had destroyed American values, but also said he believed adults without children were just as good as parents.

JD Vance's 2021 comment that Vice-President Kamala Harris and other Democrats were "a bunch of childless cat ladies miserable at their own lives" resurfaced after Trump selected the Ohio senator as the Republican vice-presidential candidate.

In a Fox News interview on Monday, Trump said that Mr Vance "likes families", but Trump also said he did not place a higher value on parenting.

"You know, you don't meet the right person, or you don't meet any person. But you're just as good, in many cases, a lot better than a person that's in a family situation," he said.

Ms Harris, the presumptive Democrat candidate, has two stepchildren with her husband, lawyer Doug Emhoff.

Mr Emhoff's ex-wife has called such attacks "baseless" and described Harris as a "loving, nurturing, fiercely protective" co-parent.

Trump said Mr Vance was simply trying to show how much he values family life.

"He grew up in a very interesting family situation, and he feels family is good. And I don't think there's anything wrong in saying that," Trump said.

"All he said is he does... like I mean, for him, he likes family."

Asked by Fox News television host Laura Ingraham on Monday whether he could vouch for Mr Vance as an "excellent pick" for the November election, Trump said: "He's got has tremendous support, and he really does among a certain group of people - people who like families."

"That does not mean that people who aren't members of a big family... he's not against anything. He loves family, it's very important to him."

Mr Vance defended his roundly criticised remarks, saying that it was "obviously... a sarcastic comment".

"People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said," Mr Vance said during The Megyn Kelly Show on Friday.

"The substance of what I said, Megyn - I'm sorry, it's true," he added.

Mr Vance, who has three children, said he was not criticising people who do not have children.

"This is about criticising the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-children," he told .

"The simple point that I made is that having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way," he said.

"I'm making an argument that our entire society has become sceptical and even hateful towards the idea of having kids."

On Friday, Mr Vance said: "I wish her step-children and Kamala Harris and her whole family the very best. The point is not that she’s lesser. The point is that her party has pursued a set of policies that are profoundly anti-child."

'The best pick'

In the original interview with Tucker Carlson, Mr Vance questioned why some leading politicians did not have children. He named Ms Harris as an example.

"The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children," he said at the time. "How does it make any sense we've turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?"

The senator from Ohio said the country was being run "by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too".

Actress Jennifer Aniston, who has spoken publicly about her struggles to have children through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), was among those who recently criticised his comments.

"I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States," she said on Thursday.

US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, a Democrat, named by Mr Vance in the original interview, also addressed the comments earlier this week, speaking about adopting twins with his husband, Chasten.

"The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey," Mr Buttigieg told CNN’s The Source programme.

Speaking to Fox News, Trump co-campaign chairman Chris LaCivita rejected any suggestion that Trump might regret his choice of running mate.

"JD was the best pick," Mr LaCivita said. "The president loves him. We love him."

BBC

 

[Red-Indian]

poor choice of VP by trump. I don't know what he was thinking

I wonder why Trump felt he had to go to the right for his VP choice. They're fanatically behind him and it's not like Vance would bring him any votes. Any Vance voter is hardly going to vote Democratic.

He should've gone female for a front to handle the noise around abortion bans or a swing state Senator/Governor to strengthen in those states. Maybe he felt Vance's earthiness would appeal along the rust belt in Pennsylvania, Michigan even Wisconsin. Guy seems a bit of a blabbermouth though...a junior Trump shall we say. Why go for a paler version of himself?

 

[BouncerGuy]

D Vance attacked AOC for ‘sociopathic attitude’ towards children and family

In remarks to a Catholic group, JD Vance attacked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for having “a sociopathic attitude” about families and children.

“One of the politicians that I criticised is AOC,” said Vance in 2021, while campaigning for the US Senate seat in Ohio he would win the following year.

“Maybe AOC hasn’t found the right person, whatever the case may be. AOC has said basically – if you look at her public remarks on this – that it’s immoral to have children because of climate change concerns. Right? This is, let’s just be direct, a sociopathic attitude towards family.”

Popularly known as AOC, Ocasio-Cortez, 34, is a representative from New York and a leading figure among House progressives.

Vance, 39, is the hard-right Senate populist who was picked last month as Donald Trump’s presidential running mate.

Vance has endured a troubled rollout, particularly over comments about family and women’s issues, notably including labeling as “childless cat ladies” opponents including Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Video of Vance’s attack on AOC was reported by Mother Jones.

It pointed out that AOC has not said it is immoral to have children.

In 2019, Ocasio-Cortez did say: “It is basically a scientific consensus that the lives of our children are going to be very difficult [because of climate change] and it does lead young people to have a legitimate question: is it OK to still have children?”

Vance, who now has three children, spoke in 2021 to the Napa Institute, a Catholic group that seeks to “advance the re-evangelisation of the United States”.

“My basic view,” Vance said, “is that if the Republican party, the conservative movement stands for anything … the number one thing we should be is pro-babies and pro-families.”

Claiming “a civilisational crisis” fueled by unhappy families and “healthy intact families … not having any kids”, he said: “So many of the most miserable and unhappy people in our media and in our public life are people without kids.

“And I think that they were trained to chase credentials, to chase degrees, to chase money, when the thing that is ultimately going to give you the most fulfillment in life is your family.”

Vance said he did not want to “criticise every single person who doesn’t have children”. His goal, he said, was to point out “that it’s one thing to have a society where some people don’t have kids. It’s another thing to build an entire political movement that is explicitly anti-child and anti-family. And that’s what the left in this country is. It is anti-child and anti-family.”

After attacking AOC, he said: “What does it say about our civilisation that so many of our leaders don’t have kids? What does it say about the incentives that are built into the Democrats’ entire movement that they reward the young people who don’t have families instead of the young people who do?

“I think it’s just pretty sick … and it suggests something pretty broken.”

Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond. But Mother Jones pointed to a social media post earlier this week, in response to a complaint from the Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy about attacks on Vance and Trump for being “weird” about women, families and children.

“Being obsessed with repressing women is goofy,” AOC said. “Trying to watch what LGBTQ+ people do all the time is abnormal. Punishing people who don’t have biological offspring is creepy … it’s SUPER weird. And people need to know.”

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/01/jd-vance-aoc-family

 

[BouncerGuy]

Usha Vance defends husband's 'childless cat ladies' remark

Usha Vance is defending controversial comments made by her husband, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, about "childless cat ladies", telling Fox News that she thought critics had taken the remarks too seriously.

Mr Vance initially made the controversial remarks in a 2021 interview. He argued those without children shouldn't be leading the country and that women who don't have kids are "miserable".

The comments resurfaced after former President Donald Trump chose Mr Vance as his running mate. The backlash - from critics including the actress Jennifer Aniston - was swift, and so was Mr Vance's defence of his words.

Now, Ms Vance has weighed in, telling Fox News that the remarks were a "quip" and she wished people would look at the larger context of what her husband said.

Addressing criticism that his comments were insulting to those who struggle with fertility problems, she said Mr Vance would "never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really, was struggling with that".

She said she understands there "are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families and many of those reasons are very good".

Mr Vance was a candidate for Senate at the time of the 2021 interview, which also happened on Fox News.

He told former channel host Tucker Carlson that the US is run by "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too".

He went on to question why a number of high-profile Democrats do not have children, including Kamala Harris who is now running to replace Joe Biden as president. Ms Harris is a step-mother to her husband Doug Emhoff's two children.

JD Vance argued leaders without children were making choices for the future even though they "don't really have a direct stake in it".

He also said those without children live in small apartments, chase wealth, careers and "status" and then end up "hating" those who have families and homes, whom he said are happier and better equipped to lead the country.

Mr Vance, who has three children with Ms Vance, has since defended the remarks - particularly "childless cat ladies" - as a "sarcastic comment" in service of making his larger point.

"People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said," Mr Vance told the conservative media personality Megyn Kelly.

He said his remarks were not aimed at belittling people who do not have children, rather, they aimed to criticise the "Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-children," he told the host.

BBC

 

[FearlessRoar]

JD Vance and Tim Walz agree 1 October VP debate​

JD Vance and Tim Walz have agreed to a debate on 1 October, setting up a showdown between the two vice-presidential candidates.

US network CBS, which will host the debate in New York, said: "We look forward to... providing voters with an opportunity to hear directly from the vice-presidential candidates."

"See you on October 1, JD," Kamala Harris's running mate Mr Walz posted on X on Wednesday.

Mr Vance, Donald Trump's running mate, then announced his agreement to the October date on Thursday, also challenging Mr Walz to a separate CNN debate on 18 September.

"I look forward to seeing you at both!" Mr Vance posted on X.

Mr Walz has not yet commented on the possibility of a second meet up.

Trump and Ms Harris, meanwhile, have agreed to debate on ABC on 10 September, after Trump initially said he would only debate his opponent on the conservative network Fox.

Joe Biden's poor debate performance against Trump in June triggered the crisis over his candidacy that ultimately led to calls for him to drop out of the race ahead of November's election.

JD Vance and Tim Walz agree 1 October VP debate

www.bbc.com