JD Vance’s willingness to regularly take questions from mainstream news outlets has added an unofficial duty to his role as Donald Trump’s running mate: explainer-in-chief. In interviews, at news conferences and while speaking with reporters on his campaign plane, Vance, the Republican senator from Ohio, often finds himself having to defend, decode or “well, actually” whatever provocative Trump comment made most recently. That time Trump questioned whether Vice President Kamala Harris is really Black? “I think he pointed out the fundamental chameleon-like nature of Kamala Harris,” Vance contended. When Trump disparaged Detroit, a majority-Black city in battleground Michigan? Trump, Vance said, “was just talking honestly about the fact that Detroit has been left behind.” And when Trump name-dropped a Democratic congressman when he warned about an “enemy within” and stoked fears of chaos justifying military intervention on Election Day? “The enemy within,” Vance offered, “are people that Kamala Harris let into this country unvetted, unchecked and undocumented.”
“I think that in 2016, I saw the divisiveness in American politics as at least partly Donald Trump’s fault, and by 2018, 2019, I saw that divisiveness as the fault of an American political and media culture that couldn’t even pay attention to its own citizens,” Vance said in a recent appearance on “The Interview,” a New York Times podcast. “And I think Donald Trump is, you know, not just — I put it this way, I don’t know that anybody else in 2016 possibly could have done what Trump did. And I think his rhetoric actually was a necessary part of it.” Vance takes his role defending Trump seriously and believes strongly in keeping the focus on him and his ideas, an adviser to Vance told NBC News. A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Explaining for Trump without overstepping him can be fraught, especially on delicate policy issues. At his debate with Harris last month, Trump clarified that, although Vance had said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump would veto a national abortion ban, the two had never discussed the matter. Vance later acknowledged he had “learned my lesson” about not getting ahead of the boss. Trump and his advisers have been pleased with Vance’s performance after a messy rollout in which some of his own hot rhetoric about “childless cat ladies” running the Democratic Party distracted from the campaign’s message. And while a plurality of voters continue to view Vance negatively, their opinions of him improved slightly after his debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. A recent national NBC News poll found 37% of respondents had positive feelings about Vance — up from 32% in September, though the result was within the margin of error.
Final Words!!
“I don’t know if there’s a campaign position on it,” Vance said in an interview with Fox News host Bill Hemmer. “I don’t know what’s ultimately true here, but it’s interesting where the media will try to nitpick and micromanage every single thing that me or Donald Trump has said.” And after Melania Trump’s new memoir revealed her supportive views on abortion rights — a position at odds with his own — Vance trod lightly. “Look, I love Melania,” Vance said of the former first lady. “She’s been a great example of grace under an incredible amount of pressure, but Melania is entitled to her own views.”
