It was very strange—theatrical, even—when Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance metaphorically clutched his pearls after being called out by Democratic opponent Tim Ryan for his promotion of the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory.
That’s because Vance has steadily promoted the great replacement conspiracy theory since the GOP primary in tweets, political ads, and in an interview with one of the most visible promoters of this bull crap, the Fox propaganda network’s Tucker Carlson. (Vance has also expressed admiration for Alex Jones, another notorious conspiracy theorist.) It’s simply a fact: J.D. Vance has promoted the racist great replacement conspiracy theory.
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“The conspiracy theory, which has found a home on the far-right fringes, broadly states that a Jewish-led cabal of liberals is trying to take power by replacing white voters with nonwhites by any means necessary, including immigration and interracial marriage,” NBC News reported. But if I may rebut NBC News here, it’s also been accepted and promoted by top elected Republicans, like House number three Elise Stefanik.
Stefanik was echoing this conspiracy theory last fall, claiming in ads that Democrats were seeking to “overthrow our current electorate and create a permanent liberal majority in Washington.” Just a few months later, a racist mass shooter who believed in this conspiracy theory would murder 10 Black New Yorkers going about their day.
Ryan brought up this horrific hate crime during Monday’s event, saying the conspiracy theory “was the motivator for the shooting in Buffalo, where that shooter had all these great replacement theory writings that J.D. Vance agrees with.” It is a fact that the Republican has steadily promoted this conspiracy theory. It is not some big secret. So he instead claimed that Ryan is “so desperate for political power that you’ll accuse me, the father of three beautiful biracial babies, of engaging in racism.” Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, is Indian American.
Vance then accused Ryan of being “so desperate not to have a real job that you’ll slander me and slander my family.” NBC News reported that Ryan, “with an amused expression on his face,” commented that he “struck a nerve with this guy.” Ryan clarified that he never brought up Vance’s kids. “Don’t spin this because you don’t want to talk about the fact that you’re with the extremists,” he said. The Democratic nominee’s account then shared the interview footage of Vance promoting the conspiracy theory:
Vance can act and dodge and obfuscate all he wants, but he made embracing racist bullshit critical to his electoral strategy. “Tens of millions of dollars were spent to amplify misinformation, xenophobia, and white nationalist conspiracy theories to Ohioans as Vance and his fellow Republicans competed to win the favor of both Donald Trump and his radicalized base,” America’s Voice Political Director Zachary Mueller wrote in May.
He and the organization have steadily documented this extremism, also noting that Vance has joined Republicans in pushing the trope about immigrants and fentanyl. “Vance has even gone so far as to suggest that President Joe Biden has intentionally allowed fentanyl to enter the U.S. through the southern border to kill off MAGA voters,” America’s Voice said. “But Vance’s own work on the opioid crisis is just as fraudulent as his attack line, with his non-profit little more than a front to funnel money to his political allies.”
"There's no big grand conspiracy,” Ryan said in a debate remark reported by Newsweek. “This is a country that's been enriched by immigrants from all corners of the world."
On Daily Kos’ The Brief we talk about the work being done to keep Nevada’s Senate Democratic. We are joined by UNITE HERE director Mario Yedidia. UNITE HERE represents more than 250,000 workers throughout the U.S. and Canada who work in the hospitality, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, laundry, and airport industries. Yedidia tells us about what workers in Nevada are thinking about and voting about this coming November.
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