This really is pathetic:
While campaigning for Republican U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance Saturday, former President Donald Trump mocked him, telling a rally in Ohio that Vance was trying to get into his good graces.
"J.D. is kissing my ass. Of course, he wants my support," Trump said.
“The entire MAGA movement is for J.D. Vance,” he added.
Trump said that Vance fell in love with him the same way North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did.
"This is a great person who I've really gotten to know," Trump said of Vance. "Yeah, he said some bad things about me, but that was before he knew me and then he fell in love. Remember, I said that about Kim Jong Un – he fell in love, and they said, 'Oh, Trump was saying he fell in love.' Actually, he did."
Saturday’s rally was a QAnon cult gathering:
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday spoke at a rally for Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance while a QAnon song played dramatically in the background, and his supporters raised their fingers in an unusual salute.
In recent weeks, Trump has amplified QAnon talking points on his social media, but Saturday night's spectacle in Youngstown, Ohio, was perhaps the clearest sign yet that he's now openly embracing the baseless conspiracy theory.
As Trump complained about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "Fake News," and Hunter Biden's laptop at the Ohio rally, a cinematic soundtrack played throughout.
According to Media Matters, the US-based media watchdog, the soundtrack appears to be a song previously released online with the title "Wwg1wga" — the QAnon slogan.
QAnon figures noticed the song choice, perceiving it as a nod to the movement by the former president. "QAnon figures are claiming the use of the song brings some kind of legitimacy for them," said Alex Kaplan, a senior researcher for Media Matters, in a tweet on Saturday.
And Election Deniers:
“He’s a guy that said some bad s— about me. He did,” Trump told the crowd at an April rally in Cleveland. “But I have to do what I have to do. We have to pick somebody that can win.”
Some at Saturday’s rally evinced little affection for Republicans not named Trump.
“I love Trump. He is the best president in my lifetime,” said Patricia Delwiche, 65, of Missouri, who traveled nearly 12 hours to attend Saturday’s event.
Delwiche believes Trump needs to do more to push “Republicans in Name Only” — RINOs — out of the party.
“There are RINOs out there. They need to get out, like Kevin McCarthy and Lindsey Graham,” she said, referring to the Bakersfield Republican who leads the House GOP and the longtime senator from South Carolina.
Delwiche was one of nearly 1,000 rallygoers who waited outside the venue from the early morning hours as music blasted from the arena’s outdoor speakers. Some attendees tailgated in the parking lots.
Like most Trump rallies, Saturday’s gathering also featured appearances by a variety of Trump world celebrities. Vincent Fusca — the QAnon figure who many Q followers believe is John F. Kennedy Jr., was in attendance. Uncle Jam, an older man dressed as Uncle Sam who sings Trump-inspired renditions of popular songs, sang “Facebook Prison Blues” to the tune of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues.”
Mike Lindell, owner of the company My Pillow, spoke on a small stage in the parking lot.
“They had Jan. 6 planned out,” Lindell told the crowd before the event without specifying who “they” were.
The two days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol will be remembered as some of the darkest days in our country’s history, he said.
“They tried to kill your voice that day. They canceled 1.2 million voices from across social media,” Lindell said.
As rallygoers waited to enter the building, Lindell paced across his stage for nearly an hour, spouting debunked election claims. Earlier this year, Dominion Voting Systems sued Lindell for defamation over his evidence-free claims that the company’s former director of product strategy and security committed treason and rigged election machines for President Biden.
And of course Rep. Tim Ryan (D. OH-13) mocked the ass kisser for having a rally on a very important college football day:
Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan’s (D-Ohio) campaign rolled out a new football-themed digital ad on Saturday mocking Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance ahead of his rally with former President Trump, which is set to take place during Ohio State University’s game against the University of Toledo.
The ad, which is a part of a six-figure ad buy on Facebook and Instagram, shows what it refers to as “Silicon Valley J.D.” going up against “Politician J.D.” in an effort to paint the Republican candidate as out of touch.
The 30-second digital spot comes ahead of the college football game and Trump’s rally with Vance in Youngstown, Ohio, both of which are set to take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Ryan and Ohio Democrats have been hitting Vance and Trump for holding the rally during the game.
“Dude just doesn’t get it,” Ryan tweeted earlier this month along with screenshots of the timing of both events.
Football games, particularly Ohio State games, are a mainstay in the Buckeye State. According to The Columbus Dispatch, a record-breaking 10.5 million tuned in to Ohio State’s game against the University of Notre Dame earlier this month.
Ryan has also been hitting Vance hard on this:
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan railed against a federal abortion ban introduced in the U.S. Senate this week, accusing "extremists" of trying to take advantage of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The bill from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham would ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of rape, incest or when the pregnant person's health is at risk. The proposal is unlikely to get a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate, but Graham said it would give Republicans fodder for their message on abortion ahead of the November midterms.
Ryan is running against Republican J.D. Vance for the Ohio Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Rob Portman. Ryan's campaign sent out a fundraising email on Tuesday that claimed Graham's bill is "just a stepping stone" to a total abortion ban.
“Extremists in the Senate are capitalizing on the disastrous Dobbs decision to take away women’s reproductive freedom and codify the biggest act of government overreach of our lifetime," Ryan said. "This latest attack on women’s freedom is exactly what J.D. Vance wanted, and exactly why Ohioans won’t let him anywhere near the Senate."
Vance's campaign did not respond to a request for comment, and the "Hillbilly Elegy" author has so far been quiet on Graham's proposal. Vance doesn't support exceptions for cases of rape or incest and said last year that children shouldn't be punished for "inconvenient" circumstances around their birth.
He's offered mixed messages on whether he would support a federal abortion ban. In a July "Meet the Press" appearance, he said states should be left to "figure this out for now" and signaled support for Ohio's six-week abortion ban. Months prior, he said during a podcast interview that he would "like abortion to be illegal nationally," although he argued a federal ban is unlikely in the current political climate.
"Let's say Roe v. Wade is overruled," he said in the January interview. "Ohio bans abortion in 2022 − let's say 2024. Then every day, George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately Black women to get them to go have abortions in California. Of course, the left will celebrate this as a victory for diversity...If that happens, do you need some federal response to prevent it from happening because it's really creepy? I'm pretty sympathetic to that, actually. Hopefully we get to a point where Ohio bans abortion and California and the Soroses of the world respect it."
Ryan also trashed Vance’s conspiracy theory bull shit on The ReidOut with Joy Reid:
Reid welcomed Ryan to the show and jokingly asked, “Do you agree with said conspiracy theory?”
“He has a way of wrapping it all together, doesn’t he, Joy” Ryan responded. “It’s absolutely incredible to think that this guy wants to be in the United States Senate. I mean, generally speaking, you’d say, ‘This is a pretty weird guy, you know. This is a weirdo.”
The Democratic nominee stated Vance has a penchant for wanting to control other people.
“He has a bias toward wanting to control,” he continued. “It’s control [of] women primarily, whether it’s telling them that if they’re raped, they have to have the rapist’s baby, and that woman who had been raped has to take care of that baby. He thinks that’s a good idea. No exceptions for rape and incest.”
Ryan cited remarks Vance made suggested that spouses should remain in abusive marriages for the sake of their children.
“I mean, this is so extreme,” the congressman added. “Not to mention that you forgot one big one that we keep talking about here. This guy started a fake charity to help people with opiates and didn’t spend a nickel on anybody. He brought in a spokesperson for big pharma, Purdue Pharma, that does nothing but blame addicts. It’s not Purdue Pharma. They weren’t pushing the pill mills. It’s the addicts’ fault, the people who got hooked. Across the board, this guy is dangerous and you can’t trust him.”
Vance really doesn’t want to talk about Graham’s national abortion ban bill:
Vance was campaigning in Ohio with Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, and spoke to about 150 supporters who were gathered at Willoway Nurseries.
Before being asked about the national ban, Vance said that his grandmother, the late Bonnie Blanton—whom he refers to as “mamaw” in his book and was played by Glenn Close in the movie version of Hillbilly Elegy—was anti-abortion and had eight miscarriages.
“Absolutely,” Vance told The Daily Beast when asked if his grandmother informed his views on abortion.
“My mamaw, until very late in life, she was pro-choice,” Vance continued. “I think her views changed a little bit over time. People talk a lot about the number of miscarriages she had. I knew that she had a lot, and I knew it was definitely a traumatic thing for her.”
A voter then approached Vance and attempted to hand him a wad of cash.
When a staffer asked if it was a donation, the woman said that it was. The staffer then promised to give the roll of bills to the campaign’s finance director.
Attempts to follow up with Vance about Graham’s bill were unsuccessful as he shuttled off to a radio interview.
“Now, I would naturally wanna make a joke about that,” Vance said of the cash donation, ignoring the question on the 15-week abortion ban before gesturing to the staffer. “But these guys get mad when I make jokes.”
Vance has previous stated he is anti-abortion and in an interview with the Catholic Current last year compared abortion to slavery.
“There’s something comparable between abortion and slavery,” he said, “and that while the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it, I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society.”
And Lindsey Graham didn’t do Vance any favors:
Politico notes that “some fellow Republicans said they were highly perplexed at Graham’s decision to introduce a new abortion ban—more conservative than his previous proposals—at a precarious moment for the party.” Leading Republicans, including, notably, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, were quick to distance themselves from Graham. “I don’t think there’s an appetite for a national platform here,” Capito told Politico. “I’m not sure what he’s thinking here.”
What could Graham have been thinking when he gave that disastrous press conference? Vanity might be one answer: The Senate is a notorious house of peacocks—but few love showing off their feathers as much as Graham does. The limelight is his natural habitat.
On a more practical level, Graham might be worried about shoring up the GOP’s base with the religious right. Those voters are essential for the GOP coalition. If the Republicans are seen as abandoning the abortion fight, they could easily sit out elections.
Republicans are now caught in abortion bind: If they take up the issue, they will alienate the pro-choice majority. If they abandon the issue, they will anger the activist core of their party. Graham’s news conference was ill-conceived, clumsy—and a likely political fiasco. But it reflects on more than just Graham’s political ineptitude. The Republicans have created a political and policy disaster on abortion, one that will almost certainly hurt them in many elections to come.
There’s nothing positive about the pain and suffering Republicans have unleashed by riding the tiger of anti-choice politics. But there is at least the grim consolation that the tiger might eat them too.
Especially since Vance’s campaign has caused the GOP serious headaches:
After a recent call during which GOP donors discussed midterm spending, one participant and another person familiar with the conversation were said to have felt that Vance had run a “lazy” campaign, with shifting views akin to a “chameleon.” One major donor on the call indicated an unwillingness to give any money to the Vance campaign, according to a person familiar with that donor’s response. People describing the reactions spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
That came after the Senate Leadership Fund, a political organization aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), poured $28 million into the Ohio race, which Steven Law, a close McConnell ally and the group’s president, called “an unexpected expense.” His comment, first reported by Politico, underlined months of frustration among Republicans in Ohio and Washington over his floundering campaign.
In a brief interview with The Washington Post shortly before speaking in Ottawa on Sept. 6, Vance said he was stepping up his campaign activity.
“We’re in the phase of the campaign where more and more people are paying attention so intensity dials up a little bit,” Vance said. He described his strategy as “the standard plan and the standard execution,” which is “to try to reach people when they’re paying the most attention.”
Vance is running as an economic populist who wants to revive American manufacturing and bolster security at the U.S. border. He frequently connects Biden’s immigration policies with increased fentanyl trafficking in the state and says aid to Ukraine should also include increased funds for Border Patrol.
Law, the president of the Senate Leadership Fund, said he is under the impression that Vance is now “hitting the donor community hard.”
Vance — who worked his way out of poverty to Yale Law School and glided from the world of Silicon Valley venture capital to the New York Times bestseller list for his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy” — is now in an unfamiliar position, as an underperformer trying to right his operation.
To regain his footing, Vance has bulked up his fundraising shop with staff who worked for his former GOP rivals, planned more public outings, including tent-pole events like the Trump rally, and according to a person familiar with the scheduling, a day of campaigning with Donald Trump Jr. in early October.
Vance has also attended a series of party dinners over the past few weeks and campaigned with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), according to party leaders who have seen him out. Like others interviewed for this story, the person familiar with his schedule spoke on the condition of anonymity to more openly discuss strategy.
And Vance’s campaign is finally on TV. Ryan had the airwaves to himself over the summer, with his campaign running ads 4,300 times in May, 5,900 in June and, along with a supportive group, 3,600 in July. Vance and his allies were completely dark during those months, according to data from AdImpact, which tracks commercials on network TV.
Vance’s latest ad — his second during the campaign — features the candidate in his childhood Middletown, Ohio, neighborhood and compares the safety he felt then with unease from rising violent crime today. “We had something then that Ohio kids don’t have today: safety,” Vance says. He adds: “Streets are exploding with drugs and violence, while liberals like Tim Ryan attack and defund our police.”
Still, some fear it is too little too late. “It’s not enough to say ‘Hi, see my ads.’ It’s the personal contact. It’s showing up in the counties and saying: I need your vote,” said Robert Radway, the chairman of the Hardin County Republican Party in Ohio. “I personally wish he had ramped up faster.”
Radway said there were times over the summer when he thought to himself, “Where are you?” But he said he detects the shift in Vance’s campaigning, and said he now hears from the Vance campaign at least once a week. “He is coming out full speed,” Radway said. “He has to have that fire in the belly, and he has to show it to voters.”
In August, Ryan’s TV advantage began to dissipate: There were 6,500 ad placements backing his candidacy on network air while Vance’s backers put ads on TV about 4,000 times that month, the data show. So far this month, Ryan has benefited from about 3,500 airings compared with about 2,800 boosting Vance’s candidacy.
Mr. Ryan’s campaign argued that he had spent far more time campaigning in Ohio in recent months than Mr. Vance had.
“This race is one of the most competitive in the country because Tim Ryan has outworked and outcampaigned” Mr. Vance, said Izzi Levy, a spokeswoman for Mr. Ryan. She accused Mr. Vance of spending “the four months since his primary hiding from Ohioans and traveling far from Ohio.”
Some Republicans, too, have voiced concerns over what they saw as a limited campaigning effort from their nominee for much of the summer.
“From that point as he won in May, he seemed to be running a stealth campaign, kind of like a former presidential candidate in 2020 was doing,” said David G. Arredondo, the executive committee chairman of the Lorain County Republican Party, referring to Mr. Biden’s limited in-person campaigning in the last presidential election at the height of the pandemic, which some mocked as a “basement strategy.”
But Mr. Arredondo said he understood the approach.
“Whether J.D. was in the basement or hanging out with his family, who knows, but I was not concerned,” he said, emphasizing that the campaign has accelerated in recent weeks, just as voters traditionally tune in — Mr. Vance is expected in Lorain County on Saturday. “And it was hard for me to convince my fellow Republicans, don’t worry, don’t worry, he’s going to be OK.”
“Their sentiment is now changing,” he added.
Here’s a look at the latest polling:
Also:
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