Kudos to David Corn at Mother Jones for catching the latest pathetic and atrocious flip flop from Never Trumper to pathetic ass kisser and U.S. Senate candidate, J.D. Vance (R. OH):
Last year, during a podcast with Breitbart, Vance expressed quite a different opinion on the Charlottesville march. Railing about identity politics, he accused Democrats of cynically and crassly playing the race card: “Basically, racism [for Democrats] is anything that doesn’t give the Democrats more power. And of course, the reason they use that accusation, it’s not because they care about minorities or not, because they care about racists or whatever the whatever the topic of the day is, it’s because they recognize it as a useful strategy to give them more power.” His No. 1 example of this: “the ridiculous race hoax in Charlottesville.”
Race hoax in Charlottesville? A rally was put on by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and a white nationalist did kill a counter-protester. Where’s the hoax?
Vance was apparently adopting the right-wing talking point that Trump was unfairly pilloried for his “very fine people” remark. In the years after that march, a variety of Trumpers—including Dilbert creator Scott Adams—have run a campaign claiming that Trump’s “very fine people” comment did not refer to white supremacists and neo-Nazis but to others protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee and that Trump has been a victim of, yes, another media-generated hoax. The problem (for them): The event was organized by white supremacists and billed as a white supremacist event.
Trump has led this revisionism, contending the protesters included “neighborhood” folks who opposed taking down the statue. In the Trumpian media echo chamber, the supposedly warped depiction of Trump’s response to the rally has become known as the “Charlottesville hoax.” With his comment on the Breitbart podcast, Vance racialized this phony “hoax” and cited it as evidence that Democrats routinely and purposefully issue false charges of racism against Republicans.
This is not the only race-related matter on which Vance has pulled a 180, as he has journeyed from Trump-basher to Trump toady. In a 2017 interview, he raised the issue of “white privilege” and said, “It’s always important to note that there are obviously still advantages to being white, there are still disadvantages to being black.” Yet in a conversation last year with right-wing talk show host Bill Cunningham, Vance referred to “white privilege” as “ridiculous terminology” and claimed the left uses it “as a power play” to “shut up” conservatives so “they get to run things without any control, without any pushback from the real people.” In an interview with Breitbart, Vance said, the leftist narrative of “white privilege” is “disgusting.”
Corn references Vance’s interview with CNN Wolf Blitzer back in 2017 where he spoke a different tone on Trump and Cahrlottesville:
BLITZER: -- excellent reporting agency, as he always does. Thank you.
I want to bring in someone with a unique perspective on the underlying issues in Charlottesville, Virginia. CNN Contributor J.D. Vance is joining us. He who grew up in a Rust Belt town in Ohio, a state that easily went to Donald Trump in the 2016 election. He's the author of "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis." And in the book dives into how many missed the mark on the white working- class that fueled Donald Trump's campaign.
J.D., excellent book. Thanks so much for joining us.
Give us your reaction when you saw what was going on in Charlottesville.
J.D. VANCE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Wolf, you see people marching around doing the Nazi salute. I come from a family with a large number of military veterans, and from back in the day, people who actually went and fought the Nazis. It's really disturbing to see this display of white nationalism. And became doubly terrifying and terrible because it led to somebody losing their life. Like a lot of people, I watched the TV, was horrified. And it forced me to think, what's going on in our country and happening that this stuff is becoming seemingly more common.
BLITZER: You've done a lot of research in this area. It's the Nazi slogans that you hear, the anti-Semitism, racism, comments about women. What's motivating it? These are young people, by and large.
[13:35:09] VANCE: That's right. There are a lot of young people. I think we have to -- in ways, keep in mind what's not motivating it. Because it's very tempting and I think comforting to look at this as primarily fueled by economic anxiety. But if you look at the leaders of this particular movement, Richard Spencer, leader of the Alt-Right movement, he grew up in a wealthy family. The guy who organized the rally actually went to the University of Virginia, one of the nation's great universities. This is not economically disenfranchised people turning to hate. Unfortunately, it's people who live in our midst, who, for whatever reason, find this stuff online, are attracted to it, and eventually become radicalized by it. That truth is more troubling than saying that it's all a bunch of poor people turning to white nationalism, it is the truth, and it's a truth we have to confront.
BLITZER: You've said that the American public takes some sort of comfort, if you will, that these are just a bunch of knuckle-dragging, slack-jawed yokels. They are not.
VANCE: They're not. That's right. When I watch this stuff and I see the way people talk about white nationalism, often they assume it's the very same people that I'm writing about in the book. But it's economically, I said, economically disenfranchised folks, folks not doing well in the modern economy, so-called hillbillies who turned to white nationalism. What you often see is the leaders of this movement are pretty well educated and doing well economically. We can't point at economic problems and say that's what's driving this. Very often, it's something that's much, much deeper culturally and something that consequently isn't necessarily as easy to get rid of.
BLITZER: What actually -- get your reaction to the way President Trump has handled this since saturday. The initial statement didn't specifically name the KKK, anti-Semites, didn't mention the white supremacists, none of that by name. He did yesterday. What do you think are the way he's handled this?
VANCE: I think the president really missed an opportunity to name this phenomenon and gives people a sense where it comes from and show the moral leadership people want from a president. The thing that's important for folks from my political side, the conservative side of the aisle, have to keep in mind that a lot of the people who feel physically threatened by white supremacists, not people angry by it, the people who see it get upset by it, that's all of us. The people who feel physically threatened by it are, by and large, not those who voted for Donald Trump. When they look to that movement, I think the president needs to show leadership saying you may not have voted for me but I'm coming out to deplore and criticize that particular movement as strongly as I would if it was on the other side of the political spectrum. Many a lot felt the president could have spoken to that. Unfortunately, by not naming it what it was, white supremacism, he missed an opportunity. BLITZER: And he still has a chance to go out, not only continue to
name these white supremacists, but also say something he didn't say yesterday, I don't want their support?
VANCE: Yes, absolutely. If I was President Trump in this situation, I'd spike the football. This is one of the things that really unites the entire country. Racism is bad. Nazism is bad. We fought a war to defeat Nazism. And the president should not just be -- there's a sense in which he's ambivalent or too cautious about coming out and criticizing this stuff.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Why is that? Why do you think?
VANCE: I think it comes from the fact that he's just a fighter. He criticizes the people who criticize him and he basically leaves people alone who don't criticize him. These people are so obnoxious, they're so file, that even though they're not criticizing him, it's not just about him using the right words. He needs to come out with the right tone and condemn this stuff. And I hope he will, because it's a great opportunity to unite the country at a very divided time.
BLITZER: Amazing book. Still out there in hard cover. Been on the best-seller list for weeks. More than a year, I suspect.
VANCE: Sure.
BLITZER: Thanks for writing it and thanks for joining us.
VANCE: Thanks, Wolf.
But this is just in line with Vance shameless flip flopping to becoming Trump’s sycophant:
Donald Trump’s campaign for Vance took a weird turn at a Youngstown rally Sept. 17.
Media reports say many rallygoers appeared to give the former president the QAnon salute as music played that resembled the shadowy conspiracy group’s theme song that means “Where We Go 1, We Go All.”
Trump also left critics laughing when he got around to talking about Vance after an hour of speechmaking. In a mocking voice, because he was denouncing a New York Times report about rally plans, he said, "J.D. is kissing my ass, he wants my support so bad."
Trump acknowledged Vance used to criticize him, “but that was before he knew me and then he fell in love.” Just like Kim Jong-un did, Trump said.
Yes, seven months into Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Trump is still joking about North Korea — now suspected of sending arms to Russia. (Vance, meanwhile, remains unmoved by the tragedy in Ukraine, saying this month the U.S. should stop funding its defense.)
At the rally, Vance knocked opponent Tim Ryan, urged the hiring of Border Patrol agents and endorsed a return to Trump policies. Vance lamented the crime, high prices and border problems that he says are the consequences of policies supported by President Joe Biden and Ryan.
His remarks were certainly not as fiery as those of one of the introductory speakers, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who encouraged boos for top Democrats and progressive topics like the Green New Deal and gender-affirming care, while getting cheers for defending “the greatest president this country has ever had.”
This “greatest” president — the one currently under investigation for taking classified documents, inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection and meddling in the Georgia election count — hardly deserves applause and warm and fuzzy accolades.
But Trump’s endorsement is most certainly what led Vance to beat six others in the primary. Among Republicans, 66% said this month they would like to see Trump run in 2024 — numbers have slipped, but Trump’s popularity is real.
As such, this country is in danger.
And Vance really is a weak candidate:
Republicans are now racing to avoid a Democratic victory in Ohio, often at the expense of investing in other close races. If Republicans cannot drag Vance across the finish line in Ohio, it could spell doom for the party’s hopes of flipping the Senate in the midterm elections this November.
Although Trump won Ohio by eight points in 2020, recent polls show Vance and Ryan essentially tied. National Republican groups have picked up on the trouble in Ohio and have started devoting more resources to the race.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a Super Pac aligned with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, announced last month that it would reserve $28m in TV and radio ads to boost Vance. As the SLF increased its financial support for Vance, the group also slashed roughly $8m of its ad reservations in Arizona, a shift that the Super Pac’s president partially attributed to “an unexpected expense in Ohio”. (The SLF announced Tuesday that it was pulling out of the Arizona Senate race entirely.)
The SLF’s significant investment to support Vance underscores how Republicans are playing defense in an unexpectedly close race. Even if the SLF’s funding helps Vance hold on in Ohio, the victory would not bring his party closer to a Senate majority, as the seat is now held by a retiring Republican, Rob Portman.
The reality is that Vance needs all the financial help he can get. At the end of the second quarter of 2022, Vance’s campaign reported having just $628,000 cash on hand, compared to $3.6m in Ryan’s bank account. Between April and June, Vance raised and spent $1m as he fought in the fiercely competitive Republican primary, while Ryan raised $8.6m and easily captured his party’s nomination.
Ryan has used his cash advantage to launch a massive advertising blitz, running commercials that frame him as an independent-minded centrist and attack Vance as an out of touch elite with extreme views.
In one of Ryan’s ads, an Ohio mother who lost her son, Joe, to opioid addiction criticizes Vance’s now defunct non-profit for enlisting the help of a doctor with ties to the pharmaceutical industry. “I don’t have words for how betrayed I felt,” the woman says in the ad. “JD Vance has chosen to help the drug companies rather than the people who are struggling like Joe.”
In another memorable video, Ryan throws footballs at television screens showing the Republican ads attacking him. “They say you can know a person by their enemies,” Ryan says in the ad. “Well, here comes their bullshit ads.”
Over the summer, Ryan’s ad campaign went largely unanswered by Vance’s team, allowing the Democrat to chip away at his opponent’s advantage in the Republican-leaning state.
Whereas Ryan has been running the stronger campaign:
Ryan, 49, is running what even Republicans consider an effective campaign, appealing to independents, blue-collar voters and Trump supporters while opposing Biden and his party on issues, saying he supported Trump on trade and opposition to China.
Vance and his allies argue that Ryan is attempting to dupe voters and that he’s voted in lockstep with Biden.
“Our campaign is premised on this very simple idea that so long as we tell the truth, and so long as the people of Ohio are aware of what I believe in and what my opponent has done, we’re gonna win,” Vance said in a Sept. 19 appearance at the Ohio Trucking Association’s annual conference near Columbus.
Jerry Dobbins of Middletown, Vance’s hometown, said he knows the “Hillbilly Elegy” author and his family, but would vote for him even if he didn’t. A retired manufacturing worker who voted for Barack Obama before supporting Trump twice, Dobbins said Vance, 38, is the better choice.
“JD will stand his ground and do what he needs to do to do right by us,” said Dobbins, 66, who lives on the street where Vance grew up and who’s yard has the only sign on the block for Vance.
Heather Gibson, an independent voter who owns the Triple Moon Coffee Co. shop in downtown Middletown, supports Ryan and says he will perform better than most Democrats in Butler County, a Trump bastion.
“I just think that Tim Ryan is probably more aligned in this race with my values than JD,” said Gibson, 52, citing especially a woman’s “right to choose” after the Supreme Court struck down the law legalizing abortion in June.
And mark your calendars:
The debate between Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan and Republican J.D. Vance over whether and when to debate each other may finally be over.
The two U.S. Senate candidates’ respective campaigns both said Monday they had agreed to two debates next month, one on Oct. 10 in Cleveland and another on Oct. 17 in Youngstown.
Ryan’s campaign announced the two debates on Monday, and Luke Schroeder, a Vance campaign spokesman, also said Monday Vance has agreed to those two debates.
The Cleveland debate will be hosted by WJW Channel 8, while the debate in Youngstown, near Ryan’s hometown in Trumbull County, will be hosted by WMFJ, a local TV station.
But Ryan also said he had agreed to a third debate, scheduled for Oct. 4 in Hamilton, the location of a branch of Miami University, and near Vance’s hometown of Middletown.
Schroeder said Vance has not agreed to the Oct. 4 debate, which would be hosted by WLWT, a local television station.