Trump picks J.D Vance as running mate

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Former President Donald Trump has selected Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, elevating a staunch ally and young GOP star who, less than a decade ago, rose to prominence as a Trump critic.

But over the last few years, Vance, 39, has emerged as a Trump loyalist, becoming one of his most vocal defenders in the Senate and a frequent surrogate on television as he called for the party to embrace Trump’s populist agenda.

Trump announced his choice Monday afternoon on social media as the delegates to the GOP convention gathered in Milwaukee.
“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 J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.

By selecting Vance, Trump eschewed calls from some in the party to choose a running mate who would add racial diversity to the ticket or use softer rhetoric to appeal to Trump-skeptical moderates, instead tapping a firebrand who shares Trump’s pugilistic tendencies and is admired by the MAGA base.

But Vance could expand Trump’s appeal in other ways, however. He hails from the Rust Belt, which includes portions of the critical swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. He’s also a Marine veteran, and would be the second youngest vice president — tied with Richard Nixon — if Trump wins in November.

Vance “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 wrote.

But Vance’s past harsh criticisms of Trump, which he has vehemently walked back, will almost certainly be used against him by Democrats.

In his selection, Trump is elevating Vance as an heir to the MAGA movement. He is also putting an enormous amount of trust in the freshman senator, just days after an apparent assassination attempt on the former president served as a grim reminder of the significance of the vice president in any administration.

The author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a 2016 memoir-turned-movie about growing up poor in Appalachia, Vance during the 2016 presidential race served as an anti-Trump conservative pundit. He compared GOP voters’ newfound interest in Trump to a heroin addiction, privately speculated about whether Trump was “America’s Hitler,” referred to himself as a “Never Trump guy” and to Trump as “an idiot,” and declared after the 2016 election that he had not voted for Trump.

Vance “brings to the table his ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), told POLITICO. “He has this story that the American people appreciate, that sometimes it’s hard to get by and it’s hard to put food on the table. And to have someone that’s vice president who’s lived that, who’s been successful and is now not only the vice president, but now all eyes are going to be him as potentially the next standard bearer of the Republican Party. That’s huge and it is literally the American dream.”

Vance in recent months has attempted to moderate his position on abortion, one of Republicans’ top vulnerabilities this election. After referring to abortion as “murder” last year, and during his 2022 race saying he would vote for a national 15-week abortion limit, Vance more recently has praised Trump’s leave-it-to-the-states abortion platform, and said he shared Trump’s support of access to the mifepristone abortion pill.

Vance positioned himself this spring to be a top contender for Trump’s running mate, appearing as a surrogate for Trump on television and attending his Manhattan criminal trial as part of the former president’s entourage of supporters.

And he has shared in recent years a close relationship with Trump’s son, Don Jr., who was among those close to Trump praising Vance before his selection. Vance, who worked as a venture capitalist in San Francisco after law school, has relationships with wealthy donors. He has helped organize fundraisers for Trump this year featuring Silicon Valley types, including David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, hosts of the popular “All In” podcast.

But Vance starts his candidacy as relatively unknown among the electorate. A national CNN/SSRS poll late last month found that 56 percent had never heard of him. And an additional 15 percent had heard of him but had no opinion about him.

Should the GOP prevail in November’s presidential race, Vance would be immediately tasked with negotiating with Republicans in Congress on behalf of Trump — a tough responsibility once shouldered by former Vice President Mike Pence. But Vance will bring a different style than Pence to the ticket: The first-term Ohio Republican has emerged as a foil to GOP and Democratic leaders alike, criticizing the Senate’s bipartisan foreign aid package and holding up Justice Department nominees.

But Vance has also signed onto bipartisan deals, most notably a rail safety bill he worked on with his home state colleague Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who is up for reelection this fall. At the same time, Vance backed Brown’s Republican opponent, Bernie Moreno, early in the election cycle. Trump endorsed Moreno in that race’s primary, a sign of the close political coordination between Trump and Vance.

If Trump and Vance win in November, Vance’s vacant Senate seat will be filled by Gov. Mike DeWine, a moderate Ohio Republican who has yet to endorse Trump this election. Eventually, a special election would be held to replace Vance in Ohio, which tilts to the right.

Didn't kamala say bad stuff about Joe?

Looks like Vance is into hinduism
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/j ... 2024-07-16

They all badmouth each other during the primaries. Hillary and Obama about each other before she became Sec of State in the Obama administration.

But I doubt you could find Kamala saying things as bad as the above about Biden.

He married a Hindu lady...who encouraged him to explore his spirituality ...to sort out whether he was Protestant or Catholic. But they have a bi faith family (Hindu and Christian) even if he isnt Hindu himself. And the couple are friends with Vivaswami...the Hindu son of Indian immigrants who support the immigrant hating Trump. So yeah. Thats interesting.

Donald Trump's new running mate, Sen. JD Vance, wasn't yet a member of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, when an angry mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, chanting "hang Mike Pence" and seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

But that hasn't stopped Vance, R-Ohio, from promoting Trump's unfounded claims about that election, won by President Joe Biden, and insisting lawmakers could have fought the results.

“If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors, and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there,” Vance said in an interview with ABC News this year. “That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020. I think that’s what we should have done.”

Rick Hasen, an election law expert and professor at the UCLA School of Law, said it's the states that are empowered to contest their results and proffer slates of electors — not the vice president.

"There were single slates of electors that were submitted from each state, and there was no reasonable basis to challenge the legitimacy of those slates of electors," he said.

In interviews, Vance has repeatedly argued there were problems with the 2020 election, pointing to pandemic-related election rule changes like mail voting expansions, which Republicans protested and didn't seek to rally their voters around, and a social media company’s decision to block a story about Hunter Biden, the president's son, weeks ahead of the election.

“Whether you think Hunter Biden is as major an issue as I do or disagree, in American democracy you let the voters decide. That was a way in which the basic democratic will of America was obstructed. I don’t see any reason to think that Dominion voting machines switched ballots, but there was a breakdown in democratic will,” Vance recently told The New York Times.

In the same interview, Vance also defended his questioning of the 2020 results.

Do you mean Vivek Ramaswamy?

Ego and practical pick. Trump just loves the idea that he turned another "never trumper" into a Trump ass licker.

The practical part
Where JD Vance stands on certifying the 2020 election and voter fraud

Besides ass licker, opportunist to the point of being a traitor fits.

Yeah. I guess I ran his first and last names together. Lol!

Voter fraud, COVID and Hunter Biden, sounds like "Back to the Future" to me. Like the Steely Dan song, American voters elect trump, "Go back, Jack do it again, wheels turning round and round"