HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump is used to defending himself. But this week the Republican presidential nominee found himself in the sporadic position of having to defend someone else — his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
When Vance was first introduced at the Republican National Convention last month, many GOP officials said they didn’t know much about him. Since then, that gap has been filled by numerous reports of controversial statements — notably Vance’s earlier suggestion that Vice President Kamala Harris and other so-called “childless cat ladies” were out to make life hard for the country — that made his appearance one of the most turbulent in recent history.
“I only speak for myself. And I think I speak for him, too,” Trump said during a controversial interview Wednesday at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago. “In my opinion, he’s very family-oriented. But that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with not having a family.”
Conservative commentators, Republican strategists and GOP elected officials on Capitol Hill agree publicly and privately that Vance’s introduction to America has not gone well. Democrats pointed to his past comments on abortion rights and his suggestion that parents should have more voting power than adults without children. Harris and her allies have begun to call both Vance and Trump “weird,” and those comments have spread online.
Seventeen days later, Trump and his allies have still failed to suppress criticism from their own ranks.
“I think if he had thought two or three years ago, ‘I could be on the presidential ticket in a few years,’ he might have chosen different words,” North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer, a longtime Trump ally, said Wednesday. Cramer also suggested that Vance might apologize for his comments about childless Americans: “When he feels the need to apologize, people are very forgiving.”
The Trump campaign team stands behind Vance
Vance has not apologized. And a senior Trump adviser said Tuesday there had been “zero conversations” about replacing Vance as his vice presidential nominee.
Soon, the adviser predicted, voters would turn their attention away from Vance and toward Harris’s pick for vice president on the Democratic ticket expected in the next few days. The adviser spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal campaign strategy.
Vance, a 39-year-old Republican senator, has been in office for less than 18 months but has quickly established himself as a leader of the Make America Great Again movement.
The first-term Ohio senator was not the most popular choice among many Republicans on Capitol Hill, especially compared to more experienced candidates such as Senators Tim Scott and Marco Rubio. Some believe the pick came in a moment of hubris, as Trump’s team predicted a landslide victory against a weakened President Joe Biden.
But the presidential campaign changed dramatically after Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris, and now Trump’s allies are admitting that his victory in November is no sure thing.
Twice in the last century, vice presidential nominees have been replaced after their announcement, but that hasn’t happened since George McGovern ousted Missouri Senator Tom Eagleton in 1972 after it was revealed that Eagleton had received electroshock therapy for a mental health problem.
More recently, Arizona Senator John McCain’s election of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin contributed to the failure of his 2008 campaign.
One gets the feeling that things would have to get a lot worse before Vance became a solemn political liability for Trump, who could theoretically replace him – a possibility that Democrats have been eagerly promoting in recent days.
“This is a short-term obstacle,” said Republican pollster Neil Newhouse.
Trump himself addressed the consequences in an interview in Chicago on Wednesday. He questioned Harris’ ethnic identity and falsely claimed that she had downplayed the color of her skin.
“Historically, it’s well documented that the vice president has no influence whatsoever in terms of the election, virtually none,” Trump said when asked about Vance. “You can have a vice president who is outstanding in every way, and I think JD is, I think anybody else would have been, but you don’t vote that way. You vote for the president. You vote for me.”
Trump’s supporters disagree with Vance but do not demand change
Attendees at Trump’s rally in the swing state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday rejected the idea that Trump should drop Vance, even though they disagreed with his previous proposal that parents should have more voting power than childless adults.
“Trump should stick with the people he chose,” said Jeff Miller, 53, who has five adult children.
Kenneth “Nemo” Niemann said Vance has an “appealing” personal story that makes him a good choice for the ballot, noting that no one always agrees with someone else anyway. “I don’t agree 100 percent with what Trump says,” Niemann said.
And at Vance’s rally Wednesday night in Arizona, another state with a tough election campaign, 42-year-old mother of six Rachael Jensen said she understood that what she called the “Washington establishment” didn’t seem to like him.
Jensen said she does not believe parents should have more voting rights than people without children.
“I believe that there should be a ‘every citizen, one vote’ principle, regardless of whether you have 12 children or not,” Jensen said.
Meanwhile, Republican senators on Capitol Hill were bombarded with a up-to-date round of questions about Vance.
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) said of Vance: “He’s going to have some setbacks at the beginning, but then he’s going to prevail.”
“One of you once told me that as soon as someone is announced for office, they do a combination colonoscopy and CT scan. And I think he’s seeing that right now,” Cassidy told reporters.
Senator John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) was asked about Vance as he entered one of the Capitol elevators.
“I mean, it’s an election campaign. People are going to twist what you say,” said the Louisiana Republican.
Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who was in the elevator with Kennedy, replied: “You’re not twisting it. You’re quoting him.”
“Politics is a full-contact sport,” Kennedy replied. Then the elevator door closed.
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Peoples reported from New York. Groves reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Kevin Freking in Washington and Gabriel Sandoval in Glendale, Arizona, contributed to this report.
