JD Vance suggests VP picks don't matter

[RandySF]

JD Vance has been trying out different responses to the wave of scrutiny he’s faced since becoming Donald Trump’s running mate. Now, he’s downplaying his own relevance to the election entirely.

“My attitude is, it doesn’t really matter, as much as this hits my ego,” Vance said in an interview on the “FULL SEND PODCAST” released Friday. “People are going to vote primarily for Donald Trump or for Kamala Harris. That’s the way these things go. I think my job over the next few months is to just drive home the message that Kamala Harris has been a bad vice president, and she’d be a worse president.”

Vance’s honest reflections on the role of the vice presidential nominee — in response to a question about how he’s sizing up the potential contenders for Harris’ running mate — represents one of the campaign’s most direct attempts yet to deflect unfavorable attention away from him. In the weeks since he joined the Trump ticket, he has had to dodge jabs about resurfaced clips of him calling some Democrats “childless cat ladies,” his suggestion that parents with biological children should have more political power and his characterization of pregnancies from rape and incest as “inconvenient.”

Going on the offense, Vance sought to reiterate a common but often unspoken understanding in politics that the vice president is more of a symbolic role. His comments mirror a far from rousing endorsement from Trump earlier this week made during a hostile appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago. There, Trump echoed Vance’s clear desire to redirect attention back to the Harris campaign — even though the GOP candidates have yet to settle on a consistent attack strategy.


https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/02/jd-vance-vp-picks-00172526

[Turbineguy]

1. Trump better be careful

Better yet, he should lose, it will be better for him.

[Lulu KC]

2. He cracks me up!

[marble falls]

3. Some do and some don't. Either way, a high percentage of VPs end up running and a lot win.

[Tree Lady]

4. When your almost 80

and sick and crazy I think it matters a lot! I hope the people who vote for Trump realize they could be voting for Vance.

[Raven123]

5. It is inconsistent to say VP picks don't matter and then claim someone is a bad VP

If they don’t matter why waste time assessing them?

[Shermann]

6. It would be weird to go into a job interview and say: "hire me because this position doesn't really matter!" nt

[gulliver]

7. Palin mattered. Quayle mattered.

Where did this idea that VP doesn't matter come from? And why do I never see the above two obvious examples mentioned?

[louslobbs]

9. When the cult leader says it doesn't

Matter, everyone in the cult “will” agree….with what the “cult king” has declared.

[Zoomie1986]

17. You and I were paying attention to reality as it unfolded

Or we at least learned from history.

Rs aren't very good at either.

[Bundbuster]

8. Hey Shady V - you'd be only a heartbeat away. That fucking matters

[Kablooie]

10. God. Can you imagine if ....

Trump took over the presidency again and then dies?

This goon would become the President of the United States.
Oh what a world that would be!

[keithbvadu2]

11. After all the effort JD went through to get the nomination for such a minor job.

Trump::::: JD is kissing my ass

[KentuckyWoman]

12. I wish he'd been this stupid when he ran for Senator.

Granted, Ohio is pretty well gerrymandered to produce an R vote, but Tim Ryan ran a good campaign. If JD has blathered anything like this is 22, Ryan would have mopped the floor with him.

[Zoomie1986]

16. Ryan ran a terrible campaign

He tried to attract R votes by attacking Ds. It's stupid to attack your own party, when you can't win without that party's votes.

[keep_left]

13. The VP sure as hell matters when Trump is literally one Big Mac attack...

...away from the grave. I would be very surprised if the end doesn't come suddenly and soon for Trump, not only because of his life-long terrible diet, but also because of the constant rage-aholic behavior and temper tantrums for which he is so infamous. His cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. must be out of control, and at his age, that's going to catch up with him.

[struggle4progress]

14. Translation: "I'm really not worth a bucket of warm piss, until Trump dies"

[Zoomie1986]

15. LOL VPs don't matter to a ticket? LOL

Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin, nitwit.

[Bucky]

18. Truman, Johnson, Coolidge were VPs who didn't matter... until they did

JD's little effort to hide behind the office fica plant until the election is over with isn't gonna work. Not as long as he's a fountain of insightful quotations.