JD Vance doesn't add much to Trump ticket: Pakman

Vice President JD Vance emphasized the Trump administration's commitment to expanding religious freedom during a speech on Wednesday. — Image credit: Reuters

At the 2024 Republican National Convention, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump selected Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, as his running mate. With Trump expected to win Ohio in the Electoral College, some observers have questioned why Trump ultimately decided on Vance. One explanation is that Vance said he would have helped Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election to remain in power after losing, suggesting that Vance may be willing to help Trump stage another coup in the future.

Watch the above video as Straight Arrow News contributor David Pakman discusses J.D. Vance’s pros and cons and gives his best impression of who he thinks Vance really is behind the scenes.

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The following is an excerpt from the above video:

Now, the most interesting aspect to me about this, in general, is that I don’t think J.D. Vance really does anything for Trump, as far as helping him gain new votes in the net. J.D. Vance is from Ohio, a state that Trump will almost certainly win regardless. And if he wins by a slightly bigger margin because he has J.D. Vance, I don’t think it makes a whole hell of a difference. On the other hand, J.D. Vance doesn’t expand the electorate elsewhere because he’s basically a 40-years-younger Trump type, not as bombastic, which is part of what Trump likes, but as far as policy is concerned, so I don’t think that there’s an expansion for Trump of the electorate for that reason.

And then thirdly, we get to the real reasons that Donald Trump selected J.D. Vance, which mostly have to do with personality, and the fact that Trump doesn’t want someone who’s going to get all the attention. Marjorie Taylor Greene, as VP, would get a ton of attention. She would suck up attention. Trump doesn’t want that. Trump wants a doormat who will meet Trump’s definition of loyalty.

J.D. Vance previously said if he had been VP instead of Mike Pence, in January of 2021, he would have sent the election back to the states, which is not really a thing, but it’s code for “I would have done the thing Trump wanted Pence to do but wasn’t willing to do.” Pence was not a total doormat loyalist, not that I was a fan of his, but he was not a total dork doormat loyalist. But J.D. Vance is, and it’s complete and total opportunism.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after surviving an assassination attempt two days later selected JD Vance as his presidential running mate to be his VP if indeed Donald Trump returns to the White House. A couple thoughts on this. First of all, I think in all likelihood, JD Vance hates Donald Trump. JD Vance has an eight year history dating back to 2016 of saying horrible things horrible things about Donald Trump, that Donald Trump is just

essentially tricking voters to appeal to them.

Blaming things on Mexicans and immigrants saying he can’t stomach Trump. He finds him noxious. Could he be America’s Hitler? I’m a Never Trump guy, JD Vance said to Charlie Rose in 2016. I never liked him. My God would an idiot he wrote in a tweet and there’s all sorts of now deleted tweets from JD Vance. JD Vance, of course, over the last year, two years has done the one ad it’s called the Republican Magga. One ad which is first you tell the truth about Trump, then when all of a sudden you’re like, oh, Trump kind of wants me around, I might be able to get access to the president or the future president or the presidential candidate. All of a sudden, your opinion changes. And now, JD Vance sings a very different tune and by and large supports, or subscribes to the standard package of Magga perspectives, and it really is quite a pivot. Now, my belief is that JD Vance hasn’t really changed his mind on any of this stuff. I think JD Vance, like other Republicans, unlike Mitt Romney, Mitt Romney has just said what he believes as a Republican, he doesn’t like Trump not voting for him thinks he’s a disaster. JD Vance has done what many Republicans have done, which is to say, Hey, I think the guy’s great publicly, and privately, they probably still dislike him. Now, the most interesting aspect to me about this, in general, is that I don’t think JD Vance really does anything for Trump, as far as helping him gain new votes in the net. JD Vance is from Ohio, a state that Trump will almost certainly win regardless. And if he wins by a slightly bigger margin, because he has JD Vance, I don’t think it makes a whole hell of a difference. On the other hand, JD Vance doesn’t expand the electorate elsewhere because he’s basically a 40 year younger Trump type, not as bombastic, which is part of what Trump likes, but as far as policy is concerned, so I don’t think that there’s an expansion for Trump of the electorate for that reason. And then thirdly, we get to the real reasons that Donald Trump selected JD Vance, which mostly have to do with personality, and the fact that Trump doesn’t want someone who’s going to get all the attention. Marjorie Taylor Greene, as VP would get a ton of attention. She would suck up attention. Trump doesn’t want that. Trump wants a doormat, who will meet Trump’s definition of loyalty JD Vance previously said if he had been VP instead of Mike Pence, in January of 2021. He would have sent the election back to the states which is not really a thing, but it’s code for I would have done the thing Trump wanted pence to do but wasn’t willing to do. Pence was not a total doormat loyalist not that I was a fan of his but he was not a total dork doormat loyalist, but JD Vance is, and it’s complete. And total opportunism. Its opportunism for Vance pivoting from this guy might be America’s Hitler, now to oh, he’s good. He represents the country. It’s all great. And Trump opportunistically saying, Here’s a guy who’s kissed the ring. He did the MIA culpa. And he changed his mind. And now I can get him here. And he’s just going to lay down for me, which is absolutely what Trump loves. The only problem the only problem is that in the modern Republican Party, you only have to appear to be loyal. And so to the extent that JD Vance has adopted this, I’m a doormat public perspective. We suspect that he almost certainly hates Trump and thinks he’s an idiot. Why do I say that? Because it’s what he said for years, until all of a sudden Trump was interested in him. And that means that the perception of loyalty, which is what matters to Donald Trump may have some limit. If JD Vance is actually put in such a position as far as votes go. I really don’t think this helps Trump or gives him everything anything new. He may not need it. Because after the failed assassination attempt, Biden’s debate performance and all these things that are going on, anyone who telling you who’s telling you they know for sure what the outcome of this election is going to be. Don’t listen to them. It’s a completely unique and unprecedented situation.

and it is anyone’s guess including mine what’s going to go down here we’ll just have to wait and see but I don’t think JD Vance helps