HARRISBURG, Pa. — Donald Trump is used to defending himself. But this week, the Republican presidential nominee has been put in the rare position of having to defend someone else — his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD 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, the void has been filled with multiple reports of controversial statements — especially Vance’s previous suggestion that Vice President Kamala Harris and other “childless cat ladies” want to make the country miserable — that have made his rollout among the most turbulent in recent history.
“I’m just speaking for myself. And I think I’m speaking for him, too,” Trump said during a contentious interview Wednesday at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago. “My interpretation is he’s strongly family-oriented. But that doesn’t mean that if you don’t have a family, there’s something wrong with that.”
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Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, waves to the crowd Wednesday as he walks toward the podium during a campaign event in Glendale, Ariz.
Conservative commentators, Republican strategists, and GOP elected officials on Capitol Hill publicly and privately agree that Vance’s introduction to America has not gone well, with Democrats highlighting his past statements on abortion rights and a statement that parents should have more of a vote than adults without children.
Harris and her allies have started calling both Vance and Trump “weird,” messaging that has taken off online.
Seventeen days later, Trump and his allies have yet to quiet criticism from within their party.
“I think if he was thinking two years ago or three years ago, ‘I might be on a presidential ticket in a couple of years,’ he might have chosen different words,” North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, a longtime Trump ally, said Wednesday.
A senior Trump adviser said Tuesday there has been “zero conversation” about replacing Vance as his running mate.
Soon, the adviser predicted, voters would shift their attention away from Vance and toward Harris’ choice for vice president on the Democratic ticket, which is expected in the coming days. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity.
Vance, a 39-year-old Republican senator, has held office for less than 18 months but quickly established himself as a thought leader in the “Make America Great Again” movement.
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