(New York) The American presidential campaign has already seen several spectacular or unprecedented twists and turns. Hence, no doubt, this unexpected question that some commentators and politicians have begun to raise: will Donald Trump dump JD Vance?
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is one of those who has broached the subject. Last Sunday, after “betting” that the former president was scratching his head and wondering why he had chosen the Ohio senator as his running mate, he added that he had “about 10 days” to change course.
“Does he keep Vance on the ticketwhere he already has a lot of skeletons in his closet and will probably have even more… or does he choose someone else? “, the New York senator asked during a television interview.
Of course, the Democrat didn’t ask the question in good faith. In the same interview, he said the choice of J.D. Vance was “perhaps one of the best things I’ve ever done.” [Trump] ever made for Democrats.”
But Chuck Schumer is not the only one who thinks that Donald Trump or his allies regret the choice of JD Vance. These regrets have surfaced since Joe Biden withdrew from the race for the White House. Because the replacement of the president by Kamala Harris at the head of the ticket Democrat has changed many calculations.
PHOTO CLIFF OWEN, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Chuck Schumer, leader of the Democrats in the Senate
“The most striking thing I heard from Trump allies yesterday was the questioning of J.D. Vance—a choice, they acknowledged, that was born of arrogance, designed to boost margins with the base in anticipation of a landslide victory, rather than to persuade swing voters in a close election,” the magazine’s reporter wrote on X The Atlantic Tim Alberta, the day after Joe Biden’s withdrawal.
This comment was made before the media and the Kamala Harris campaign even started to smear JD Vance. For more than a week, they have been releasing clips or emails of JD Vance making controversial statements on a range of issues, including women, abortion, policing and Donald Trump.
The most talked-about statement came in 2021, when JD Vance was campaigning for a Senate seat. In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, he questioned the legitimacy of female politicians who don’t have children.
“We are effectively run in this country by Democrats, by oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are unhappy in their own lives and in the choices they’ve made, and who therefore want to make the rest of the country unhappy, too. How does it make sense that we have entrusted our country to people who have no real vested interest in it?”
During his speech, he made references to Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pete Buttigieg (the inclusion of the Transportation Secretary among these so-called “childless cat ladies” is bizarre, but perhaps indicative of a certain homophobia).
PHOTO STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States
The outcry was widespread. Actress Jennifer Aniston, who is not known for her political stance, was outraged. “I really can’t believe this is coming from a potential Vice President of the United States,” she wrote on Instagram. “All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter gets the chance to have children of her own one day. I hope she doesn’t have to resort to IVF as a second option. Because you’re trying to take that away from her, too.”
Another clip from 2021 has resurfaced in which JD Vance argued that parents of children should have “more opportunities to be heard” [leur] voice in our democratic republic than people who do not have children.”
Yet another featured the voice of the politician, now 39, advocating for a “federal response” to prevent pregnant women from traveling to states where they can obtain abortions.
The editorial page of the Wall Street Journalconservative though she may be, has slammed Vance, particularly for his statement about “childless cat ladies”: “That comment is the kind of smart-aleck remark that gets a laugh in some right-wing male circles. But it doesn’t sit well with the millions of women voters, often Republicans, who will decide the presidential race.”
THE New York Times has brought out more scandal, in the form of emails written by JD Vance to a (former) trans friend. “I hate the police,” Donald Trump’s future running mate wrote in October 2014 in the wake of the death of Michael Brown, a young black man killed by a white police officer in Jefferson, Missouri.
“The more white people want to vote for Trump, the more black people will suffer,” he argued in September 2016, more than a year after calling the Republican presidential candidate a “demagogue” for his anti-Muslim rhetoric, and a month before calling him a “morally reprehensible human being.”
In defending himself, JD Vance accused Democrats of misrepresenting his remarks by taking them out of context. “I have nothing against cats,” he insisted, a statement that suggested he did not regret his misogynistic remarks.
The result: According to CNN analyst Harry Enten, Vance’s approval rating was negative six points in all polls last week, a figure far lower than any other vice presidential candidate in history, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Enough to make Donald Trump think (and rage).
Question
“Can Trump replace JD Vance?” asks Suzanne Gauthier, a reader of La Presse+, in a most opportune manner.
Answer
Yes. There is even a precedent. In 1972, Democratic candidate George McGovern’s running mate, Thomas Eagleton, withdrew his candidacy at McGovern’s request after admitting to reports that he had received electroshock therapy for depression in the 1960s. Fifty-two years later, the rules of the Republican National Committee (RNC) allow its members to “fill any vacancy that may occur by reason of the death, withdrawal, or otherwise of the Republican nominee for President of the United States or the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States, as nominated by the convention.” A candidate would need to receive a majority of the vote to receive the nomination. The rule also allows the RNC to reconvene the national convention to fill any vacancy. Replacing J.D. Vance would therefore require his withdrawal and an acknowledgement by Donald Trump that he made a mistake.