LAS VEGAS – Donald Trump’s big bet Senator JD Vance The West faces a big challenge this week, starting Tuesday afternoon about 15 miles from the Las Vegas Strip.
Vance, an Ohio Republican who has endured bumpy spread As Trump’s running mate, he will kick off the campaign with a speech at a high school in Henderson.
From there, Vance will go to an event in Reno, then on Wednesday to California for a fundraising dinner near Fresno. Later that day, Vance will hold a rally at Arizona Christian University near Phoenix. On Thursday morning, he plans to travel to the US-Mexico border in Cochise County, Arizona, where he may attack Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on immigration.
For Vance, it’s a chance to quickly move on from a debut that came under fresh scrutiny last week about his past provocative comments, including his thoughts on the societal value of childless women — “childless cat ladies” in the words.
These and other old records, many of which were being learned by a wide national audience for the first time, served as the rough introduction that Harris, the de facto Democratic presidential candidate, was eager to use. Harris and his allies are quick to call Vance a “freak” before the Trump team appoints him on his own terms. Some of Vance’s fellow Republicans and leaders on the party’s right wing have voiced their concerns.
“Usually after the convention, your vice presidential pick goes around the nation, introducing himself … and trying to attract swing voters,” GOP strategist and former Trump State Department appointee Matthew Bartlett told NBC News. “Right now, JD Vance is trying to clean up his mess and win over the Republican Party. It’s a very strange dynamic.
“I think that’s the challenge right now — convincing the Republican Party that it’s the right choice before you try to expand the voting base,” Bartlett said.
A source close to the Trump campaign expressed optimism that the worst is behind Vance, and that the turnaround actually began late last week. The source specifically pointed to Vance’s speech at a rally with Trump in St. Cloud, Minnesota on Saturday. Videos of his attacks on Harris have gone viral on social media among influential right-wingers. The speech as a whole was taken as a text telegraphing Vance’s role on the stump.
“He’s a political attack dog against Kamala Harris,” added this person, who requested anonymity to share his inner thoughts. “That’s actually the game plan for JD moving forward.”
Vincent St. Cloud’s speech was noticeably more disciplined and scripted than his first solo campaign event as Trump’s running mate earlier in the week.
Horse that rallyVance digresses about his love for Diet Mountain Dew.
“I’m sure they’ll be called that racist, too,” he said in a joke that reached a friendly audience in his childhood hometown of Middletown, Ohio, but drew jeers from Democratic corners.
On Saturday, Vance reserved his harsher remarks against Harris, whom he described as “the most extreme liberal” when Vance was in the Senate before he was elected. (GovTrack.us, which tracks federal legislation, recently withdrew its 2019 rating (Judging that Harris is second only to Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in 2019 and 2020, as the most liberal senator.)
“He sponsored the Green New Scam,” Vance said, referring to the Green New Deal climate legislation. Co-sponsored by Harris and other Democratic senators in 2019. “And he supports all kinds of stupid environmental policies that will put American workers out of work, send gas prices through the roof, and drive Americans deeper into poverty. “He is 100% responsible for the inflation disaster that is destroying American families.”
Vance also connected with President Joe Biden, who endorsed Harris after he decided not to seek re-election last week. He emphasized that Harris has been asked to lead the administration’s efforts to address the causes of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
“As America’s border czar — and she was a border czar, the media all said — Kamala Harris is directly responsible for the worst border crisis in this country’s history,” Vance said.
Meanwhile, he and his allies began to fight against the “strange” attack.
“‘JD Vance is weird'” Vance It aired on X on Sunday Above a video clip of Harris introducing himself with pronouns at a CNN town hall during his last presidential campaign: he, her, and her.
Ben Shapiro, right-wing commentator in the earlier podcast days Trump said he doubted he would pick Vance if he could come back in two weeks, he said.
“Democrats and Republicans use two different definitions of ‘weird’ to attack rival candidate.” Shapiro wrote in X. “Democrats say JD Vance is weird because he’s concerned about declining birthrates as a social problem. “Republicans say Kamala Harris is weird because she’s, you know, weird.”
Trump also came to Vance’s defense. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, he accused Democrats of “spinning things differently” from 2021 when they pointed to Vance’s “childless cat ladies” crack. At the time, Vance was running for the Senate and chose Harris – his stepmother. two – and because other Democrats don’t have children.
“First of all, he has great support among a certain group of people. People who love families,” Trump said. “He’s not against anything, but he loves family. This is very important for him.”