Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is rocketing toward the top of Donald Trump's shortlist for running mates, and a political insider explained why the freshman senator could be his choice.
The Ohio Republican sat down recently with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat to discuss class struggle, the war in Ukraine, Vance's book "Hillbilly Elegy" and the legitimacy of the 2020 election, and The Bulwark's White House correspondent Andrew Egger was disgusted by his response.
"He’s easily the most gifted and most enthusiastic s--t-shoveler on the shortlist," Egger wrote.
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"I am not kidding: This might be the most impressive piece of election bulls--tting I have ever seen," Egger added. "It’s a tour de force that does three things at once: It endorses the most aggressively abusive strategy for stealing the election Trump contemplated in 2020, it absolves Trump of the strategies that didn’t work, and it works in some sneering at libs who think that wielding naked political power to steal an election might qualify as a step toward dictatorship."
Vance told Douthat that going to court to prove fraud was strategically unwise, because "you can’t litigate these things judicially," but instead argued that "you have to litigate them politically" and lamented there had been hardly any political debate about the outcome of that election.
"This might seem an odd claim, since all of us, including Ross Douthat and J.D. Vance, have spent insane amounts of time debating the 2020 election ever since it happened," Egger wrote. "But to Vance, 'political debate' isn’t just having a robust public discourse about what factually happened. 'Political debate,' in Vance’s telling, is something that couldn’t really happen in 2020 unless Mike Pence, rather than certifying Biden’s win, endorsed Republicans’ fraudulent 'effort to provide alternative slates of electors.'"
"In other words, Vance is being euphemistic," Egger added. "What he refers to as 'political debate' is what the rest of us would call a constitutional crisis."
Trump continues to insist that his loss was the result of widespread fraud in multiple states, although dozens of lawsuits alleging those claims failed – which Vance blames on disgraced attorney Jenna Ellis and not the former president – but the senator and would-be vice presidential hopeful says those legal challenges are irrelevant.
"It was a mistake, Vance maintains, to spend all that time trying to prove fraud," Egger wrote. "The fact that millions of Republicans believed there had been fraud was enough: Republicans should’ve jumped straight into trying to seize the presidency by political force. Otherwise, Vance argues, 'an entire section of our democratic republic would’ve had their concerns ignored.'"
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Egger was astonished that Vance, when he described what might have happened had this "insane plan" actually worked and kept Trump in office despite losing the electoral vote, found a way to characterize Republicans as the victims.
"In this universe — where Trump has unshackled himself from the will of the voters and forced his way to another term without ever proving an ounce of fraud — here’s Vance, still whining that liberals would have the gall to call him an authoritarian! " Egger wrote. "After all, Trump would have just 'served four more years and retired' — why are you all getting so bent out of shape?"
Egger doesn't see how Trump could choose anyone else to join him at the top of the Republican ticket.
"If you’re Trump, what’s the point in keeping looking? " Egger wrote. "The perfectly pliable, highly intelligent, utterly morally bankrupt option is right in front of you, just waiting for the tap-in."