09/04/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/04/2024 08:36
We're so glad Laura Ingraham asked if we have any questions for JD Vance tonight. As Vance prepares to defend his horrendouslyembarrassing and unpopularrollout as Donald Trump's VP nominee, here are 10 questions for him:
1. Why do you want to pursue Trump's Project 2025 plan to ban medication abortion and rip away women's freedoms nationwide?
Washington Post: "Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills."
CNN: "JD Vance said in 2022 he 'would like abortion to be illegal nationally.'"
Manu Raju, CNN: "J.D. Vance, the Ohio GOP senator, says Republicans need to shift their approach on abortion and begin to embrace federal legislation … 'We can't give into the idea that the federal Congress has no role in this matter,' he told us."
NBC News: "Trump signals openness to banning abortion pill"
2. Why did you vote to block legislation to codify IVF access and praise attacks on the life-changing treatment?
The Hill: "Senate Republicans block legislation to codify IVF access"
Republicans who voted against include: JD Vance.
Vanity Fair: "On Wednesday, Senate Republicans are expected to object to Tammy Duckworth's Right to Build Families Act, because, surprise: They don't actually care about families and aren't 'pro-life.'
"'It's idiotic for us to take the bait,' Senator JD Vance told Politico, as though the measure were some kind of political trap. (He also noted that he had not actually read the bill yet.)"
New York Times: "Years before he became the Republican vice-presidential nominee, JD Vance endorsed a little-noticed 2017 report by the Heritage Foundation that proposed a sweeping conservative agenda to restrict sexual and reproductive freedoms and remake American families.
"In a series of 29 separate essays, conservative commentators, policy experts, community leaders and Christian clergy members opposed the spread of in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments, describing those treatments as harmful to women."
3. Why do you continue to whitewash January 6, and do you support Trump's promise to pardon violent insurrectionists?
Politico: "[Vance] downplayed the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when Pence was forced to evacuate the building as rioters called for his hanging."
The Hill: "JD Vance says he is 'skeptical' Pence's life was in danger on Jan. 6"
Trump: "Those people were treated very harshly… nobody was killed on January 6. But I think that the people on January 6 were treated very unfairly… they were there to complain about an election, and you know it's very interesting, the biggest crowd I've ever spoken to."
4. Will you commit to accepting the results of November's election?
HuffPost: "[Vance] said he would accept a Biden win only if he considered the election to be legitimate. … Vance's comments illustrate a new tactic by Republican lawmakers, who are now placing conditions on accepting election results."
New York Times: "J.D. Vance Says He Would Accept the Election Results, With a Caveat"
Vance: "I think the entire post-2020 thing would have gone a lot better if there had actually been an effort to provide alternative slates of electors, and to force us to have that debate. I think it would've been a much better thing for the country. … [Trump] was trying to take a constitutional process to its natural conclusion."
New York Times: "[Vance] has said that, unlike Vice President Mike Pence in 2020, he would have helped Mr. Trump overturn the results, by accepting Trump electors that had not been elected by voters."
5. Exactly which of the extreme plans in Project 2025 do you think are "good ideas?"
Vance: "I've reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there."
New Republic: "Project 2025 Leader Is Overjoyed by Trump's Vice Presidential Pick"
Gram Slattery, Reuters: "Vance is very close to Heritage and even wrote the forward for a book from the think tank's president. Project 2025 is of course organized by Heritage."
6. Do you still stand by your insulting attacks on Americans without children, including suggesting they should not get "nearly the same voice" in democracy?
Pat Rynard, Courier Newsroom: "JD Vance says Americans without children should 'face the consequences and the reality' and not get 'nearly the same voice' in democracy"
CNN: "Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance has a history of making disparaging remarks toward people without children, a CNN KFile review of his comments shows, including fundraising off his now-infamous 'childless cat lady' remarks in a series of emails that called Democratic leaders 'childless sociopath' who 'don't have a direct stake in this country.'
"In November 2020, Vance said on a conservative podcast that childless Americans, especially those in the country's 'leadership class,' were 'more sociopathic' than those with children and made the country 'less mentally stable.' Vance added that the 'most deranged' and 'most psychotic' commentators on Twitter - now known as X - were typically childless."
7. Why did you suggest women should stay in violent marriages?
Vice: "JD Vance Suggests People in 'Violent' Marriages Shouldn't Get Divorced"
8. Why do you stand against working Americans and want to help Trump rig the economy for the ultra-wealthy at the expense of the middle class?
Vance: "The left attacked Donald Trump for those tax cuts said they would make the deficit worse when in reality we took in more revenue because the government got out of the way on the regulatory side and the tax cuts spurred a lot of growth which means more people working, which meant more economic production which meant the entire economy was healthier… I think we have a pretty common sense regulatory and tax agenda."
New York Times: "The 2017 corporate tax cuts signed into law by Mr. Trump have not increased government revenue… In fact, they have had the opposite effect."
Forbes: "Trump Tax Cuts Helped Billionaires Pay Less Taxes Than The Working Class In 2018"
9. Do you think you're ready to lead on day one? (Because Trump doesn't seem to think so).
CNN: "Privately, Trump's campaign acknowledges this isn't the entrance it envisioned for Vance… the resurfaced clips have so far generated distractions and have forced Trump himself to defend Vance."
Harris Faulker, Fox News: "When you look at JD Vance, is he ready on day one?"
Trump: "Does he what?"
Faulkner: "Ready on day one if he has to be?"
Trump: "I've always had great respect for him. And for the other candidates too. But I will say this, and I think this is well documented; Historically, the vice president in terms of the election does not have any impact, I mean virtually no impact."
10. Do you think doubling down on the Trump-Vance ultra-MAGA Project 2025 agenda is going to improve your historically abysmal rollout as Trump's running mate?
Newsweek: "JD Vance Is the Least Liked VP Nominee in Decades, According to Polls"
"JD Vance is the first non-incumbent vice presidential nominee to have a net-negative favorable rating after a convention since 1980, according to poll numbers."
Salon: "'Making history in the completely wrong way': JD Vance is really unpopular and 'dragging Trump down'"
"Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is making history as Donald Trump's 2024 running mate, but not in the way that the Trump campaign had hoped. According to a CNN survey taken after the Republican National Convention, Vance has an approval rating of -6 points, making him the first vice presidential nominee to enter the general election with a negative rating since 1980.
Newsweek: "Nearly four in 10 people do not believe Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance, is ready for the presidency if necessary, according to a new survey. … The poll also found that one-third (33 percent) were not sure if Vance was ready for the presidency or not."
The Hill: "Some House Republicans slam Vance as Trump's VP pick: 'The worst choice'"
New Republic: "Is J.D. Vance the Worst Vice Presidential Pick Ever?"
CNN: "Vance confronts upheaval and uncertainty in first 10 days as Trump's running mate."