AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
There it is—we have hooked the big fish regarding the media’s reaction to Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) being selected as Donald Trump’s running mate. The former president officially clinched the Republican Party’s nomination during yesterday’s roll call. It’s done. Vance upset liberal media members, but also neoconservatives and other wings of the old guard who are at last seeing their influence being erased before their eyes. They had their time—it’s over.
Yet, CNN’s Van Jones had the take that is the linchpin for the meltdown being exhibited by some over Trump’s pick: Vance is a “virus.” Jones has made decent takes in the past, namely being unafraid to call out his side regarding how the blue wall isn’t as stable as Democrats think and how the Obama coalition is crumbling. This is a bad one, though. And it’s even more unseemly given Donald Trump’s assassination attempt on July 13.
Let’s tone down the rhetoric by calling people with whom we disagree a “virus”:
Trump…is an instinctive, impulsive, intuitive nationalist. JD Vance is an ideological nationalist. That’s a much more dangerous virus because he can polish this stuff and make it seem palatable to people.
He can sell this stuff to Silicon Valley. He can sell this stuff other places. And what it does is it locks the Republican Party on a pathway that I think is dangerous for the world. Again, the Ukrainians are now in deep trouble. NATO is now in deep trouble. Trump is he could have gone with it with a Nikki Haley and signal to the world.
Hey, listen, I gotta give stuff to my base, but I’m not going to abandon the world. This pic is a horror on the world stage.
Vance wasn’t the only clown tossing out ridiculous takes. After day one wrapped, former Biden White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said that Democrats need to redirect their fire on Trump. These people, folks—they can’t keep it together for more than 36 hours.
