Geez, almost starting to feel sorry for Vance at this point …
Vance tells donors Harris change was a ‘sucker punch,’ at odds with campaign
“The bad news is that Kamala Harris does not have the same baggage as Joe Biden,” Trump’s running mate acknowledged at a private event.
“The Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), privately told donors that running against Vice President Harris instead of
President Biden made the race more challenging — an admission at odds with the
Donald Trumpcampaign’s public projections of confidence.
“All of us were hit with a little bit of a political sucker punch,” Vance said about Biden’s withdrawal on July 21, according to a recording of his remarks at a Saturday fundraiser in Golden Valley, Minn. “The bad news is that Kamala Harris does not have the same baggage as Joe Biden, because whatever we might have to say, Kamala is a lot younger. And Kamala Harris is obviously not struggling in the same ways that Joe Biden did.”
Publicly, the Trump campaign has insisted that Harris replacing Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket has not changed the race, arguing that she shares responsibility for public dissatisfaction with Biden’s leadership. Vance told reporters on July 22, a day after Biden dropped out of the race, that there was no difference in running against Harris vs. Biden.
…
Vance, though, gave a different assessment for donors on Saturday ahead of joining Trump at a rally in St. Cloud, Minn. He said Harris was less well-known than Trump or Biden, so Republicans would have to work to shape people’s opinions of her.
“We have a very unique opportunity, but also a very unique challenge, because, let’s be honest, 10 days ago, the two candidates who were running for president, everybody had an opinion about ’em. Love ’em or hate ’em, everybody has an opinion about Donald Trump and Joe Biden after the past eight years,” Vance said. “But Kamala Harris, people don’t really know.”
Vance said the campaign would try to define Harris based on past positions, which he said included opposing fracking, praising the “defund the police” movement and supporting decriminalization of unauthorized border crossings.
The Harris campaign says she won’t ban fracking. She denounced “defund the police” after becoming Biden’s running mate, and the current administration opposes decriminalizing border crossings. …”
——
Vance doesn’t really say anything incorrect here, but he clearly doesn’t understand the assignment of being a VP nominee. And his lack of meaningful political experience is showing. There is a reason he underperformed Trump support in Ohio running for Senate under Trump’s imprimatur.