Sorry, Rupert, you have your own self to blame for amoral, extremist J.D. Vance becoming the running mate of Felonious P***y Grabber Trump.
NOTUS’ Reese Gorman has the scoop. Gorman reported that Rupert Murdoch “launched a full-scale lobbying effort” for Doug Burgum, with Marco Rubio the apparent second choice. Murdoch was so adamantly opposed to Vance that he frequently called Trump, “often multiple times a day,” to urge him to choose Burgum. Murdoch even reportedly sent employees to Mar-a-Lago to advocate for Burgum and against Vance.
You may recall we had a good idea that Murdoch favored Burgum when Brian Kilmeade, cohost of Trump’s favorite morning show, went to North Dakota to slobber over him and, back in the studio, cohost Steve Doocy called him a “genius visionary.”
According to Gorman, Murdoch wanted Burgum as a check on Trump. A Fox communications consultant told NOTUS that Murdoch is “not looking forward to another four years where he’ll have to kiss Trump’s ass. They don’t want Trump on Fox, so they get Burgum on there and groom him for the next four years and make him president. That’s his way of ending Trumpism.”
But Murdoch should blame himself for Trumpism. It’s his network that promotes Trump and Trumpism almost 24/7. Heck it even hired Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s compulsive liar of a press secretary, to be a Fox News host after she left the White House. CNN’s Jake Tapper wouldn’t even interview her, she’s so dishonest, and Fox’s own Neil Cavuto cut away from her November 9, 2020 press conference, saying, “I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this,” as she baselessly accused Democrats of welcoming voter fraud and illegal voting.
But on Murdoch's Fox, she's host material.
Maybe it was Trump’s never-ending sense of grievance that kept him from listening to Murdoch about his vice presidential pick. NOTUS’ Gorman wrote, “Standing in the retired media mogul’s way: Trump hasn’t forgotten that Murdoch went all in on Gov. Ron DeSantis in the primaries, according to multiple sources.”
In any event, Media Matters’ Matt Gertz pointed out that Vance would probably not even be a senator today were it not for Tucker Carlson. You know, the guy who hosted a primetime show for six years on Murdoch’s Fox News. And not just on Carlson's show, either. Gertz wrote that Vance appeared on Fox at least 151 times since 2018, including 46 appearances on the Tucker Carlson Tonight show, by far Vance’s most frequent Fox platform. Even though Carlson was fired in April, 2023.
Although Vance first provided what Gertz described as “measured and deliberate political analysis in his early appearances” on Fox, as his Senate campaign got off the ground his rhetoric became more like Carlson’s. Gertz noted that Vance invoked the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy theory that Carlson loved, he joined Carlson in championing killer Kyle Rittenhouse, and denounced Democratic politicians as “childless cat ladies.”
But primetime tribalism was not all Carlson gave Vance. More from Gertz:
Carlson did more than provide Vance with a massive platform to reinvent himself. On the air, he vouched for Vance to his audience, lavishing him with praise and declaring his personal admiration. And off the air, he successfully lobbied Trump by phone to endorse Vance in the Ohio Senate primary, reportedly “promising Trump that Vance was with him on the issues despite the candidate’s past anti-Trump comments.” Trump’s endorsement helped Vance secure his GOP primary, and he ultimately won a narrow victory in the general election that put him on the map as a potential VP pick.
We don’t know exactly what prompted Trump to choose a guy who so publicly trashed him before deciding it was in his interest to worship the p***y grabber. Vance will clearly only be loyal so long as it’s in his own interest. Maybe he was chosen because Trump liked watching Vance on TV or because Carlson or other right-wing pundits pushed him. But Dan Pfeiffer has a persuasive, albeit very depressing theory: that it’s to get Project 2025 passed:
J.D. Vance offers no political advantage. He doesn’t expand the map; Ohio, his home state, is firmly in Trump’s camp. He also lacks appeal to key demographics that Trump needs to win over. His appeal seems limited to staunch MAGA supporters who are unwaveringly loyal to Trump. Moreover, Vance fails to provide ideological balance or address vulnerabilities within the ticket.
…
Donald Trump does not give two shits about governing. He’d likely struggle to explain how a bill becomes a law or distinguish between an executive order and a presidential memorandum. His knowledge of the responsibilities of the cabinet agencies under his administration would likely be lacking as well.
However, Trump picked Vance for the same reasons George W. Bush picked Cheney — someone who has the smarts and know-how to implement the MAGA agenda. Trump may not even know this is why he picked Vance, but it’s why so many people behind Project 2025 supported Vance’s appointment. While Trump is watching his fifth hour of Fox News that day and Truthing about absurd marginalia, Vance is going to pull the lever of power to put in place the most radical policies in modern American history.
As I’ve said before and I’ll probably say it again and again, no matter who the Democratic candidate is running against Trump, you MUST vote for him or her. Work to change the policies and/or the system afterward if you feel like you’d be voting for the lesser of two evils. But voting for anyone but a Democrat is a vote for Trump and Toady Vance. Almost everything most Americans hold dear about this country depends on keeping them out of the White House.
You can watch J.D. Vance thank Tucker Carlson for helping him win his Senate primary below, from Vance’s May 3, 2022 victory speech.
7/16/24 Correction: I inadvertently left off the link to Dan Pfeiffer's The Message Box newsletter yesterday. It has now been added. My apologies to Dan and his team!
