Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio) said many Wild things have been happening since former President Trump announced himself as his running mate in July.
Because all of this may seem confusing and blurry in retrospect, we took it upon ourselves to highlight some of his past falsehoods, positions and general absurdities ahead of Tuesday night’s debate with Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.). CBS moderators do not verify candidates in real time.
If you’ve found yourself in a difficult situation over the past few months, here are some of Vance’s greatest (worst?) hits that are a) smart moves, and b) you need to know before Vance and Walz face off.
- In Springfield, Ohio, Vance helped spread the racist lie that Haitian immigrants eat their pets. Even after that Local officials told his office the rumors were untrue. wall street journal. Keep your pets away from this person.
- He seems to have an obsession with childless women (who, contrary to his claims, are quite happy), arguing that they should have less voting rights than their parents…
- …But despite his apparent obsession with organizing society around the nuclear family, he has not ruled out resuming family separations under Trump’s promised “mass deportation” plan. Hypocrisy, your name is Vance.
- Like Trump, Vance has strong ties to some of the authors of Project 2025, Trump’s extremism guide for a second term. Vance wrote the foreword to a 2017 report published by the Heritage Foundation, the group that led the publication of Project 2025. The report called for a nationwide abortion ban and criticized IVF.
- Vance also wrote the foreword to a forthcoming book by Kevin Roberts, president of Heritage and architect of Project 2025. The book promises to be a roadmap for conservatives to “take back” their country.
- As for the books he supports, Vance has also praised a book that calls progressives “inhumane” (please take a word from my 8th grade English teacher), praised the Rebels, and, as my colleague Noah Lanard wrote, “is a great example of the right-wing “These are dictators who committed political violence and some of the most infamous atrocities of the 20th century.” I really want to know what else he has on his bookshelf.
- He is staunchly anti-abortion and has said he would support a national abortion ban. Opposed to exceptions for rape and incest. Abortion was compared to slavery. And he said the Justice Department should use the 19th-century Comstock Act to criminalize “mail-order abortions,” as recommended by Project 2025.
- Like the rest of the GOP, Vance has recently tried to appear “soft” on abortion, supporting access to mifepristone and arguing that he would leave abortion law up to the states. But Trump has proven otherwise. In the first debate with Harris, he twice refused to clarify whether he would veto a national abortion ban if Congress passed it. Despite the fact that Vance previously confirmed this. Trump will.
- Vance strongly disliked Trump, once calling him “American Hitler” and accusing some of his supporters of being racists (fact check: facts)…
- …But he’s come a long way. Now Vance is helping Trump spread false claims that Democrats were responsible for two recent attempts to assassinate the former president. Threat assessment experts say it could lead to more political violence, my colleague Mark Follman said. .
Of course, you may hear half-truths or even outright lies from Walz during the debate. Vance has already alleged that Walz lied about his military record (the truth is more complicated) and his family’s use of IVF (Walz has made it clear that his family used intrauterine insemination, another type of infertility treatment). It is likely to repeat. One of my former editors used to say, “Everyone lies.” This is especially true for politicians.
But the thing to keep in mind is that the two campaigns facing each other in November do not have the same proportions or the same level of importance. Of course, Trump has continued to falsely claim that he won the 2020 election. Vance also amplified this lie, even though more than 60 court cases have shown otherwise. After Vance helped spread racist lies about Springfield, Trump repeated them in the first debate to the more than 67 million viewers who tuned in. Afterwards, Springfield received a bomb threat, forcing schools and city halls to be evacuated, leaving local Haitians reeling and fearful.
And the lie about Springfield wasn’t the only thing Trump said during his first meeting with Harris. According to CNN, he lied a total of 30 times. Harris, on the other hand, once.
