JD Vance, “an incredibly effective communicator” with a track record of “lies” and “mean-spirited” trolling, is the “heir apparent” to Donald Trump’s MAGA throne, a former Trump adviser said.
During a CNN panel after Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, former Trump White House director of strategic communications Alyssa Farah Griffin said: “I was struck by the fact that JD Vance is a significantly more eloquent Donald Trump. I don’t agree with JD Vance on quite a bit, but he speaks to MAGA in a way that he comes off as an incredibly effective communicator.”
Griffin likened Vance to a “chameleon” with “multiple sides,” calling it one of “his greatest political strengths” and praising his “command of the facts.” She then noted that Vance spread falsehoods, just as his running mate has.
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“He tried to show the side of empathy with him, that I found myself believing,” Griffin added. “And then I remember his lies about Haitian kids, his comments about childless cat ladies, and his general record online is [as] a mean-spirited internet troll.”
A snap poll of registered voters who watched the debate, commissioned by the network, found Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz did reasonably well and ended in a virtual dead heat, with 51 percent saying they thought Vance performed better and 49 percent choosing Walz. A CBS News poll produced a similar result: Forty-two percent of respondents said Vance won the debate, 41 percent said Walz won, and 17 percent called it a tie.
“I don’t know that this moves the needle, but I do think it solidifies his place as the MAGA heir apparent,” said Griffin of Vance’s performance.
She also echoed another former Trump adviser, Kellyanne Conway, who said Monday that she has personally pushed the former president to agree to a second debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. Conway said she told Trump she thought his ego wouldn’t allow him to let the vice presidential candidates have the last word.
“I honestly would be surprised [if] Donald Trump doesn’t want to debate again, because JD Vance did so well and he’s going to want the final closing argument,” said Griffin, now a co-host of daytime talk show The View in addition to her duties as a CNN commentator.
While Griffin gave a more well-rounded judgment of Vance’s performance, acknowledging his strengths and faults, MAGA fans were over the moon at seeing their movement championed by someone who could string a sentence together, in contrast to Trump’s often incoherent ramblings.
“He was a nice, dignified person, whereas Walz was really a schlump,” said conservative pundit Ann Coulter, sounding practically giddy on an episode of her podcast. Coulter’s guest, conservative consultant Ryan Girdusky, said Vance was “smooth as a morning cigarette after a cup of coffee.”
Fox News host Jesse Watters was so enraptured by Vance that he initially skipped analysis to testify to the MAGA heir’s comeliness: “He looked beautiful tonight.”
