JD Vance went on a grim media marathon Wednesday night to push back on an avalanche of attacks that speakers at the Democratic National Convention sent his way.
Donald Trump’s running mate sat for several TV interviews after Kamala Harris’ VP pick Tim Walz’s speech in Chicago. Walz used the speech to rattle off shots at Vance, accusing the Ohio senator of backing a Project 2025 program that will make people’s lives harder while also making digs at Vance’s background.
“I had 24 kids in my high school class and none of them went to Yale,” Walz said in the speech, referring to the school where Vance studied law. “But I’ll tell you what, growing up in a small town like that, you learn to take care of each other.”
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Fox News host Martha MacCallum asked Vance about that jibe, claiming Walz had essentially called him “Mr. Fancy Pants Ivy League.” Vance said he’d grown up in a poor family and that the sacrifices of his grandmother had allowed him to “live the American dream.”
“I’m proud of what I accomplished,” Vance said. “And more importantly, I’m proud of all the people who sacrificed in order to give me a better life. I would think Tim Walz would want to praise people who sacrifice to give their children and grandchildren a better life, not put me down. But I guess this is the political order of the day—he’s gonna attack me, that’s fine.”
Vance also sat smiling as NBC News’ Tom Llamas helpfully summarized Walz’s attacks for him in another interview after the speech.
“He made fun of the fact you went to Yale, he says ‘like all regular people, I grew up in the heartland, JD Vance studied at Yale,’” Llamas said. “He said that you trashed your own people in your best-selling novel, and that your career was funded by Silicon Valley billionaires.”
“What a nasty personal attack,” Vance said in response, deploying one of his boss’ favorite adjectives. “Why isn’t Governor Walz talking about Kamala Harris’ record and how she’s made the lives of the American people better? The answer is: Because he can’t say that.”
Vance was also reminded of a few more zingers in his interview with Jake Tapper on CNN.
The network rolled footage for Vance of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg flaming a comment Vance made in 2021 about the “childless left” having “no physical commitment to the future of this country.” Buttigieg addressed Vance directly in his speech, saying many of the men and women he served with in Afghanistan didn’t have kids, but their “commitment to the future of this country was pretty damn physical.”
“Pete Buttigieg has taken a sarcastic remark that I made three years ago and turned it into something to distract from the fact that his leadership has seen higher transportation costs, higher fuel costs, and higher food prices for Americans citizens all over our country,” Vance said.
He went on to claim that Walz and Harris are “focused on fake issues instead of the real record.”
Tapper also played Vance a clip of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) at the convention on Monday in which he spoke about the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Raskin asked Vance in his speech if he realized there was a “job opening” to become Trump’s vice president because “they tried to kill your predecessor,” referring to former vice president Mike Pence.
Vance smiled and shook his head in response, saying he wasn’t worried about being Trump’s running mate despite what happened to Pence on Jan. 6—when a mob of Trump supporters storming the Capitol chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” and “Bring out Pence!”
“I can’t help but laugh at what Jamie Raskin said,” Vance added. “These are people who somehow always make themselves the victims.”
Worst of all, arguably, was his ABC News interview. Vance was right in the middle of discussing reports that independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is preparing to end his campaign and endorse Trump when his feed cut out.
