JD Vance Keeps Driving The Media Crazy
Since being named the vice presidential nominee, JD Vance has driven the media crazy.
Most media outlets happily played along with the strategy of the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket to label Vance as "weird." A charge that was obviously absurd the moment they tried it, and looked increasingly ridiculous the more Vance spoke in front of cameras and the public.
As the defacto public relations arm of the Democratic Party, most major media outlets and personalities did their best to help Harris and Walz sell their message. It failed. One of the most extreme examples of the media putting their thumb on the anti-Vance scale was the vice presidential debate.
Moderator and participant Margaret Brennan from CBS News muted Vance's mic as Vance was calmly detailing his opposition's unpopular border policy. It's only gotten worse since.
NEW YORK - OCTOBER 01: Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) participates in a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center on October 1, 2024 in New York City. This is expected to be the only vice presidential debate of the 2024 general election. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
JD Vance Frustrates Media With Eloquence, Knowledge
After the debate and the election, Vance's ability to torture the media continued. He went after Dana Bash on CNN, pointing out that she'd given Tim Walz multiple choice questions, but wouldn't let him finish a sentence.
Then we can go back to CBS' Margaret Brennan.
Brennan interviewed Vance on Face the Nation, and tried to play "gotcha," with facial expressions that became an instant meme. And Vance, as he so often does, calmly explained why she was wrong.
She clearly didn't take this well.
After Vance's now-infamous speech in Munich, detailing that free speech in Europe is under attack and that the continent needs to rethink its immigration policies, Brennan interviewed Secretary of State Marco Rubio. And tried to tie Vance's remarks on free speech to the Nazi Party and the Holocaust. Seriously. That is an actual thing that happened on a major media network, without a hint of self-awareness.
"Well, [Vice President JD Vance] was standing in a country (Germany) where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide and he met with the head of a political party that has far-right views and historic ties to extreme groups," Brennan said when talking about Vance going to Germany and meeting with the AfD"
It's hard to know whether CBS wants censorship or just hates Vance that much.
READ: CBS News Is Fantasizing About Soviet-Style Censorship in America | Bobby Burack
Maybe both!
These are just a few examples of Vance's effect on the media, with his speech being the straw that broke the camel's back for many mainstream commentators. And it raises the question: why?
There's an easy answer: Vance is smart, competent, eloquent, and knowledgeable. And it drives them crazy. For all President Donald Trump's virtues, his ability to explain policy in detail is often lacking. Not so with Vance. But like Trump, he doesn't take the media's obvious bias sitting down. CBS News, Dana Bash, etc., they're used to having Republicans on who happily allow them to say whatever they want. Vance doesn't. They can't stand him for it.
In that way, Vance and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have much in common. They articulate strong, conservative viewpoints with knowledge and policy expertise. And unfortunately for the media, they aren't going anywhere.