Senate Republicans are publicly sticking by JD Vance after his tough week, but they have some advice for their first-term colleague: Choose your words more carefully.
Democrats have excoriated Vance over his remarks in a 2021 interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The Ohio Republican said the Democratic Party was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
He specifically listed likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris as an example of a politician without children, as he tried to paint the party as anti-family.
“It was an inappropriate comment,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said of Vance’s remarks. Still, the senator insisted his colleague is a “very smart guy” and that “his intelligence and his wit probably just got the better of him.”
Other Republicans made clear they thought the comments were a mistake. Still, they’re brushing past it, publicly sticking with Donald Trump’s selected running mate despite behind-the-scenes doubts about Vance within the party. It’s a sign that Republicans are still closely aligned behind Trump and, at the very least, want to project unity as they grapple with the campaign pivot to Harris.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said it was “not a great choice of words” but that the campaign should stay on offense. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) warned that while Democrats likely won’t have new material to use to define Trump, but “JD, he’s new on the scene, you’ve got to be careful.” He added that while the current backlash wouldn’t “rule the day,” saying Vance was being taken too literally, it would be “painful” to get through in the short term.
“I think he just needs to be incredibly circumspect as to what he says, with the understanding that it will be filtered in the way most negative,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) echoed: “With increased scrutiny, people are going to ask about previous statements” but that “obviously, this is a huge distraction away from the problems Kamala Harris has.”
Other Republicans largely responded to questions about Vance’s comments with a collective shrug — arguing that the vice presidential pick is ultimately up to Trump and that there are no signs that the GOP nominee is prepared to walk back his choice. Vance himself has said that his comments are being taken out of context, and that he was trying to sarcastically make a larger point about Democratic policies.
“The president makes the nomination,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said. “I think there are always going to be people who are naysayers or people that are second guessing. That’s part of the process.” When he was pressed on what voting bloc Vance adds to the presidential ticket, he sidestepped, saying the former president wanted a “teammate.”
The widespread GOP defense of Vance is a flip from just a few months ago, when some senators openly questioned why Trump would pick the MAGA-favored Ohioan. Instead, they said Trump should pick someone who appealed more to the center.
Other vice presidential candidates like Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) or North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) best fit that order. Some suggested considering former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who ran a long primary bid against the former president.
Those calls quieted as it became more obvious that Trump was favoring Vance. Now, GOP senators insist that Trump made the right choice.
“I think [Vance] appeals geographically and demographically to blocks of voters that obviously we want to have in our coalition,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.).
