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On this year’s Republican presidential ticket, Ohio Sen. JD Vance is running with an old man, Donald Trump, who hasn’t released his medical records, and who some see as having cognitive issues. Like all vice-presidential candidates, Vance could be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Vance is not only young at just 40, but has an exceedingly light resume. He’s in his first elected office, which he’s held for under two years. He’s also been influenced by some odd people like “neo-reactionary” Curtis Yarvin, who thinks our country should be run by a dictator.
At Vance’s debate last week with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, he was slick and civil while looking to me like someone for whom dishonesty comes far too easily.
One instance of dishonesty involved abortion. Vance claimed he “never supported a national ban.” This was false.
In 2022, when running for the U.S. Senate, Vance said “I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally.” He also said he was “sympathetic” to having the federal government limit women living in states with abortion bans and strict limits from going to states where abortion’s legal.
Another lie concerned health care. Regarding the Affordable Care Act, Vance said “Donald Trump could have destroyed the program. Instead, he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.”
Anyone who followed the news knows this is simply untrue.
In reality, Trump tried to repeal the ACA. He held a celebration at the White House when the House voted for repeal and was only stopped after then-Arizona Sen. John McCain dramatically entered the Senate chamber, put his thumb down and voted against “no.” Also, as the Kaiser Family Foundation explained, the Trump administration made it more difficult for people to get ACA plans and weakened pre-existing conditions protections.
Yet another debate lie involved immigrants. Vance lied about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio and objected when his false claim that they were illegally in the country was fact-checked. He also misrepresented research about the economic impact of immigrants, claiming studies found harm when they didn’t.
Previously Vance said he was willing to “create stories” about Springfield’s immigrants to get attention from the media, which he hoped would spread lies to voters.
Vance did this despite state and local Republican leaders saying that the immigrants contributed to their communities, that the stories about eating pets being debunked (for one, a woman who started a rumor later found her cat in the basement), and threats shutting down local events. A A Springfield businessman and his family, including his 80-year-old mother, have been getting death threats because he said the Haitian immigrants he hired are good workers
A fourth instance of dishonesty during last week’s debate involved the 2020 election. Vance not only wouldn’t say if he’d “again seek to challenge this year’s election results,” he also wouldn’t answer Walz’s question about whether Trump lost the 2020 election.
Vance previously said he wouldn’t have done what then-Vice President Mike Pence did in January 2021 — following the law and Constitution in certifying electoral votes.
The reason why Vance and not Pence is on the ticket is likely because of this difference. It cuts especially sharply given last week’s release of the evidentiary brief from Special Counsel Jack Smith, a document required by the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, showing in detail how Trump knew he lost in 2020 but tried to stay in power with deceit, fraud and violence.
There are many more lies being told by Vance and Trump about this year’s election, energy production, the economy, crime, and even the response to Hurricane Helene, which bipartisan governors and local officials say are false and harmful. Their veritable firehose of falsehoods contracts with the relative probity of their Democratic opponents.
We can learn a great deal from all these lies.
For one, Vance’s dishonest brazenness about things we all know about shows marked disrespect toward voters.
Vance causes harm by stoking division and hatred to manipulate voters. But the untrue stories about immigrants, Vance said, are politically helpful.
Americans have long pointed to the importance of character in our leaders. With so much uncertainty and complexity in our world, character is predictive.
As for the young and ambitious Vance, now running with an elderly presidential running mate, if he won, he’d bring his flawed character to the White House and likely damage our republic.
