Since becoming Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance has become the bane of the corporate media, routinely appearing on liberal networks to spar with partisan journalists and dismantle the latest fake narratives about former President Donald Trump and his agenda. That pattern continued on Tuesday night following the debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC.
Just moments after both candidates made closing arguments, one reporter attempted to ensnare Vance in a “gotcha” question about the viral story of Haitian migrants allegedly eating wild geese and even dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. “On immigrants eating dogs and cats, it was mentioned by Trump on national television. Do you truly believe those claims?” she asked.
“Whether they were eating geese or dogs, is that really what we are going to hang our hats on?” Vance responded. “The problem is that this small town in Ohio has been flooded with 20,000 migrants thanks to Kamala Harris’s policies. Now people can’t afford basic goods, they can’t afford food, they can’t afford housing in their communities and their public safety has been completely destroyed. It’s a disgrace, and Donald Trump was right to call it out.”
“Kamala Harris, like so many other issues, she has no way to explain why she is going to be better as president than she has been as vice president,” Vance continued. “It’s her policies that caused the problem, she should have to answer for that.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins attempted a similar maneuver on the same issue, which similarly backfired on her as well.
“This town has been ravaged by 20,000 migrants coming in,” Vance said. “Healthcare costs are up, housing costs are up, communicable diseases like HIV and TB have skyrocketed in this small Ohio town. This is what Kamala Harris’s border policies have done. And I think it’s interesting, Kaitlan, that the media didn’t care about the carnage wrought by these policies until we turned it into a meme about cats. And that’s speaks to the media’s failure to care about what’s going on in these communities.”
ABC’s Jon Karl was next up to bat against Vance following the debate, opting to go after Trump for his “mean words” describing Harris. “I heard Donald Trump before this debate describe Kamala Harris as a ‘low IQ individual,’ ‘someone who doesn’t have the mental capacity to be president,’ [and] ‘really dumb,’” Karl said. “Is that what you saw on stage tonight?”
“What I saw was a lot of slogans,” Vance responded. “I think the American people are smart and Kamala Harris talks to them like they’re children. She repeats these ridiculous platitudes, where if you actually think about what she said it doesn’t make any sense. The American people don’t get fed on plans. She has failed as vice president, and the fundamental question is, do we want to give her a promotion? I think the answer has to be no.”
Vance’s response in all three cases was a masterclass in how to not take the corporate media’s bait. He recognized that the media only wants to talk about issues that they believe they can frame in a way that makes Donald Trump look bad. Instead of playing their game, Vance blew up the entire narrative by shifting the focus back to the issues that voters care most about – the economy, crime, open borders – rather than made-up liberal attack lines.
Vance’s performance following the debate was a continuation of his battles with the media since becoming the vice presidential nominee in July.
During a string of appearances on Sunday talk shows in early August, Vance effectively neutralized the “weird” label that Harris and running mate Tim Walz were attempting to brand on him. “They can accuse me of whatever they want to accuse me of,” Vance told Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union. “I’m doing this because I think that me being vice president will help improve people’s lives, so I accept their attacks, but I think that it is a little bit of projection.”
Vance then proceeded to lay out how it is Walz who signed a bill putting feminine hygiene products in boys bathrooms in Minnesota public schools, Walz (and Harris) who supports child drag shows and transgender surgeries for children, and Walz who has evinced a bizarre obsession with communist China. Since then, the “weird” attacks have noticeably died down.
For an indication of just how effective Vance has been, just look at the media’s frenzied reaction to his combative style. “JD Vance has become Trump’s human bulldozer,” declared The Bulwark. The New York Times, meanwhile, acknowledged that Vance’s “combative style confounds Democrats,” while Politico christened him as “Trump’s attack dog,” suggesting that his media appearances were an attempt to “address criticism he’s faced for his bumpy rollout.”
But by all accounts, it is the media that has had a bumpy time since Vance entered the fray.
There was plenty of handwringing among the Republican consultant class when Trump chose Vance as his running mate. Many wanted Trump to pick someone who “balanced him out” – in other words, a milquetoast establishment type who would supposedly bring back disaffected Republicans.
But Trump wisely recognized that what he needed was precisely the opposite. 2016 and 2020 were child’s play compared to 2024 in terms of the hoaxes and fake narratives that the corporate media-Democrat Party apparatus is rolling out against Trump. Vance is the perfect antidote to that. In addition to being highly intelligent and articulate, he understands the rigged game that the corporate media wants to play, and he refuses to be a participant in it.
Despite the declining viewership of legacy news networks, millions of Americans still tune in every day, including independent and on-the-fence voters. Vance’s ability to inject some truth into this programming is an enormous asset for Trump and the Republican Party.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. He previously served in the White House and the U.S. Senate. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
