Donald Trump may be regretting his choice of running-mate and wondering “Why did I pick this guy?” according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Over the past few weeks since Trump announced his decision, the narrative that Sen. J.D. Vance is “weird” has gained traction, and Schumer speculated that may have the former president considering replacing him.
“Every day, it comes out Vance has done something more extreme, more weird, more erratic,” Schumer said. “Vance seems to be more weird and erratic than President Trump, and I’ll bet President Trump is sitting there, scratching his head, and wondering, ‘Why did I pick this guy?’”
The Democratic senator added, “The choice may be one of the best things [Trump] ever did for Democrats.”
It’s true that the news cycle around Vance has been, well, weird, and Democrats as well as celebrities opposed to Trump have pounced on that messaging.
Take, for example, a 2021 Tucker Carlson interview where Vance said that America was being influenced “by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too.” He added, “You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.”
Harris has step-children with her husband, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff. Later in 2021, Buttigieg and his husband Chasen welcomed twins, a daughter and son.
Jennifer Aniston clapped back at Vance, writing on Instagram, “I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States. All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day.”
“To put it in women-hating words you’d understand,” comedian Chelsea Handler quipped, “You’re being hysterical.”
In another strange move, Vance previously proposed the bizarre idea of giving all children a vote in America and handing “control over those votes to the parents of those children.” He has also floated the idea of a “federal response” to prohibit women living in red states like his home state of Ohio from traveling to obtain an abortion post-Roe. “I’m pretty sympathetic to that [idea],” he said. In 2022, Vance said he “would like abortion to be illegal nationally.”
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has played into the Vance is weird narrative by calling him a “creep” in a statement Friday with the headline: “J.D. Vance is a Creep (Who Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide).” In an email sent Friday, the Harris campaign wrote, “J.D. Vance is weird. Voters know it — Vance is the most unpopular VP pick in decades.” Also on Friday, per Politico, Harris campaign spokesperson Serafina Chitika stated that Vance “spent all week making headlines for his out-of-touch, weird ideas.”
It’s also odd how Vance, once a self-described “never Trumper,” has pivoted to becoming one of his most fervent supporters. While in public, Vance used to call Trump an “idiot” and “reprehensible.” In private, he reportedly likened him to Adolf Hitler. But Vance sought and secured Trump’s endorsement during his 2022 Senate race.
And then there’s the couch rumor. A viral tweet falsely claimed that Vance wrote in his book, Hillbilly Eligy, about masturbating using a latex glove between two sofa cushions. Although that allegation has been disproven (Vance never wrote anything like that in the book) the damage was already done in the form of memes and jokes that continue to propagate across the internet.
Will all of this lead Trump to dump his vice presidential nominee ahead of Ohio’s Aug. 7 ballot deadline? Schumer thinks it’s possible, although it’s worth pointing out that doing so would likely require Trump to at least tacitly admit he was wrong — something he rarely does.
“Now [Trump] has 10 days before the Ohio ballot is locked in,” Schumer said. “He has a choice: Does he keep Vance on the ticket, where he already has a whole lot of baggage — he’s probably going to be more baggage over the weeks because we’ll hear more things about him — or does he pick someone new? What’s his choice?”
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