Despite a television performance peppered with lies from start to finish, political pundits named JD Vance “the winner” because he was polished, professional, cordial (here, here, here, here, not exhaustive). That, my friends, is BS.
It looks like independent and “other party” voters agreed:
Here’s historian Heather Cox Richardson on the lies and Donald Trump’s mental state:
Vance lied throughout the debate and has lied throughout this campaign, and in that, he is following the MAGA Republicans and Trump, who has become entirely untethered from reality. Aaron Rupar, who watches Trump’s rallies, and Noah Berlatsky wrote in Public Notice that Trump’s growing mental incapacity was obvious yesterday, as in two rallies he made a “wide-ranging journey through conspiracy theories, hatred, and nonsense.” He “seems ever more adrift in his own fog of hate and ego,” Rupar and Berlatsky wrote, “He mixes up world leaders, confuses countries, garbles pronouns, loses track of his nonsense talking points.”
Let’s look at four public policy issues where what Vance said was 180º from prior remarks, either his or Trump’s, as well as where he’s just blowing smoke (another form of BS)?
Abortion
Moderator: In the past, you have supported a Federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks. In fact, you said if someone can’t support legislation like that, quote, you are making the United States the most barbaric pro-abortion regime anywhere in the entire world. My question is, why have you changed your position?
Vance on Tuesday night: “I never supported a national ban. I did during, when I was running for Senate in 2022, talk about setting some minimum national standard.”
According to Vanity Fair (and many other truth-seekers):
In 2022, while running for Senate in Ohio, Vance said on a podcast, “I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally.”
Pray tell how we get “abortion to be illegal nationally” without it being a ban? A ban what being illegal MEANS.
Climate change (crisis)
Moderator: “[Gov. Walz] mentioned that President Trump has called climate change a hoax. Do you agree?”
Vance on Tuesday night: “Look, what the president has said is that if the Democrats, in particular Kamala Harris and her leadership, if they really believe that climate change is serious, what they would be doing is more manufacturing and more energy production in the United States of America, and that’s not what they’re doing.”
Let’s take a look at what Trump has said about climate change, shall we?
NPR: “Former President Trump has, in fact, repeatedly called climate change a hoax and made light of its effects.”
As far as manufacturing jobs, just review this chart from FactCheck:
And energy production:
Health Care
Moderator: One of the top problems facing Americans is the high cost of health care. Senator Vance, at the last Presidential debate, former President Trump was asked about replacing the Affordable Care act. In response, he said, I have concepts of a plan. Since then, Senator, you’ve talked about changing how chronically ill Americans get health insurance. Can you explain how that would work? And can you guarantee that Americans with pre-existing conditions won’t pay more? I’ll give you two minutes.
Vance on Tuesday night: “I think you can make a really good argument that [Trump] salvaged Obamacare, which was doing disastrously until Donald Trump came about. … Donald Trump could have destroyed the program — instead, he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.”
This may be the largest dump of BS delivered Tuesday night.
The Trump administration reduced resources for advertising and online resources for signing up for ACA programs and reduced the annual enrollment program. His administration also approved “demonstration waivers” from states that imposed work requirements on patients who sought Medicaid from the ACA’s expansion.
Trump most famously backed efforts in 2017 by Republicans in Congress to dismantle the ACA, which was defeated in the 11th hour by Republican Sen. John McCain’s vote against it. The proposal would have eliminated the ACA’s individual and employer mandate and other provisions.
“3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!” Trump tweeted after the bill died in the Senate.
In December 2019, Trump issued an executive order requiring all hospitals to make public their standard charges, payer-specific negotiated charges, the amount the hospital is willing to accept in cash and the minimum and maximum negotiated charges, but critics said the figures were often inconsistent and confusing and made it difficult to use the figures for what they were intended for.
Trump kept pushing efforts to repeal the ACA and in 2020 submitted a brief to the Supreme Court arguing that the ACA was unconstitutional due to the removal of the individual mandate. Texas and 17 GOP-led states sued the federal government and brought the case to the high court.
In 2021, the court ruled 7-2 that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.
As far as Vance’s earlier comments about a two-tiered system which seeded the question, Vance endorsed “high risk” and “low risk” pools. Just like before the Affordable Care Act.
He ducked it in Tuesday’s television event.
Immigration
Moderator: Senator Vance, your campaign is pledging to carry out the largest mass deportation plan in American history and to use the U.S. military to do so. Could you be more specific about exactly how this will work? For example, would you deport parents who have entered the U.S. illegally and separate them from any of their children who were born on U.S. soil?
Vance on Tuesday night: “So we’ve got 20, 25 million illegal aliens who are here in the country. What do we do with them? I think the first thing that we do is we start with the criminal migrants. About a million of those people have committed some form of crime in addition to crossing the border illegally. I think you start with deportations on those folks, and then I think you make it harder for illegal aliens to undercut the wages of American workers.”
No one knows exactly how many undocumented immigrants live in the U.S.
Pew Research reported in June that “the number of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. in 2022 [11.0 million] was still below the peak of 12.2 million in 2007 (emphasis added).”
This week, the Austin Statesman published a detailed report of estimates by different organizations.
“The several organizations that have long issued authoritative data based on rigorous methodologies estimate that the unauthorized population is more in the 11 million range,” said Michelle Mittelstadt, communications director for the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
Trump claims he’s going to deport 15-20 million undocumented immigrants.
Vance toned that down to a million “criminals.” But that number is as wishy-washy as their exaggerated claim about the number of undocumented immigrants.
What about that Trump-Vance claim that undocumented immigrants take (Black) American jobs?
NPR:
Over the last 12 months, for example, the foreign-born workforce has grown by nearly 1.5 million people while the native-born workforce has shrunk by 768,000 people — mostly due to retirements, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Were it not for the influx of immigrant workers, the U.S. economy would likely be shrinking.
They do not appear to be displacing native-born workers.
The share of working-age men who were in the workforce in August was 89.5% — higher than all but one month during the Trump administration. The share of working-age women who were in the workforce last month was the highest ever — 78.4%.
Still think Vance “won”?
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The stakes in November have never been more urgent, nor the choices more extreme.
Remember: you are not voting for one person. You are voting for a team.
I’m voting for Team America not Team Russia-Hungary-North Korea.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com