On CBS‘s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, August 11, 2024, J. D. Vance “brushed off concerns about former President Trump’s praise for … Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, arguing there is ‘nothing wrong’ with such remarks,” The Hill reported here.
Trump’s remarks included describing those dictators as “lovely individuals.” The context: Vance claimed “it makes him more effective diplomatically.” Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, but there are other ways to deal with thug rulers. Like parking an aircraft carrier where they can see it.
Nothing wrong with it? Yes, there is. Does this really need explanation? We have to deal with the Putins and Xis, but we don’t have to suck up to them. That signals weakness. So does tearing apart NATO, and abandoning Ukraine to Putin.
After making the rounds of the Sunday TV shows, Vance posted on social media (here), “Kamala Harris has done as many tough interviews as Tim Walz has battlefield deployments.”
Please. PUH-leeze. This from a REMF. (If you don’t know what that is, Google it. NSFW.) Very technically speaking, Vance was deployed to a battlefield, but he wasn’t in combat. He’s criticizing Walz for not being in a war? Cue laughing emoji.
Vance is still awful. Every time he opens his mouth, it’s like someone scraping their fingernails on a blackboard. Ann Coulter likes him, though (see story here).