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This is an adapted excerpt from MSNBC's special coverage of the 2024 Republican National Convention on July 15.
Donald Trump’s choice to tap Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate signals the ex-president isn’t trying to soften any edges ahead of November’s election.
When news of Vance’s place on the Republican ticket was announced Tuesday, I would wager that the only person more excited than the Ohio senator himself was Russian President Vladimir Putin. I’m sure they dropped balloons from the sky wherever Putin was. Vance has strongly opposed sending more aid to Ukraine and even said it was in America’s best interest for the country to cede some of its territory to the Russians.
Trump and Vance’s approach to foreign policy has made the Republican Party I knew during my time in the Senate almost unrecognizable. The Republicans I knew were all about making sure America was a beacon to democracies around the world. They would never want us to stand by and do nothing while a desperate thug rolls into another country and tries to change its borders by force.
There’s now a candidate for vice president of the United States who told women to stay in violent marriages and suggested that an abusive household is somehow better for children than divorce.
But it’s not just Vance’s foreign policy positions that should worry Americans; his views on domestic issues are just as terrifying. There’s now a candidate for vice president of the United States who told women to stay in violent marriages and suggested that an abusive household is somehow better for children than divorce. That’s not just bad advice but also bad politics. That kind of messaging won’t help Republicans get more votes in the suburbs of Philadelphia, or the suburbs of Milwaukee.
Instead of trying to soften the edges of the already extreme MAGA agenda, Trump picked someone who sharpens it – a flame thrower, a bombastic guy who will go out there and say whatever the ex-president would like him to. Trump picked Vance because, unlike his former vice president, Mike Pence, the Ohio senator has said he’d happily violate the Constitution to put Trump in power.
Vance says all the things Trump wants him to say, and says them with passion. The former president believes Vance will be loyal to him no matter what. Trump will never have a Pence problem with Vance and that’s why he got picked … even if Trump doesn’t like his facial hair.