Key Takeaways as J.D. Vance Accepts Nomination to be Trump’s Vice President
Breaking news Introducing himself to the nation in a prime-time convention speech, Donald Trump’s choice for vice president condemned Joe Biden’s policies and delivered a hopeful message to working-class Americans.
Todaya latest news is Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives to speak on third day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance delivered his first speech as Donald Trump’s running mate, introducing himself to America and officially accepting the party’s nomination during Day Three of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Addressing an adoring audience that frequently interrupted his remarks with applause and supportive chants, Vance condemned President Joe Biden’s policies and delivered a hopeful message to working-class Americans as Trump looked on approvingly.todays
“I pledge to every American, no matter your party, I will give you everything I have to serve you and to make this country a place where every dream you have for yourself, your family and your country will be possible once again,” Vance said. “And I promise you one more thing to the people of Middletown, Ohio and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio and every corner of our nation. I promise you this, I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.”
A former Marine and Yale Law School graduate who was elected to the Senate from Ohio in 2022, Vance rose to national prominence as the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a memoir that showcased the challenges of growing up in the Rust Belt. He was introduced by his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance.
Vance’s speech capped off the third day of the convention, which runs through Thursday. Each day of the event features a variation on the theme of Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Wednesday’s theme was “Make America Strong Once Again” and focused on foreign policy, the southern border and national security.
The official session featured more than 30 speakers, including Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., and Kai Trump, granddaughter of the former president.
The RNC’s master calendar contains a full list of events.
Here are some key takeaways from Vance’s speech:
Vance Leaned Heavily Into His Working-Class Biography
Perhaps more than anything, Vance’s job was to communicate his story to a national audience who might not know him well. And his biography was the backbone of his remarks. Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a place that he said was “cast aside and forgotten” by the political elite. He not only recounted his hardscrabble upbringing but he punctuated his experience with notable policy priorities from Biden’s decades of political service, suggesting that the Democratic president was a “career politician” who had, in fact, done little to help the working class.
He said programs that Biden endorsed over decades in the Senate, like the North American Free Trade Agreement in the 1990s, sent working class opportunities to Mexico, while trade deals benefited China but “destroyed” manufacturing jobs.
The comments evoked the broader play Trump and the GOP are making for blue-collar voters.
“Thanks to these policies that Biden and other out of touch politicians in Washington gave us, our country was flooded with cheap Chinese goods, with cheap foreign labor, and in the decades to come, deadly Chinese fentanyl,” he said. “Joe Biden screwed up, and my community paid the price.”
If elected, Vance said the next Trump administration will stop importing foreign labor and will stop buying energy from “countries that hate us.”
“We’re going to build factories again, put people to work making real products for American families made with the hands of American workers,” he said.
Vance Stuck With the Party Message of Unity
Today’s Headlines are Echoing Trump’s newfound commitment to unity, Vance passed over obvious lines of attack and focused on messaging with a more mainstream appeal. That included rallying around Trump for getting back on his feet immediately after an assassination attempt during a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania, pumping his fist in the air and saying “fight” – which Vance characterized as a call to fight for America.
“Even in his most perilous moment, we were on his mind,” Vance said. “His instinct was for us, for our country, to call us to something higher, to something greater, to once again be citizens who ask what our country needs of us.”
Shortly after Trump was shot, Vance said on social media that Biden and his rhetoric were to blame for the attempt on the former president’s life. But during his speech, Vance dialed back the accusation.
He did, however, put some blame on the media.
“They said he was a tyrant. They said he must be stopped at all costs. But how did he respond? He called for national unity, for national calm, literally right after an assassin nearly took his life, he remembered the victims of the terrible attack,” he said. “And then President Trump flew to Milwaukee and got back to work.”
He added that some disagreement is necessary, especially for people committed to free speech and an open exchange of ideas.
“I think our disagreements make us stronger. That’s what I’ve learned in my time in the United States Senate, where sometimes I persuade my colleagues, and sometimes they persuade me,” he said. “And my message to my fellow Americans, those watching from across the country, is, shouldn’t we be governed by a party that is unafraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution?”
What He Didn’t Say
Like many of the former president’s closest allies, Vance was once a staunch critic – a topic he didn’t broach or apologize for in his remarks.
In a 2016 private message, Vance wondered if Trump was “America’s Hitler.” During an interview while promoting his book the same year, Vance called himself a “Never Trump guy” and said that he “never liked” Trump. He told NPR that he couldn’t “stomach” Trump and wrote an op-ed for The New York Times, “Mr. Trump Is Unfit For Our Nation’s Highest Office.”
But since launching his political career, Vance has quickly become among Trump’s most loyal and vocal supporters and has established himself – in the less than two years he’s served in the Senate – as one of its most ardent MAGA supporters.
While the brunt of his remarks were – understandably – biographical, Vance didn’t spend a lot of time litigating culture war issues like gender and race that have roiled education and policing and other aspects of American life in recent years, despite their popularity with the conservative base. Unsurprisingly, Trump’s last vice president was not mentioned – nor was election fraud or Vance’s insistence that he would have done for Trump what Mike Pence would not do on Jan. 6.
He also laid off international issues that have proved a little more thorny for Trump. Aside from a passing mention of China, he largely steered clear of Russia, Israel, Ukraine, and North Korea.
Trump has a well-documented skepticism of NATO and what he perceives to be an unfair amount of financial burden on the U.S. Vance echoed those sentiments Wednesday night, without giving insight to whether they plan to stay with the alliance if elected.
“Together we will make sure our allies share in the burden of securing world peace,” he said. No more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer. Together we will send our kids to war only when we must.”
Leave a Reply