JD Vance tried to do damage control in NC after pet-eating debacle. It didn’t work | Opinion
During a campaign appearance in Raleigh on Wednesday, Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance tried really hard to do some damage control.
Lately, Vance has found himself entwined in a mess of his own making. His debunked narrative about undocumented Haitian immigrants stealing and eating people’s pets has terrorized the city of Springfield, Ohio, where buildings and events have had to be evacuated or canceled due to bomb threats.
On Wednesday, there were moments where Vance almost seemed normal. He kept his composure, and he was at least more successful at staying on message than his running mate, former President Donald Trump, whose rallies have become meandering diatribes of grievances and blatant falsehoods. Vance’s speech was billed as an address about the economy, and he mostly stuck to that while also discussing issues like immigration and public safety. He came across as personable, too — at one point, someone in the crowd yelled “I love you!” and Vance returned the sentiment before quipping, “Don’t tell my wife.”
It’s much needed, as Vance’s baseless claims about pet-eating have spiraled out of control.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance said on CNN earlier this week. Vance tried to clarify that by saying that “creating stories” meant “creating the American media focusing on it.”
But Vance still showed signs of his usual self on Wednesday. Toward the end of his appearance, he seemed to defend his false statements. Vance refuted the “media and Kamala Harris fact check” when a reporter pointed out that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are there legally and asked how he planned to deport people who have legal status.
Vance replied that he didn’t care that the immigrants are here legally. He doesn’t agree with Harris’ decision to “wave the amnesty wand,” as he put it, so in his eyes, their status is not legal.
“I’m still going to call them illegal aliens,” Vance declared. “... The media is gaslighting us and lying to us about this!”
There are a couple of things wrong here. First, of course, is the fact that Vance is apparently just going to lie and call people “illegal” when he knows it’s not true. But it also suggests that while some Republicans make a fuss about illegal immigration, it’s not the legality they’re concerned with — it’s the fact that immigrants are coming here at all. Because even when they’re here legally, at least some Republicans, including Trump, say they’re “taking over” our country even when they’re following the law.
That wasn’t the only ridiculousness happening Wednesday. Recently, Vance has suggested that Democrats and their rhetoric are responsible for assassination attempts against Trump and urged everyone to “do a better job at trying to debate our differences without going into personal attacks.”
Vance didn’t exactly take his own advice Wednesday as he hammered the “disgraceful” actions that Harris has taken with regards to immigration, which apparently include granting protected status to people who cannot safely return to their own country.
“We’re not bad people for loving this country. You’re a bad person for doing this to the country in the first place!” Vance said.
It’s worth noting that both of these moments occurred while Vance was taking questions from reporters and speaking freely, as opposed to his earlier, prepared remarks. While his practiced speech still contained falsehoods — such as the claim that violent crime in the U.S. is increasing, while it’s actually going down — he avoided anything that would make headlines until it was over. Ironically, the whole point of taking reporter questions is to draw a contrast with Harris, who Republicans have repeatedly criticized for her lack of media interactions.
Damage control would have been a smart plan, if it had worked. North Carolina is one of the closest battleground states in the country, according to polling, and the J.D. Vance who has been in the news lately isn’t soothing many swing voters worried that a Trump ticket might be too extreme. As of today, Harris leads North Carolina by an average of 0.1 percentage points, so it matters.
But instead of damage control, Vance may have dealt the campaign another self-inflicted wound, with more blustering and truth-twisting that will almost certainly resurface in interviews and news stories later. It’s hard to imagine that’s what he came to North Carolina for.
