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18 hours ago
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It was James David Vance’s pitch to his boss: don’t forget me!
The vice-president was nowhere to be seen last weekend when US special forces swept into Venezuela and snatched its leader, Nicolás Maduro. Instead Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and a potential rival to Vance in the 2028 presidential election, grabbed all the Maga glory.
On Thursday, JD Vance decided to strike back. Marco might have Delta Force, a giant armada and 150 bombers, fighter jets and reconnaissance planes but the VP had a verbal machinegun and he was aiming it directly at the media.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, the bearded Vance made himself the face of the administration’s response to Wednesday’s fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) officer in Minneapolis.
Vance insisted that Good had tried ram the ICE officer with her car and picked on a CNN headline that said “Outrage after ICE officer kills US citizen in Minneapolis” as typical of misleading coverage in the “corporate media” (a sinister phrase to contrast with the nation’s noble bloggers and influencers).
Wearing a Trumpy uniform of blue suit, white shirt and red tie, Vance fulminated: “This was an attack on law and order. This was an attack on the American people. The way that the media by and large has reported this story has been an absolute disgrace and it puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day.”
No matter that videos of the incident suggest that Good was driving away. No matter that there is zero evidence she was a “domestic terrorist”. No matter that, in times past, officials would have sought to cool the temperature and declined to comment or on prejudge an active investigation.
Vance was just warming up for the most ferocious media-bashing invective since press secretary Sean Spicer – equally eager to impress the boss – went ballistic at anyone who failed to report that Trump’s first inauguration drew the biggest crowd of all time.
Vance had a captive audience of masochistic reporters crammed into the briefing room taking punches in the mouth then begging for his attention anyway. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt watched approvingly from the sidelines, admiring the similarly youthful Vance’s knack for slick, audacious propaganda that matches her own.
The 41-year-old claimed without evidence, for example, that Good was part of a “broader leftwing network” that has been working tirelessly and using “domestic terror techniques” to stop Trump enforcing immigration laws.
Gazing around the room, Vance snarled: “Everybody who’s been repeating the lie that this is some innocent woman who was out for a drive in Minneapolis when a law enforcement officer shot at her: you should be ashamed of yourselves, every single one of you.”
A reporter asked who Vance believes is behind this broader leftwing network. “Well, it’s one of the things we’re going to have to figure out,” he admitted before asserting: “There’s an entire network – and, frankly, some of the media are participating in it - that is trying to incite violence against our law enforcement officers. It’s ridiculous. It’s preposterous. And part of our investigatory work is getting to the bottom of it.”
One reporter wanted to know how being part of this supposed leftwing network justified being shot? Vance said it did not then picked another fight: “I’m sorry guys, what’s going on here? You guys are meant to report the truth. How have you let yourself become agents of propaganda of a radical fringe that’s making it harder for us to enforce our laws?
“You just asked me a question that presumed that the reason why this woman died is because she was engaged in legitimate protest. She tried to run somebody over with her car! And the guy defended himself when that happened.”
The reporter’s cry of “the investigation is still ongoing!” went unheeded.
A few minutes later, Vance growled: “The reporting over this has been one of the biggest scandals I’ve ever seen in media. I’ve never seen a case so misrepresented and misreported when you have a guy who is defending himself and is now being treated as some sort of federal assassin by so many of the people in this room.”
Vance also faced questions about the War Powers Act, Venezuela – reports that he was kept out of the planning were “false” – and the security of Greenland, which he urged European friends to take more seriously.
But as he took his leave, he couldn’t resist one more swipe at the fake news fiends: “It’s really irresponsible for you guys to go out there and imply or tell the American people that a guy who defended himself from being rammed by an automobile is guilty of murder. Be a little bit more careful. We’re going to talk about toning down the temperature, which I know the president wants to do and I certainly want to do.”
This would be the same president who responded to Good’s death within hours by posting on social media that she was “very disorderly” and accusing her of “violently, willfully, and viciously” running over the ICE officer. And when George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis five years ago, Trump responded to protests outside the White House with rubber bullets and teargas.
But if Thursday’s briefing was Vance’s first audition to succeed the president, his allies will be pleased and millions of Americans will be terrified. The VP offered a younger, darker version of Trump with fewer rough edges and even more menace towards the media and the left. Rubio might have to kidnap a few more foreign leaders if he wants to catch up.
