“Vance repeatedly downplayed the radicalism of Trump\u2019s agenda by saying things that were not strictly untrue but which conveyed a (beneficially) false impression of the ticket\u2019s positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He used this gambit most shamelessly when defending Trump\u2019s commitment to democracy. Confronted with his running mate\u2019s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election<\/a> \u2014 in part, by fomenting an insurrectionary riot at the US Capitol<\/a> \u2014 Vance declared that Trump told the protesters on January 6 to protest \u201cpeacefully,\u201d and that he \u201cpeacefully gave over power on January 20th as we have done for 250 years in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On January 6, 2021, Trump did call on his supporters to march \u201cpeacefully and patriotically\u201d to the Capitol. But also told<\/a> them to \u201cfight like hell. And if you don\u2019t fight like hell, you\u2019re not going to have a country anymore.\u201d And while the former president did eventually leave office of his own volition, he first attempted to coerce election officials<\/a> in multiple states <\/a>to help him retain power by nullifying results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, in defending Trump\u2019s proposal to put a 10 percent tariff on all foreign imports, Vance suggested that the policy was bipartisan common sense, observing that Joe Biden himself had preserved some of \u201cthe Trump tariffs that protected American manufacturing jobs.\u201d But this was virtually a non sequitur: Imposing tariffs on a select number of goods that one deems to be of strategic importance and imposing a 10 percent duty on all<\/em> imports, including agricultural products that the United States cannot possibly produce domestically \u2014 are dramatically different propositions. Vance\u2019s line is a bit like suggesting that it isn\u2019t controversial for the government to nationalize all industries because both parties support the existence of public schools and veterans hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, and most subtly, Vance muddied the waters on abortion by expressing empathy for his adversaries on the issue. The GOP vice presidential candidate said that a dear friend of his told him that she felt that she needed to have an abortion because carrying the pregnancy to term would have locked her into an abusive relationship. Vance said that he took from that conversation that Republicans needed to earn \u201cthe American people\u2019s trust back on this issue where they frankly just don\u2019t trust us. That\u2019s one of the things Donald Trump and I are endeavoring to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To an inattentive voter, this could make it sound as though Vance was calling for the party to regain the public\u2019s trust by rethinking its opposition to abortion rights when, in actuality, Vance was merely saying that Republicans should make life easier for the women whom they force to give birth \u2014 such as through public spending on child care, a policy Vance endorsed during the debate but which has scant support among other Republicans.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Vance also utilized the more straightforward and time-tested technique of making stuff up.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Finally, Vance attempted to steer the conversation away from policy proposals and toward various good things that happened while Trump was president and bad things that happened with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in power. Voters may be lukewarm on Trump\u2019s economic proposals, such as cutting corporate taxes, but many do remember his tenure nostalgically, due to the fact that his first three years in office saw relatively low unemployment and low inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vance sought to spotlight this fact by saying that \u201cDonald Trump delivered for the American people: rising wages, rising take-home pay, an economy that worked for normal Americans.\u201d And he asked rhetorically, \u201cWhen was the last time an American president didn\u2019t have a major conflict break out\u201d on their watch, before answering, \u201cThe four years Donald Trump was president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In reality, unemployment was already trending lower and wages were trending higher for years before Trump took office, and they did not dramatically accelerate upon his election<\/a>. Meanwhile, Trump ordered the assassination of a top Iranian official<\/a>, thereby nearly triggering another Middle Eastern conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is unclear why Kamala Harris bears responsibility for, say, the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine but Donald Trump does not bear any responsibility for the Covid-19 pandemic. Neither had direct agency over either of those events, and Harris was not even president when the former occurred.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n