The NPR Politics Podcast - JD Vance, Trump's VP Pick, Speaks On RNC Night Three

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

J.D. Vance is 39 years-old and has been in office as Ohio's junior U.S. senator for less than two years. He said in an interview that this is his first time attending the Republican National Convention. Wednesday night, he gave his debut speech as the GOP vice presidential nominee. Here's what delegates, and the candidate himself, had to say about Vance.This episode: White House correspondent Asma Khalid, campaign correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben, senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson, and producer Casey Morell.The podcast is produced by Jeongyoon Han, Casey Morell and Kelli Wessinger. Our intern is Bria Suggs. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi. Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at AutographCollection.com. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Asma Khalid, I cover the White House, and I'm with our fabulous podcast producer, Casey Morrell. And we're kicking off today's podcast a little differently.

We're here right now on the third day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. And we wanted to get a sense of why people are here at this convention. What excites them about Donald Trump being the Republican presidential nominee, and in particular, on the night when Ohio Senator J.D. Vance is set to speak, what they think about the vice presidential pick for the Republican ticket. So let's go talk to some folks. Joshua Bryant. I am 46 years old from Northwest Arkansas. I'm currently in the Arkansas Senate.

I just thought it was an opportunity to come see the events and how the RNC works as I want to further advance myself and become more involved in politics. I think the parties are further divided and you're able to see more of a contrast between the directions that each party is going. And so it excites me. I think most Americans, when they step back and look at it, they want the politics of the 90s versus the politics of today, which I believe, in my opinion, are more of a conservative slowdown, not as progressive, not as liberal as what the Democrat Party today wants it to be. And then the final thing I wanted to ask you about is about Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, the pick for VP.

He'll be speaking tonight. What do you make of him? Do you know much about him? You know, I don't. I know we heard rumors that he would be obviously one of the contenders. You know, I didn't know what to think of J.D. Vance. But interestingly enough, as a Marine, I was stationed where he was just half a decade earlier. So he's part of the 2nd Marine Air Wing. I was part of the 2nd Marine Air Wing. And so that gives me some confidence because I feel like I got a personal connection to his past.

Obviously, I'm going to support President Trump and his nominee. I've got trust that the system did their due diligence and made sure that these are somebody that can not only align with party values, but also unite the party to broaden our tent. Hello, I'm Lisa Ramey from West Virginia. I'm 61 years old. Everything excites me about the Republican Party. I've been a lifelong Republican, and I believe in the values and the principles of our platform. We believe in God. We believe in our family values. We believe that you should love our country. I don't believe illegal aliens should be allowed to come here.

If you want to come here, come here legally. But our country is in crisis right now. The crime rate's crazy. People hate each other. It's just ridiculous. And I hope this convention proved to me that we want to unify our party and welcome everyone into our party. We are thrilled about J.D. Vance being picked because we're from Appalachia,

and I never recall ever that a vice president or president ever came from our area. And his story is so relevant to so many people in our area. And I myself worked with special needs kids for 23 years, and I saw grandparents and great-grandparents raising their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It's a shame. It's not the way it's supposed to be. But drugs have ravaged our country, and the Mexican cartels, and Joe Biden has let it all happen even worse. You know, I believe in some aid to other countries,

but, you know, we need to support our allies. Ukraine is not really our ally. So Israel's our ally and always has been. And when you turn your back on Israel, you're turning your back on God. So that's just the way I was always brought up. Israel's God's chosen people. The Jews are God's chosen people. And you know, they need to be taken care of. They didn't ask to be assaulted. They didn't ask for people to come in and steal their women and children out of their homes. So I know in West Virginia, if that would have happened, it would have been a war. So right there in my own backyard.

You're not stealing somebody's child or their sister or their brother or their grandma and torturing people without getting some repercussions. So I just believe people need to love each other more and more. I need to read the Bible or whatever faith you belong to and figure out that, you know, we're all in this world together, struggling every day, trying to make it. Be kind to people, you know, give the kindness and kindness will come back to you. I believe Donald Trump loves our country. I believe I know he loves our veterans. I know he loves our military.

I think he loves our veterans. I know he loves our military. I think he loves me. To be honest, I think he truly cares about the American people. Joe and Kamala, I get no warm, fuzzy feelings at all from those two. My name is Gulrez Khan. Everybody calls me Gus. I'm from the great city of Lubbock, Texas, and one of the delegates from Texas. I'm 43 years old, Indian-American immigrant, came to the United States when I was 20, blessed to be an American.

My conservative values align more with the Republican values. Coming from India... Yeah, what do you mean conservative values? Well, coming from India, culturally, I'm pro-life. India has 1.4 billion people. And secondly, you know, I support... See, our foundational values in America are freedom and liberty and free market enterprise structure,

capitalistic structure. It's not the perfect model, but it's an optimal model. I didn't come here for socialism or communism. And out of respect, you know, the perfect model, but it's an optimal model. I didn't come here for socialism or communism. And I don't want to disrespect any gender thing, but I did not come here to support the LGBTQ rights, to be very honest. Culturally, we don't do that. So my values resonate more with the Republican Party, which happen to be our foundational values as well. I'm curious, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, he's getting the vice presidential nomination tonight.

What do you know about him? What do you like about him? What do you not like about him? Well, it's a good choice. And, you know, he's a former Marine. He served our country. He's a graduate of Yale Law School. Relatively, he's a young candidate to be vice president.

But we, as Republicans, we have been following his political journey. And I believe, along with President Trump, he'll take our country to the next heights. Aloha, I'm Donna Van Osdo. I'm a kupuna, which is senior in Hawaii. I'm 71 years old. Well, I've been involved with the Hawaii Republican Party since I became a Republican back in 2016. I'm just so thrilled to be here. To see President

Trump in person is a huge honor. You said that you've been involved with the Republican Party since you became a Republican in 2016. So were you not always a Republican? No, I was a hardcore Democrat, and JFK was my childhood hero, like many of my generation. But my husband and I are devout traditional Catholics. So we made a heartfelt choice to become conservatives because of the abortion issue. President Biden is a Catholic

and I'm very disappointed at his pro-abortion stance. I love the conservativeness of Republicans. We want our country to continue to have its constitutional freedoms with the Second Amendment rights. You know, a lot of states are enacting gun laws that I think are too stringent. You know, one of the things I love about political conventions is the fashion. It is a scene like you do not see anywhere else. We met a woman who was wearing a dress draped with the American flag. Lots of people showing off their state pride.

A woman who had earrings in the shape of her home state of West Virginia. A man who had the Texas state flag on his shirt. You know, everybody's here to show their support for the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump. And there's a lot of paraphernalia to show that off. We met a teenage girl that was wearing a hat that said, promises made, promises kept. It is clear there is excitement and energy

and frankly, a lot of confidence at this Republican convention. So there you have it. some of the voices that we met from around the country who are here in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention. And one thing that stood out to me is that I didn't hear as much about abortion as we've heard in years past. We heard quite a bit about concerns about illegal immigration, safety, drug use, the economy, high prices, and a lot of enthusiasm for Donald Trump as the nominee of this Republican Party. They feel like he was not able to finish the job. And they're excited about what he could do with a second term in the Oval Office.

All right, let's take a quick break. And when we get back, we'll have analysis from the night. And we get back, we'll have analysis from the night. And we're back. And I'm joined now by Mara Liason and Danielle Kurtzleben. It is good to have you both with us. Good to be here. Yeah. Let's talk about the marquee speech of the night. And that was from GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance. Danielle, what did you make of this introduction we all heard from the senator from Ohio? Well, introduction is the key word there, I think. I mean, a lot of people, you know, we who cover politics for a living and a lot of people who follow politics closely, very much know a lot about J.D. Vance already. For example, about the book Hillbilly Elegy,

about his 180 that he has done on Trump, how he used to attack Trump very heavily and now is his running mate. We all know that. But there's a lot of people in the Republican Party who don't know him. I have asked a lot of Trump voters in the last few months at his rallies, who would you like him to pick?

And I'll be honest, almost no one told me J.D. Vance. And I talked to a woman tonight who said, I just don't know too much about him. I bet he's OK. So he had a lot of people like that who were ready to accept him, but just didn't know much. So he brought out his bio. He attacked Joe Biden. And he really delivered this message about, I grew up white working class. I am fighting for the common person. My fellow Americans here in this stage and watching at home, this moment is not about me,

it's about all of us, and it's about who we're fighting for. It's about the auto worker in Michigan wondering why out-of-touch politicians are destroying their jobs. It's about the factory worker in Wisconsin who makes things with their hands and is proud of American craftsmanship. Mara, let's talk more about that message, because this is a message we haven't historically heard from Republicans on stages here at the convention. He was, I would say, at moments rather clearly hostile, at least in terms of his rhetoric towards Wall Street and towards big business corporations. He talked a lot about being this candidate for the working class. And I would say also, he made it clear that he was for the working man. And he also made it clear

that he is a lot younger than the man on the other side. Yes, he had this rhetorical device where he said, when I was in first grade, Joe Biden supported NAFTA. When I was in third grade, Joe Biden supported letting China into the WTO. When I was in fifth grade, Joe Biden supported NAFTA. When I was in third grade, Joe Biden supported letting China into the WTO. When I was in fifth grade, Joe Biden supported the invasion of Iraq. Of course, all those things were also supported by Republicans. Joe Biden was kind of the stand-in for these things. Now, look, Republicans have appealed to working class voters for decades. That's not new. What's new is the criticism of Wall Street, the open criticism of Wall Street and big corporations and globalism. It was still striking, though, to me to hear from him on stage, because I've been thinking for much of my career covering politics, I haven't seen

a Republican like him that really came from the sort of working class background that J.D. Vance did. It reminded me more, and I was curious to ask you about Bill Clinton, especially because he walked off to that song, Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. No, there have been many Republicans who came from nowhere. Bob Dole. I mean, there are many men. That's not completely new. I think that the rhetorical shift that we're going to be not for free trade and free markets, and we want big government, but to work for our interests. I think that's something new. What I also thought was interesting that was missing, and this is something Danielle pointed out, no talk about Ukraine. He is the most anti-funding for Ukraine senator in the United States Senate. And he did talk about how

we will only send our boys to fight foreign wars when we must. Well, there are no American soldiers fighting in Ukraine. And also there was no talk about election denial. He is an election denier. He said that if he had been asked to certify the results of the 2020 election, he wouldn't have done that. This was a speech designed to be as warm and fuzzy as he could make it in a party with a running mate who is so not warm and fuzzy. And J.D. Vance at various times, including just days ago, was very not warm and fuzzy. He blamed after that shooting.

He blamed Joe Biden's rhetoric for that shooting. And we will see that firebrand angry J.D. Vance come out again. So before we wrap up today's show, I do want to touch on the fact that it seems like the political fortunes of Republicans and Democrats in this moment are just wildly different. I mean, here we are at the Republican convention. Republicans are celebrating. In fact, they're celebrating rather confidently, like they've already won the game, it seems like. And Democrats, on the other hand, well, just today we got news that President Biden tested positive from COVID. He's facing increasing public pressure to drop out of the race. Public and private pressure, which is even more important because he's now had

conversations with Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi. Does it feel like the political fortunes are genuinely different? Or are Republicans overconfident, you feel, in this moment? Well, first of all, it's hard to know if they're overconfident right now. They have every reason to be confident. The polls show that Trump's lead, which was always small, is getting bigger. And they feel very, very confident. What's happening is not that Trump has been gaining support.

It's that Biden is losing support. Trump has really been at his ceiling the whole time. Remember, he got 46% of the vote in 2016 and he won. He got 46% of the vote in 2020 and he lost. And that's about where he is. I think if you're a Republican voter right now, you might well look at what's going on. And even if you don't care about the polls, you might not be super, you might not think like, well, because of X, Y, Z, we're going to win. But you might just look at the recent events between immunity, Trump surviving an assassination attempt, Biden's own

party turning on him. And you might just think to yourself, how could we lose? You know, it's just, it's just so good for them. Well, they certainly think they have it in the bag. There's just no doubt about it. All right. Well, on that note, let's wrap up today's show. We will be back in your feeds late again tomorrow for the final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention. And make sure to subscribe to the show if you haven't to get that episode and the rest of the coverage delivered directly to your phone. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the White House. I'm Danielle Kurtzleben. I cover the campaign. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent. And thank you all, as always, for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.