J.D. Vance touted his working-class roots and promised to fight on behalf of America’s "forgotten communities" in his first public address since being selected as former president Donald Trump's running mate. The U.S. senator from Ohio capped off day three of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where the enthusiasm and lack of disorder stand in stark contrast to the Democratic Party's ongoing public meltdown. Republicans are united and optimistic, whereas Democrats can't credibly claim to know who will be on their party's ticket next month when they convene in Chicago.
The vice presidential nominee recounted his upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, one of many small towns across the country he said have been "cast aside and forgotten by America’s ruling class in Washington." Vance slammed President Joe Biden, who first came to Washington in 1973, for facilitating the decline of such communities by supporting free-trade deals that decimated America's manufacturing sector and hollowed out working-class communities in the Midwest, where despair and addiction thrived. Over the course of Biden's decades-long career in politics, Vance said, the "divide between the few, with their power and comfort in Washington, and the rest of us only widened."
Vance, a Marine veteran who enlisted after 9/11, represents a new generation of GOP politicians. At 39, he is the first member of the millennial generation nominated to a major party ticket, and the first vice presidential candidate with a beard since Charles W. Fairbanks in 1916. Whereas Trump's choice of Mike Pence to be his running mate was a nod to the Republican Party that existed before 2016, the selection of Vance is a symbol of the party's ongoing transformation in Trump's image.
The Yale Law graduate and former venture capitalist is an economic populist. On foreign policy, his instincts are isolationist, both potential sources of friction between a future Trump administration and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
"President Trump’s vision is simple," Vance said on Wednesday. "We won’t cater to Wall Street, we’ll commit to the working man." Vance promised to put "America first" at home and abroad, which meant "no more free rides to nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer."
Like Trump—but unlike many of his fellow Republicans—Vance has expressed skepticism of U.S. involvement in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. He referred on Wednesday to the "disastrous invasion of Iraq," which he counted among the many failures of America's ruling class. "From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the Financial Crisis to the Great Recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again."
Democrats, meanwhile, are in disarray. Several hours before Vance took the stage in Milwaukee, media outlets reported that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) met privately with Biden over the weekend and urged him to step down. Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), who is running for U.S. Senate and is a close ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), became the latest Democrat to say so publicly. CNN reported that Biden was "more receptive" to discussions over his future as the nominee and asked advisers if they "think Kamala [Harris] can win."
Hours after telling BET he would consider dropping out due to "some medical condition," Biden tested positive for Covid. The president said he was feeling "good," but he struggled to climb the short stairs up to Air Force One.
The Trump campaign on Wednesday declined to set a date for the vice presidential debate because it would be unfair to "whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate."