'Regret': Why Rachel Maddow thinks Trump is now kicking himself over J.D. Vance pick
Donald Trump’s choice of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate just backfired with President Joe Biden’s shock announcement Sunday, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow argued.
The host said Vance was only picked because Trump thought shoring up conservative support was more necessary to his campaign than winning over undecided voters — because, she said, he saw running against Biden as an easy victory.
“He wanted him for governing, not campaigning,” she said.”
She added, “They picked J.D. Vance because they thought they had this election in the bag, and Joe Biden did this today, and now it is an absolutely different ball game.
“J.D. Vance and Donald Trump are going to lose in November and Donald Trump is going to regret picking J.D. Vance as his running mate.”
Biden announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the race after weeks of concern from high-profile Democrats about his cognitive ability. He endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris to take over.
Now that Trump could potentially have more of a fight on his hands, Vance’s far right-wing views will be more of a liability to Trump than he expected, Maddow said.
His extreme stance on issues such as abortion and no-fault divorce were held up as examples of believes that could now hurt the Republican campaign.
“Any Democrat who can talk about the kinds of issues where J.D. Vance has taken the kinds of stances … those are not 50/50 issues in this country. They are not 60/40. He is taking the kind of stances that single digits of Americans support,’ Maddow said.
“You do not need any type of Democrat in particular to prosecute a case against J.D. Vance. He is a real weirdo from a really, really narrow slice of the far right side of the ideological doctrine.
“They picked him because they didn't think he would have to be defending himself at all. Because he thought he didn't need to compete very hard to win, he picked J.D. Vance. He picked someone who's not going to help him at all.”