HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ā Donald Trump is used to defending himself. But this week, the Republican presidential nominee has been put in the rare position of having to defend someone else ā his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
When Vance was first introduced at the Republican National Convention last month, many GOP officials said they . Since then, the void has been filled with multiple reports of controversial statements ā especially that Vice President Kamala Harris and other so-called āchildless cat ladiesā want to make the country miserable ā that have made his rollout among the most turbulent in recent history.
āIām just speaking for myself. And I think Iām speaking for him, too,ā Trump said during a contentious interview Wednesday at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago. āMy interpretation is heās strongly family-oriented. But that doesnāt mean that if you donāt have a family, thereās something wrong with that.ā
Conservative commentators, Republican strategists and GOP elected officials on Capitol Hill publicly and privately agree that Vanceās introduction to America has not gone well, with Democrats highlighting and a suggestion that parents should have more of a vote than adults without children. Harris and her allies have started calling both Vance and Trump āweird,ā .
Seventeen days later, Trump and his allies have yet to quiet criticism from within their own party.
āI think if he was thinking two years ago or three years ago, āI might be on a presidential ticket in a couple of years,ā he might have chosen different words,ā North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, a longtime Trump ally, said Wednesday. Cramer also suggested that Vance could apologize for his comments about childless Americans, saying, āIf he feels the need to apologize, people are very forgiving.ā
The Trump campaign stands by Vance
Vance has not apologized. And a senior Trump adviser said Tuesday there has been āzero conversationā about replacing Vance as his running mate.
Soon, the adviser predicted, voters would shift their attention away from Vance and toward Harrisā choice for vice president on the Democratic ticket, which is expected in the coming days. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal campaign strategy.
Vance, a 39-year-old Republican senator, has held office for less than 18 months but as a thought leader in the āMake America Great Againā movement.
The first-term Ohio senator was not the most popular choice of many Republicans on Capitol Hill, especially compared to more experienced candidates such as Sens. Tim Scott and Marco Rubio. Some believe that the pick came during as Trumpās team was predicting a blowout victory against a diminished President Joe Biden.
But the presidential contest changed profoundly once . And now, Trumpās allies acknowledge that his victory in November is .
Twice in the last century, vice presidential nominees were replaced after being announced. But it hasnāt happened since George McGovern dropped Missouri Sen. Tom Eagleton in 1972 after it was revealed Eagleton had received electroshock therapy for a mental health issue.
More recently, Arizona Sen. John McCainās selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin helped sink his 2008 campaign.
There is a sense that things would need to get much worse before Vance would become a serious political liability for Trump, who could theoretically replace him ā a possibility that Democrats have been eager to promote in recent days.
āThis is a short-term bump in the road,ā Republican pollster Neil Newhouse said.
Trump himself addressed the fallout on Wednesday in Chicago during an interview in which he .
āThis is well-documented, historically, the vice president in terms of the election does not have any impact, virtually no impact,ā Trump said when asked about Vance. āYou can have a vice president that is outstanding in every way, and I think JD is, I think all of them would have been, but youāre not voting that way. Youāre voting for the president. Youāre voting for me.ā
Trump's supporters disagree with Vance but aren't calling for a change
Attendees at Trumpās Wednesday rally in swing-state Pennsylvania dismissed the idea that Trump should dump Vance, even though they disagreed with his previous suggestion that parents should have more voting power than childless adults.
āTrump should stick with the people heās picked,ā said Jeff Miller, 53, who has five kids, all grown.
Kenneth āNemoā Niemann said Vance has an āappealingā personal story that makes him a good addition to the ticket and noted that no one agrees with someone else all the time anyway. āI donāt agree 100% with what Trump says,ā Niemann said.
And at Vance's Wednesday night rally in Arizona, another closely contested state, Rachael Jensen, a 42-year-old mother of six, said she appreciates that what she called the āWashington establishmentā doesnāt appear to like him.
Jensen said she didnāt think that parents should have more voting power than people without children.
āI believe it should be one citizen, one vote, regardless if you have 12 children or no children,ā Jensen said.
Meanwhile, Republican senators on Capitol Hill were peppered with a new round of questions about Vance.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said of Vance that āheās going to take a few hits early on and heās going to get his traction.ā
āOne of you guys once told me that as soon as somebody is announced for office, theyāll have some combination of a colonoscopy and a CT scan. And I think heās seeing that right now,ā Cassidy told reporters.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., was asked about Vance as he was getting into one of the Capitolās elevators.
āI mean, itās a campaign. People are going to twist what you say,ā said the Louisiana Republican.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., who was standing in the elevator with Kennedy, shot back, āTheyāre not twisting it. Theyāre quoting him.ā
āPolitics is a full-contact sport,ā Kennedy responded. The elevator door then closed.
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Peoples reported from New York. Groves reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Kevin Freking in Washington and Gabriel Sandoval in Glendale, Arizona, contributed to this report.
Steve Peoples, Stephen Groves And Marc Levy, The Associated Press
