During this week’s Sunday show circuit, the media used a different tactic to smear former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), his vice presidential running mate: Using white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes.
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During appearances on ABC News’ “This Week” and CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Vance was asked not only about Fuentes’ racist comments about Vance’s wife, Usha, but also about the infamous dinner Trump had with the white nationalist at Mar-a-Lago.
While speaking with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, the host brought up Fuentes’ remarks about Usha Vance: “What kind of man marries somebody named ‘Usha,’” Fuentes had said during a livestream. “Clearly, he doesn’t value his racial identity.”
Karl referred to the comments as “racist garbage,” a statement with which Vance agreed.
“But this is also a guy that dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago during this campaign,” Karl said.
Vance replied, saying Trump “doesn’t know anything about” Fuentes” and “doesn’t care for” him.
“But yeah, look, my attitude to these people attacking my wife is, she’s beautiful, she’s smart. What man marries Usha? A very smart man and a very lucky man, importantly. And my view is, look, if these guys want to attack me or attack my views, my policy views, my personality, come after me. But don’t attack my wife. She’s out of your league.”
Karl pressed the “Dinnergate” nontroversy, claiming Trump “hasn’t given a full-throated denouncement of this guy who said that terrible stuff.”
The senator responded, defending the former president. “President Trump has issued plenty of condemnations on this. The one thing that I like about Donald Trump, Jon, is that he actually will talk to anybody. But just because you talk to somebody doesn’t mean you endorse their views,” he said.
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Vance went harder at Fuentes during his interview with CBS News. Host Margaret Brennan also brought up the white nationalist’s racist comments about his wife. “Does this have any room in your movement, in the MAGA movement?” she asked.
“Of course, it doesn’t have any room in the MAGA movement,” Vance replied.
“And of course — and of course Donald Trump has criticized this person. Look, I think the guy’s a total loser. Certainly, I disavow him. But if you ask me what I care more about, is it a person attacking me personally, or is it government policy that discriminates based on race? That’s what I really worry about.”
Vance added: “Look, a lot of losers are going to attack me and attack my family. I think the proper response to them is to ignore them. Don’t feed the trolls, and they largely go away.”
Vance’s handling of these questions was spot on. The only improvement would have been to mention that Trump didn’t invite Fuentes to dinner – he had invited Kanye West, who brought Fuentes along with him. Moreover, Trump said he didn’t even know who Fuentes is, which would make sense because Fuentes is merely a fringe element on the right.
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The fact that media figures sought to dredge up this old, boring history seems to indicate a level of desperation. While Vice President Kamala Harris has received a significant bump in the polls, everyone knows the honeymoon phase is almost over, and Trump still has a favorable chance of winning a second term in the White House. It can be expected that, now that they have a new candidate, the media will resume focusing their fire on the Trump/Vance campaign.