Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Ahead of his first and likely only national debate of the presidential cycle, JD Vance prepared for the event at his home in Cincinnati and virtually on Zoom. He recruited Republican Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota to play his opponent in mock sessions. And he brought in Donald Trump\u2019s campaign strategist Jason Miller and his own wife, Usha, to help, people familiar with the debate said.<\/p>\n
But in his words, he doesn\u2019t need to get ready.<\/p>\n
“We have well developed views on public policy so we don’t have to prepare that much,\u201d Vance said in a Teamsters press call on Wednesday morning. “We feel a lot more confident and frankly, you don’t have to prepare if you don\u2019t have to hide what you say.\u201d<\/p>\n
His statement was in many ways exactly why Republicans \u2014 and especially Trump \u2014 continue to support him: He\u2019s pithy, plainspoken and gets spirited with the media. And unlike Trump, he stays relentlessly on message and is known as an agile debater.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be the first time a lot of Americans see him, and I think they’re going to be very impressed with him, especially answering questions in that format,\u201d said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a close ally to Vance who was also in the running to be Trump\u2019s running mate. \u201cI mean, he’s been answering the questions he’s going to get asked at that debate now for years, certainly in his whole time in the Senate and as a public figure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vance is only in his second campaign, after his successful run for Ohio Senate in 2022. But the Yale Law School alumni and author of “Hillbilly Elegy” has already gained a reputation as a strong communicator and policy whisperer for the Trump campaign, as well as the torchbearer for the MAGA movement. In addition to regularly taking media questions for the campaign, he often joins cable news networks and Sunday shows \u2014 sometimes before unfriendly questioners \u2014 to defend Trump\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n
On the campaign trail, Vance has said answering questions from reporters \u2014 he often holds press conferences during his rallies to highlight how few media appearances Vice President Kamala Harris has done \u2014 has prepared him most for the Oct. 1 debate in New York. He spent most of this week on the campaign trail, with rallies in North Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat me and Donald Trump are going to keep on doing is going everywhere and talking to everybody,\u201d Vance said when asked how he is preparing during a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina on Monday. \u201cWe talk to the hostile media, we talk to the friendly media, we talk to the national media, we talk to the local media and we do it because we think the American people deserve leaders who try to earn their vote instead of expecting it to be given to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet Vance\u2019s rollout onto the national political stage has hardly gone smoothly.<\/p>\n
Since former President Donald Trump tapped him to be his running mate in July, resurfaced clips have gone viral of the Ohio Republican grumbling about the country<\/a> being run by \u201cchildless cat ladies.\u201d He was criticized for arguing that childless couples should pay more<\/a> in taxes. And he drew rebukes from GOP moderates<\/a> after he pushed a conspiracy that Haitian migrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. (Vance has since defended his \u201cchildless cat ladies\u201d comment as sarcasm.)<\/p>\n