Keller: Hypocrisy is a way of life for Trump VP pick JD Vance
The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.
BOSTON - It looks like the Republican Party's commitment to a post-assassination-attempt era of national "unity" and lowering the rhetorical temperature lasted less than 48 hours.
Who is JD Vance?
Republican nominee Donald Trump's choice of Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate has nothing to do with governing, or assuring Americans that if anything should happen to Trump the White House would be in capable hands.
Barely halfway through his first term in any elective office, Vance's chief accomplishment is his total (and, apparently, persuasive) transformation from a harsh Trump critic ("What an idiot," he said of candidate Trump in 2016, later referring to him as "America's Hitler,") to total Trump sycophant who endorses his fraudulent claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Hypocrisy isn't just a hobby, it's a way of life for Vance, a Yale Law School graduate and multi-millionaire who loves to slam the "elites." And as you'll soon learn, if there's a far-right talk show or podcast Vance hasn't been on spewing offensive nonsense, it's because they haven't invited him. (Example: asked if abortion bans should include exceptions for rape and incest, Vance replied: "two wrongs don't make a right.")
Trump VP pick
If Trump had the slightest interest in uniting the nation - or even winning over those crucial swing voters who look askance at precisely the sort of reactionary rhetoric and situational ethics Vance embodies - he would have chosen someone else. Instead, he opted for a mini-me whose job will be to turn up the heat as high as possible on Trump's adversaries.
Not that they needed an excuse, but the Biden campaign took the opportunity of Vance's nomination to also abandon its freshly-minted commitment to more-civil discourse, saying Vance will "do what Mike Pence wouldn't on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people."
It was an uplifting couple of days of fake comity, but it's over.
If you lived through George H.W. Bush's 1988 VP nomination of Sen. Dan Quayle (R-Awkward) you understand second-bananas rarely, if ever, matter much in the end. But it's hard to see what good this does for Trump. Will the suburban women who populate the swing vote really warm to this guy? What does he offer wavering moderates to overcome their skepticism of Trump? Don't they know voters don't like facial hair?
Some pundits are claiming this is about assuring the generational continuation of Trumpism. We're guessing he couldn't care less. But if Vance wants to get down on a hip trip with his fellow millennials, may we suggest a snarky, self-effacing VP campaign slogan: "Better Than Burgum."