Not really, the veep writes in his new memoir.
How quickly things change. At the outset of the war in Iran and in the aftermath of the U.S. military incursion into Venezuela, various pundits and partisans played a version of Where’s Waldo? involving Vice President JD Vance while observing that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was virtually ubiquitous. “Vance finally emerges from hiding,” read […]
Vice-president appeared on Bill Maher’s show hours before more military strikes were exchanged in strait of HormuzJD Vance said on Friday that the US wins “either way” regarding negotiations with Iran, pointing to what he called the destruction of its nuclear program and diminishment as a country.“If we make the final deal, then great,” the US vice-president told HBO’s Bill Maher. “If we don’t make the final deal, their nuclear program is still destroyed. They’re still much weaker as a country, so my attitude is America wins either way.” Continue reading...
Vice-president JD Vance says US holds all the cards in conflict with Iran – key US politics stories from Saturday 27 JuneHours before fresh military strikes were exchanged in the strait of Hormuz, vice-president JD Vance continued to reiterate the administration’s triumphant line on the war with Iran.“If we make the final deal, then great,” the US vice-president told HBO’s Bill Maher. Continue reading...
Both the U.S. and Iran have blamed each other for violating the ceasefire memorandum signed last week.
Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as President Donald Trump's communications director, argued this week that Vice President JD Vance lacks the one quality that makes Trump politically formidable — and that the deficiency is Vance's central problem heading into any future presidential run.Scaramucci, who has become a frequent critic of his former boss, framed his assessment in blunt and decidedly modern terms."JD Vance doesn't have Trump's rizz," he wrote, using slang for charisma or charm.Despite the criticism, Scaramucci offered a backhanded acknowledgment of Trump's political gifts. "Like him or hate him, Trump's got it going on," he wrote. "He captures peoples' imagination."But the former aide was quick to clarify what he believes actually drives the president. In Scaramucci's telling, Trump "cares about: money and attention," and that pairing amounts to "the whole operating system."He went further, arguing that Trump is "not there to serve the American public" but rather "to serve himself and enrich his family." Once that lens is applied, Scaramucci contended, everything else falls into place — the decisions, the chaos, and the late-night posts all become "completely predictable."The throughline of his argument was that Vance, whatever his ambitions, simply can't reproduce the quality that animates Trump's appeal."And Vance can't replicate any of it," Scaramucci wrote. "That's his problem."The post is the latest in a series of swipes Scaramucci has taken at the administration and at Vance specifically, coming amid heightened scrutiny of the vice president following his recent comments downplaying Watergate and comparing himself to former President Richard Nixon.Scaramucci, who lasted just 11 days in the White House in 2017 before being ousted, has positioned himself as one of the more visible former Trump aides willing to publicly question both the president and his heir apparent.
A former senior Department of Homeland Security official said Saturday that Vice President JD Vance's recent comments dismissing Watergate amount to a "tacit admission" that the Trump administration's conduct is more serious than the scandal that ended Richard Nixon's presidency — and could ultimately make it easier to hold administration officials accountable.Miles Taylor, the former DHS chief of staff who now runs the group Defiance.org, made the remarks during an appearance on MS NOW's "Alex Witt Reports," responding to Vance's claim that Watergate would be little more than a brief news story if it happened today.Taylor offered a grim partial agreement, saying that compared to what President Donald Trump is doing now, Watergate might warrant only a multi-day story. The reason, he argued, is that Trump has done things he described as substantially more unconstitutional than Watergate — and Vance's comment, in Taylor's view, was an acknowledgment of exactly that.But Taylor drew a sharp distinction between the two presidencies. Nixon, he noted, tried to cover up his abuses. Trump and his team, by contrast, have carried out actions that federal judges have ruled facially unconstitutional out in the open, without any attempt to hide them.That brazenness, Taylor argued, cuts both ways.He pointed to prosecutors who previously worked in the Justice Department who believe the administration's open defiance of the law will ultimately work against it. By wearing what Taylor called the lawlessness on their sleeves, officials may be handing a future Democratic Congress and a future administration the evidence needed to pursue accountability.Taylor framed the dynamic as a double-edged sword for the administration — the same out-in-the-open conduct that alarms defenders of the rule of law could, down the line, become the basis for holding those responsible to account.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) seized on Vice President JD Vance's recent comments downplaying Watergate this week, warning that the remarks reveal something fundamental about how the vice president views presidential power.Murphy was responding to reporting from journalist Aaron Rupar, who flagged Vance's comments at an event tied to the Richard Nixon Foundation. According to that account, Vance said Nixon's "historical legacy is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, and deservedly so," and joked that if Watergate "happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12 hours news story." Vance reportedly added that "the idea that it took down a presidency is crazy."For Murphy, the remarks were not a throwaway line but a window into the administration's governing philosophy."I actually think this statement is a big deal," the senator wrote. "Because it tells you all you need to know."He then spelled out what he believed Vance had revealed."They believe, in their bones, in an imperial presidency where the executive rules absolutely and uses his power to destroy enemies and enrich himself," Murphy wrote.The exchange adds to a growing back-and-forth over Vance's Nixon comments, which have drawn criticism from Democrats who see in them an attempt to rehabilitate a president forced from office over abuses of power. Hillary Clinton earlier took her own shot at Vance over the same remarks.Watergate, which unfolded after a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972, led to Nixon's resignation in 1974 amid mounting evidence of a cover-up and bipartisan pressure to step down.Murphy, a frequent critic of the administration who has positioned himself as a vocal warning voice about democratic backsliding, framed Vance's apparent dismissiveness toward that history as a tell — a signal of how the current White House understands the limits, or lack thereof, on executive power.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went after Vice President JD Vance Saturday over his comments downplaying the Watergate scandal, using the moment to land a pair of pointed jabs at both the vice president and the Republican Party.Clinton was responding to a New York Times report headlined "Vance Downplays Watergate and Compares Himself to Nixon." According to the story, Vance argued that the scandal which ended Richard Nixon's presidency would amount to "like a 12-hour news story" if it unfolded today, and suggested the "deep state" had been responsible for taking Nixon down.Clinton's first swipe took aim at Vance's grasp of the history itself — and at his administration's record on book bans."Maybe Vance doesn't know this history because it's in one of the books his administration banned," she wrote.Her second was aimed at the broader Republican Party, drawing a contrast between the lawmakers of the Watergate era and those serving today."The difference between Watergate and now is that back then, Republicans actually did something about a law-breaking president," Clinton wrote. "Today, they only roll over for their cult leader."The reference points to the bipartisan reckoning that followed the Watergate break-in, when Republican leaders ultimately pressed Nixon toward resignation rather than defend him through impeachment proceedings.Vance's reported framing inverts that history, casting Nixon less as a president brought down by his own conduct than as a target of unelected government forces — a narrative that echoes the grievance politics central to the current administration.Clinton, a frequent and unsparing critic of President Donald Trump and his allies, has shown little hesitation in needling the administration on social media, and her latest post folded two of the left's recurring criticisms — book bans and Republican deference to Trump — into a single response.