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Why Does Chuck Schumer Want Trump to Replace JD Vance So Badly?

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  July 30, 2024 5:45 PM

Ever since former and potentially future President Donald Trump picked Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) as his running mate earlier this month, Democrats have gone after the vice presidential pick. The effort trying to highlight how Vance is supposedly "weird" has itself been rather weird. Another oddity is how Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) appears to be so hung up on Vance.

Robert Costa asked Schumer during Sunday's episode of CBS News' "Face the Nation" if senators in battleground states should ask Vice President Kamala Harris, likely the Democratic nominee, to campaign with them. Schumer gave a laughable response about President Joe Biden and Harris and then launched into quite the rant against Vance.

Not only did Schumer stress that "the Biden-Harris record is just incredible," he also even claimed "it's a great, great record, and it's helping our Senate candidates run on it." 

Schumer should know something about Harris, given that they were both in the Senate at the same time. Even though GovTrack deleted their webpage about 2019, it doesn't change that Harris was ranked the most liberal senator for that year and one of the least bipartisan ones. 

"And let me just say one thing, just compare that to the Republican record to the Trump-Vance ticket. It's extreme, this Project 2025 shows that would take the rights away from women. It would take away rights of working people and help only the very wealthy, it would even be a threat to our democracy," Schumer went on to insist. 

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No matter how many times Democrats desperately look to connect the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 with the Trump-Vance campaign, it doesn't change how they're separate. Such a claim also shows that Democrats, including top ones like Schumer, are obsessed with talking points focusing on abortion and a supposed "threat to our democracy."

Earlier on Tuesday, the Trump-Vance campaign sent out a statement distancing themselves even further, especially after the director of the project reportedly stepped down. 

As if Schumer hadn't made his thoughts clear enough about Vance, he wished to get in "one more point about this," as he insisted Vance being on the ticket is "incredibly a bad choice." He even tried to put himself in Trump's mind. "I think Donald Trump, I know him, and he's probably sitting and watching the TV, and every day, Vance, it comes out Vance has done something more extreme, more weird, more erratic," Schumer offered, joining in on those calling Vance "weird."

"Vance seems to be more erratic and more extreme than President Trump. And I'll bet President Trump is sitting there scratching his head and wondering, why did I pick this guy? The choice may be one of the best things he ever did for Democrats," Schumer continued. 

Why is Schumer so insistent that Vance be replaced? Does he think Trump would actually listen to him? More importantly, though, could it be that he and his fellow Democrats are afraid of Vance being on the ticket?

Democrats do look to be afraid. Last week, days before Schumer's appearance on "Face the Nation," New York Magazine published an article indicating as much.

Vance, being from Ohio and with his appeal to everyday Americans with is humble beginnings, can help Trump in the battleground states. That includes winning back states in the so-called "blue wall," such as neighboring Pennsylvania and Michigan. 

To his credit, Vance himself said during a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday that "it doesn't hurt my feelings" to be called weird. He's even honored. "Look, the price of admission--meaning, the price of getting to serve the people of this country--is the Democrats are going to attack us with everything that they have. I think it’s an honor," he also said. 

Those "weird" campaigns look to be failing epically when it comes to the backlash on social media, as many at our sister site of RedState have pointed out, and the Monday episode of "The Tony Kinnett Cast" also dived into. Then there's campaign events over Zoom segregated by race, like "White Women" and "White Dudes" supporting Harris, which have been thoroughly been mocked, as Sam J. at our sister site of Twitchy and Fox News' Mary Katharine Ham have done. 

No wonder Vance says the label is "an honor."

Bringing this back to Harris campaigning for senators in battleground states, Republicans still look to be favored to win back control of the Senate. This is with the seats that Democrats are defending as well as looking to pick up. 

At the RNC earlier this month, National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) Chairman Steve Daines (R-MT) gave a worthwhile speech tying vulnerable Democratic incumbents running for reelection to the Biden-Harris record.