Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) appeared on ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday, where host George Stephanopoulos was not only combative, biased, and argumentative, but even ended the interview abruptly without giving Vance a chance to correct how he had put words into his mouth. That's not to say that Vance didn't get some good answers beforehand, though.
Early on in the interview, Vance was asked about the jury trial from late last month, where E. Jean Carroll was awarded over $83 million in a defamation suit against former and potentially future President Trump. She behaved in such a way after receiving such an award that, as Matt suggested, Trump may even win based on her joking around and bragging about the lawsuit.
Stephanopoulos, of course, didn't want to talk about that, but rather instead focused on ads about the lawsuit.
Vance touched upon all the right points, including how the lawsuit was "very unfair" and an "insult" to the victims of sexual assault, to say that somehow their lives are being worse by electing Donald Trump for president, when what he's trying to do, I think is restore prosperity."
The senator went on to discuss what we've come to see as a pattern in these cases against the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. This is especially the case in liberal jurisdictions like New York City.
"If you actually look at so many of the court cases against Donald Trump, George, this is not about prosecuting Trump for something that he did. It's about throwing him off the ballot because Democrats feel that they can't beat him at the ballot box. And so, they're trying to defeat them in court," Vance offered.
"This case, like so many legal cases against Donald Trump, they're trumped up they're -- they're an extremely left-wing jurisdictions, or it's actually the Biden administration prosecuting his chief political rival," he went on to say, highlighting a common theme.
WATCH: @JDVance1 just destroyed George Stephanopoulos's absurd question about the E. Jean Carroll case🔥
— Kingsley Wilson (@KingsleyCortes) February 4, 2024
"This is not about prosecuting Trump for something that he did, it's about throwing him off the ballot because Democrats feel that they can't beat him at the ballot box." pic.twitter.com/l1Lj4bVLS8
Carroll's case is hardly the only one out of New York, though it was the one being discussed. Attorney General Letitia James has made it her obsession to go after Trump and the Trump family. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg also started the unprecedented chain of criminal indictments against the former president, when Trump was indicted by a grand jury late last March and arraigned last April on 34 charges. Bragg has charged Trump with felonies in a hush-money case when he could have brought the charges as misdemeanors, was using an untested legal theory, and the statute of limitations had expired.
Vance continued to focus on the election, including what we should be focusing on for 2024. "I think most Americans recognize that this is not what we want to fight the 2024 election over. Let's fight it over issues. Let's fight it over how to redeliver prosperity to the American worker and peace to the world at large, not over these ridiculous court cases that frankly, they've been throwing at Trump for well before he became a political candidate," he mentioned, adding "and they're going to be going after him for a long time because his agenda is actually a threat to the people who have been calling the shots in this country for far too long."
As if he had not been listening to Vance's answers to the question asked of him, Stephanopoulos followed up by responding "you call it a ridiculous case. These were juries that found him liable for sexual assault in defamation," as he asked "that's ridiculous?"
Vance in his response made clear that these juries are "in extremely left-wing jurisdictions" and that "these are cases that are very often funded by left-wing donors and their cases that are funded explicitly to harm him politically not to seek justice for any particular group of individuals."
He further highlighted how it's part of a political crusade, including how they're "funded by Donald Trump's political opponents, and the goal here is not to help us actually have a real conversation about how to advance the country forward, their goal is to defeat Trump at the courts because these people know they can’t defeat him at the ballot box."
RealClearPolling currently has Trump leading President Joe Biden by +2.1, as polls continue to come out spelling all kinds of bad news for the vulnerable incumbent.
"It's really shameful actually, George, if you think about so many of these people who say, we're--we’re living in a world where there's a threat to democracy," Vance went on to say, mentioning one of the top narratives from Biden himself, his reelection campaign, and his supporters for 2024. "Donald Trump or his supporters are threats to democracy, and yet they're using the courts to deny the American people from even having a choice. If you don't like Donald Trump, of course, you can vote against him, but you should at least have that choice. And it's telling that the people who talk about threats to democracy are trying to destroy the democratic process in this country," Vance argued.
For all of this talk about the threats to democracy, Democrats are celebrating initiatives to kick Trump off the ballot due to certain interpretations of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which were successful in Colorado and Maine. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear the Colorado case, with oral arguments taking place on February 8. Maine's Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has been told to defer.
Vance reiterated his preference to focus on the issues. "We've got to talk about the issues, George. There are so many crises happening all across the world. There are so many problems right here at home. I think Donald Trump is the best guy to fix those problems. And I think that we have a very, very good chance of persuading the American people," he said. What they don't want to talk about is weird juries in New York City. They want to talk about how to make their lives better and how to bring the world to a more peaceful place."
Stephanopoulos continued with his predictable response, wondering "so, juries in New York City are not legitimate when they--when they find someone liable for sexual defamation and assault?"
Vance went on to explain how there are concerns when it comes to who is behind these cases.
"Well, when the cases are funded by left-wing donors and when the case has absolute left-wing bias all over it, George, absolutely I think that we should call into question that--that particular conclusion. We have to remember, of course, that these cases exist, not because they were trying to seek justice. Reid Hoffman, a far-left donor, did not fund this case because he cares about what happens to sexual assault victims. He funded this case to harm his political opponent, Donald Trump. It's pretty weird," Vance responded. "It's a weird thing to do to use the courts in this way. It's never happened before in American history. And, yes, I think it should call into question the entire apparatus that's being used to go after Donald Trump."
When it comes to Bragg's case, questions and concerns not only exist with the soft-on-criminals DA, but with New York County Supreme Court Justice Juan Manuel Merchan, as Mia highlighted.
Similar concerns exist out of the DC case with the charges Special Counsel Jack Smith has brought against Trump for his actions on and leading up to January 6, 2021. Legal experts, including Democrat Alan Dershowitz, have raised concerns about such a venue.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, a particularly harsh judge, was assigned to that case, though she has postponed the trial which had been set for March 4, which is just before the Super Tuesday primary.
As he moved to another topic, Stephanopoulos claimed that Vance was "not troubled by the sexual assault and defamation." Sadly, it's not a surprising move from a partisan figure like Stephanopoulos, but more power to Vance for at least getting in his points where and when he could.
Pressed by @GStephanopoulos about sexual assault and defamation trials against Trump, GOP Sen. JD Vance decries juries in “left-wing jurisdictions."
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 4, 2024
“This is not about prosecuting Trump for something that he did. It's about throwing him off the ballot.” https://t.co/4Nhw5PDhmp pic.twitter.com/xl6X1Iq1ce
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