Cornel West: Vance ‘sold his soul’ to Trump, Walz is ‘decent man’ in ‘corrupt party’

Independent presidential candidate Cornel West weighed in on his competitors’ running mates, saying Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) “sold his soul” to former President Trump and Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) is a “decent man” in a party that is corrupt.

“Vance has seemed to sell his soul to be subordinate to Trump’s lies and his crimes,” West said on NewsNation Saturday. “Vance is much more intellectually sophisticated than brother Trump but it’s sad to see him give up on his claims of integrity and honesty and to find himself an extension of Trump’s mendacity and Trump’s criminality.”

West was referring to the criticism that’s been thrown Vance’s way since he was named as Trump’s VP pick. In the past, Vance said he was a “never Trump guy” and compared the former president to Adolf Hitler.

Trump has come out in defense of his new running mate, saying Vance didn’t “know me” but now that they know one another, “he liked me maybe more than anybody liked me.”

As for Vice President Harris’s running mate, West said he thinks Walz is a “very decent man in a corrupt party.”

Walz was chosen as Harris’s vice-presidential pick earlier this week and the two have been campaigning in several swing states since. In just a few weeks after President Biden bowed out of the presidential race, Harris has broken donation records, generated excitement from voters at huge rallies and cut down on Trump’s lead in the polls.

“And now he’s got to somehow deal with the wickedness in high places like any other elected official,” West said of Walz. “And, we’ll see, they’ve been able to generate a tremendous amount of excitement and it’s a beautiful thing to see people expressing a certain kind of joy.”

West, who is running a longshot campaign, said he believes people are excited about Harris’s run for office because it’s “desperation.”

NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.