Even when Ohio Senator J.D. Vance thinks he’s winning, he’s losing.
During a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, the Republican vice presidential pick took a moment to pat himself on the back for his ability to speak off the cuff.
“Ma’am, I don’t need a teleprompter, I’ve actually got thoughts in my head, unlike Kamala Harris,” Vance told the crowd.
But the high didn’t last long. Moments later, Vance appeared to need a scripted reminder when he misremembered the name of Abbey Gate, the location of a horrific suicide bombing in 2021, for the location of The Beatles’ London recording studio. Monday marked the three-year anniversary of the terrorist attack just outside of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan, which killed 170 Afghans and 13 American service members.
The unfortunate flub was wrapped into an answer for a genuine scandal plaguing the Trump campaign, which was caught Tuesday violating federal law as staff members filmed Donald Trump laying a wreath in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where recent military casualties are buried. Campaign staffers then launched into a verbal and physical fight with cemetery officials, who reportedly asked the campaign to stop videos. Federal law prohibits politically related activities in the cemetery, including taking photos and videos in support of a political campaign.
“The altercation at Arlington Cemetery is the media creating a story where I don’t really think there is one,” Vance told the crowd. “There is verifiable evidence that the campaign was allowed to have a photographer there. They were invited to have a photographer there. There is verifiable evidence that the families of these poor people who had their loved ones die three years ago at Abbey Road, excuse me, Abby Gate, those 13 Americans, a lot of them were there with the president.”
“It is amazing to me that you have, apparently, somebody at Arlington Cemetery, some staff member had a little disagreement with somebody and the media has turned this into a national news story,” Vance continued. “You know what I think our veterans care more about? That Kamala Harris’s V.P. lied about his military service.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz served as an enlisted soldier in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, ultimately attaining the rank of command sergeant major. He enlisted in the Nebraska National Guard at the age of 17 and transferred to the Minnesota National Guard 15 years later in 1996. As part of the job, he responded to natural disasters, served with the European Security Force to support the war in Afghanistan, and was stationed around Europe to train with NATO militaries. He received several Army medals and retired as a master sergeant shortly before running for Congress in 2006. Walz has repeatedly said he left the military in order to run for office, not out of cowardice as Vance has suggested.
Vance’s boss, meanwhile, received a conveniently timed bone spur diagnosis that helped him skirt the Vietnam War draft in 1968. He’s also managed to recently upset veterans with his anti-military rhetoric, including for claiming that the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to one of his billionaire donors was “much better” than the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor.
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