By Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Nick Surgey, Documented
Sen. J.D. Vance, whom Donald Trump named as his vice presidential running mate Monday, told a group of influential young conservatives in a closed-door speech in 2021 that they should stand up for “nonconventional people” who speak truth, such as Infowars founder Alex Jones.
“If you listen to Rachel Maddow every night, the basic worldview that you have is that MAGA grandmas who have family dinners on Sunday and bake apple pies for their family are about to start a violent insurrection against this country,” Vance said. “But if you listen to Alex Jones every day, you would believe that a transnational financial elite controls things in our country, that they hate our society, and oh, by the way, a lot of them are probably sex perverts too.”
Vance went on, “Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, that’s actually a hell of a lot more true than Rachel Maddow’s view of society.”
He said that every person in attendance for his speech believed “something that’s a little crazy.” In his case, he said, “I believe the devil is real and that he works terrible things in our society. That’s a crazy conspiracy theory to a lot of very well-educated people in this country right now.”
Vance made these remarks at a September 2021 gathering of the Teneo Network, an invitation-only group of young conservatives that counts elected officials, pro athletes, financial executives and media figures among its members. Vance joined Teneo six years ago. ProPublica and Documented obtained a video recording of his 30-minute speech and question-and-answer session, which has not been previously reported.
Vance’s remarks at the conference — which you can read a transcript of or watch in full below — give a rare unvarnished look at his thinking and illustrate how aligned he is with various factions within the conservative and MAGA movements. “I’ll throw out the standard campaign speech,” he began his Teneo talk. “[I’ll] actually just try to level with you guys about what I do see is the big — a few big problems that are in our country right now.”
According to tax records, the Teneo Network’s chairman is Leonard Leo, the legal activist who built a pipeline of lawyers who interpret the Constitution based on the “original intent” of the framers or the meaning of the words in the text when they were written. One of the most influential conservatives of the past three decades, Leo helped confirm all six conservative justices currently serving on the U.S. Supreme Court. Leo-aligned judges have pushed to restrict abortion rights and rein in the government’s power to regulate corporations.
Leo has said he views the Teneo Network as a way to extend his influence beyond the judiciary to industries including finance, media, government and Silicon Valley. The network identifies and cultivates conservative leaders in “other areas of American culture and American life where things are really messed up right now,” as Leo put it in a Teneo video.
According to internal Teneo documents, Vance joined Teneo in 2018, several years before he ran for Senate in his home state of Ohio. His book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” had already become a bestseller, and Vance was a commentator for CNN while running his own nonprofit and investment fund backing startup companies outside of Silicon Valley.
“JD Vance has been part of the organization for at least five years and his appearance at the 2021 Teneo Retreat was well received by many young professional leaders in attendance,” Leo said. A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By the time Vance spoke at Teneo’s 2021 conference, he had joined the race to fill outgoing Sen. Rob Portman’s seat. Despite his past criticisms of Trump, which included calling the former president an “idiot” and comparing him to Adolf Hitler, Vance won Trump’s endorsement in 2022 and cruised to a comfortable victory.
Vance’s connection to Teneo could form a bridge between different factions of the Republican Party that seem to be at odds. Previous news stories have reported that Trump and Leo, who advised the former president on judicial nominees during his administration, are no longer as close as they once were. Russ Vought, a Trump ally, publicly denigrated the Federalist Society, the legal networking group Leo and others built into a juggernaut.
Adding Vance to the ticket bolsters the connections between Leo’s network and the Trump 2024 campaign. It also strengthens ties between Trump’s reelection bid and the Project 2025 blueprint, which outlines plans for a second Trump administration, including firing thousands of career civil servants, shuttering the Department of Education and replacing ambitious goals to combat climate change with ramped-up fossil fuel production. In a recent TV interview, Vance said the document contained “some good ideas” but claimed that “most Americans couldn’t care less about Project 2025” and that the Trump campaign wasn’t affiliated with it.
In his Teneo remarks, he bemoaned that decades ago major corporate CEOs reliably donated money to Republicans but now they give heavily to Democrats. He lamented that conservatives had “very few oligarchs on our side,” had “lost every institution in American society” and needed to make corporations “taking the side of the left in the culture wars feel real economic pain.”
“So we’ve not just lost the academy,” meaning universities, “which we’ve lost for a long time; we haven’t just lost the media, which has been on the side of the left for a long time; we now find ourselves in a situation where our biggest multinational corporations are active participants in the culture war on the other side,” he said. “It’s really been a few of us over the past few years who have recognized that the big corporations have really turned against conservatives in a very big and powerful way.”
He argued that conservatives needed to take action against corporations that, say, defended abortion rights or punished employees who spoke out against abortion access. “If we’re unwilling to make companies that are taking the side of the left in the culture wars feel real economic pain, then we’re not serious about winning the culture war,” he said.
He said that Americans were “terrified to tell the truth” and “point out the obvious,” including that “there are real biological, cultural, religious, spiritual distinctions between men and women.” He added, “I think that’s what the whole transgender thing is about, is like fundamentally denying basic reality.”
Shortly before he spoke at the Teneo conference, Vance drew criticism when he tweeted that “Alex Jones is a far more reputable source of information than Rachel Maddow.” Jones, founder of the online show Infowars, gained a following with his promotion of conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. More recently, judges in several states ordered him to pay $1.5 billion to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting, which Jones had called a hoax.
Vance told Teneo members that he was “just trolling” with his defense of Jones, but added “that doesn’t mean what I said is in any way untrue.”
“Look, I think there’s a not-terrible chance that one of you is going to be sharing cellblock 12A in Premier Harris’ prison detention camp in a few years,” he explained, seemingly referring to Vice President Kamala Harris. “If we’re going to all end up in that place, we might as well have a little fun while we get there. It’s OK to troll when you make and speak fundamental truths. But, look, I do think what I said was correct.”
If the conservative movement was going to survive, he continued, its members needed to “speak for truth.” He mentioned donors in Ohio who had asked him if he would condemn inflammatory remarks made by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“And I say, ‘Why? Why do you want me to denounce this person?’” Vance said. “‘Well, she believes these crazy things.’ Who cares?”
He went on, “Believing crazy things is not the mark of whether somebody should be rejected. Believing important truths should be the mark of whether we accept somebody, and if they believe some crazy things on the side, that’s fine. We need to be OK with nonconventional people.”
Do you have any information about J.D. Vance or the Trump campaign’s plans for 2024 that we should know? Andy Kroll can be reached by email at [email protected] and by Signal or WhatsApp at 202-215-6203. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
G.S. says
And he also makes his wife call him OfJD, just saying.
Laurel says
Ladies, start ironing your burkas.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Many of you don’t care and will Vote for a Convicted Felon and a Loon running mate.
Joe D says
Wow…more than just a bit “out there.”
I wonder, as a devout Christian (actually converted to Roman Catholic since 2019) as I am, I wonder how JD Vance is going square his (I THINK) SINCERE beliefs of truth, honesty, and moral beliefs with the “CARDBOARD CUTOUT” FAKE Christian (in name ONLY) rhetoric of Donald Trump, who shows almost NO Christian behavior after the cameras and microphones have been turned off. But Trump has been the MASTER of the Media CIRCUS his entire CAREER.
It will be INTERESTING to see as Vance gets sucked into the TRUMP and MEGA vortex, whether his TRUE “Christian” behavior and beliefs will survive the MEGA HYPE , when he (as Dorothy did in the final scenes of the Wizard of OZ, when she looked behind the curtain in the Wizard’s throne room), finds out the REAL substance (if there is any), behind the orchestrated FACADE of the Trump MEGA machine. However I have no right to Judge… that is left to someone more entitled to JUDGE, than ME!
As as a parting comment, if you believe there is a REAL God ( in whatever form you see him),then you should also believe there is a REAL Devil, out to subvert humanity under the promise of POWER, WEALTH, GREED and HATE.
Anyone who has worked as a therapist (as I have), or Social Worker, or in Law Enforcement has to believe there is TRUE EVIL in the world when we see Children/Women/vulnerable adults/ and the disadvantaged in the world being exploited, abused, even tortured and killed by their fellow human beings.
I AM hoping SANITY rules the 2024 elections, but I fear reality might be VERY DIFFERENT.. how SAD for the USA (and the world).
The Sour Kraut says
This country is doomed.
BillC says
JD Vance says Alex Jones is a “truth teller”. If you believe that Alex Jones was a “truth teller” when he claimed that the Sandy Hook massacre of 20 children was a hoax perpetrated by “crisis actors”, and for which he was found liable for 1.5 billion in damages by a court as restitution to the families of the murdered children and teachers, then by all means vote for the DJT/JDV agenda. That’s the kind of guy Trump was searching for as his running mate.
Deirdre says
Please God Biden drops out so this guy won’t be the next vice president. Obviously, the devil is real, he’s working for him.
Laurel says
Deirdre: You, and other Democrats, bought the Republican narrative against President Joe Biden. Good luck with your results.
Sherry says
@Deirdre,
GO KAMALA! Would love, love, love to see her “prosecute” Convicted Criminal trump on the debate stage!
The Geode says
Maybe she’ll claim that he’s a “racist” and then claim “it was just politics” the way she did Joe Biden…
Laurel says
Oh, we know that Trump isn’t a racist, just look up his full page ads in NY newspapers about the Central Park Five. Then, do some research about how he and his father practiced racial equality while renting apartments in NY. Naw, he’s a real peach.
Janet Sullivan says
Wake up, folks. Learn whatever you can about the devastating effects Project 2025 will have on your freedoms and your pocketbook. When they tell you who they are, believe them.
BillC says
A brief summary of Project 2025:
Project 2025 proposes that the entire federal bureaucracy, including independent agencies such as the Department of Justice, be placed under direct presidential control – a controversial idea known as “unitary executive theory”.
– The document labels the FBI a “bloated, arrogant, increasingly lawless organization”. It calls for drastic overhauls of this and several other federal agencies, as well as the complete elimination of the Department of Education.
– The document proposes slashing federal money for research and investment in renewable energy, and calls for the next president to “stop the war on oil and natural gas”.
– The document suggests that the department of Health and Human Services should “maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family”.
– The document proposes to eliminate a long list of terms from all laws and federal regulations, including “sexual orientation”, “gender equality”, “abortion” and “reproductive rights”.
– The document suggests the administration should abolish the Federal Reserve and even consider a return to gold-backed currency.
Laurel says
“…consider a return to gold-backed currency.” Interesting, considering it was President Nixon, Republican, who got rid of gold-backed currency. Confusing, are they trying to right a past wrong of theirs?
Meanwhile, the stated points of Project 2025 all point to a Dark Ages Kingdom, with the King controlled by billionaires. Well, it is a way to control the masses, who seem to be happy to blindly lend their support.
I think whales are smarter than humans. Actually, my cat is smarter than most.
Jim says
I’m not at all surprised that Trump picked this guy. He’s just as transactional as Trump. He has no true beliefs and absolutely no moral or ethical compass. He was against Trump before he was for him. Why, some might ask. Well, the path to power in the Republican party runs directly through Trump. And Vance is just another “me first” guy who has done a great job of feeling out the current political atmosphere and dialing his rhetoric to the current situation. I really don’t know if Vance really has any strongly held beliefs that can’t be altered if he sees it’s in his best interest.
As bad as Trump was as a president, Vance would be worse.
If you can become a Trumper and praise Alex Jones then you have succeeded in telling all of us just how weak-minded and twisted you are. (And for some of you, a Yale education is no guarantee that you are a gift to society. Some folks get a degree despite their lack of critical thinking.)
Laurel says
Jim: I know! And what really gets me is that these politicians seem to have no capacity for embarrassment, never mind honor. Definitely no honor. Trump can call their wives ugly and call their wives bigoted names, say the men have little fingers and little dicks, say their father killed Kennedy, and on and on. They truly hate Trump, they say so, but suddenly *see the light* if there is a smidgen of opportunity.
Grotesque!
Ray W. says
“Believing important truths should be the mark of whether we accept somebody, …”
So here are some important truths, culled from FDR’s Four Freedoms speech.
“Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all our fellow men within our gates, so our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on a decent respect for the rights and dignity of all nations, large and small. And the justice of morality must and will win in the end.
“Our national policy is this:
“First, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to all-inclusive national defense.
“Second, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to full support of all those resolute peoples, everywhere, who are resisting aggression and are thereby keeping war away from our Hemisphere. By this support, we express our determination that the democratic cause shall prevail; and we strengthen the defense and the security of our own nation.
“Third, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to the proposition that principles of morality and considerations for our own security will never permit us to acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by appeasers. We know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people’s freedoms. …
“Let us say to the democracies: ‘We Americans are vitally concerned in your defense of freedom. We are putting forth our energies, our resources and our organizing powers to give you the strength to regain and maintain a free world. We shall send you, in ever-increasing numbers, ships, planes, tanks, guns. This is our purpose and our pledge.
“In fulfillment of this purpose we will not be intimidated by the threats of dictators that they will regard as a breach of international law or as an act of war our aid to the democracies which dare to resist their aggression. Such aid is not an act of war, even if a dictator should unilaterally proclaim it so to be. …
“The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:
“Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.
“Jobs for those who can work.
“Security for those who need it.
“The ending of special privilege for the few.
“The preservation of civil liberties for all.
“The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.
“We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance.
“We should widen the opportunities for adequate health care.
“We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it. …
“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
“The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world.
“The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world.
“The third is freedom from want — which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants — everywhere in the world.
“The fourth is freedom from fear — which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor — anywhere in the world. …
“Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change — in a perpetual peaceful revolution — a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions — without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.
“This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory.”
Joe D says
For Ray W.:
WHEN exactly was this SPEECH given?
Wow!…they say history REPEATS itself…..and that those who fail to LEARN from the past are DOOMED to repeat it!
This speech should be reprinted in EVERY Media outlet…If it doesn’t describe EXACTLY what we are experiencing NOW in our Country and the World!
Unfortunately there are those that believe POWER, GREED and HATE…should be the RULE of the DAY….with LITTLE THOUGHTS to the GLOBAL needs of the many of “US.”
And in REALITY (sadly), if FDR were running for President today (with all the Media 24/7 SCRUTINY)…he would NEVER be elected!
He doesn’t meet the Hollywood “plastic” surface glamour the “masses” demand today (forget the actual “substance” or lack there of, underneath the FACADE).
Thank you Ray, for sharing thoughts from the past, which are still as relevant TODAY, as they were when they were written!
JOE D says
Ray: just looked up the FULL FDR speech in the National Archives…it was 1941!
Thanks again for sharing it!
Another one lost says
I have a message to all you atheists. Ridiculing someone for believing that the devil is real it’s not going to get you in the White House. Some of us, for whatever reason need to believe that God and the devil is real. Mostly like myself and my family, people that have been through hell.
Laurel says
Another: Ahhh, you found a group to throw your prejudice at, and somehow managed to connect it to the Whitehouse.
starryid says
If you’re digging up quotes from old speeches why not mention Joe Biden saying “I don’t want my kids to go to school in a racial jungle”?
Ray W. says
Thank you for posting a false quote. Biden did utter a racially unacceptable comment in 1977, but you lacked the intellectual rigor necessary for you to post the correct quote. It is out there and easily found.
Your goal ought to have been to persuade people that you are a credible source of factually accurate information. Now? You have achieved for yourself the opposite.
J.D. Vance stated that it was necessary to believe important truths. I listed a string of important truths from one of the greatest political speeches of the 20th century. These truths are arguably eternal truths. You? You established that you are yet another person wandering through life fooling yourself.
Oy, vey!
jake says
“In the 1970s, then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden was a vocal opponent of busing as a means for desegregating public schools. That record haunted him in his bid to secure the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
In early March 2020, readers asked Snopes to verify a quote in 1977 in which Biden, then a U.S. senator representing Delaware, allegedly expressed fear that desegregation, if not done in an “orderly” way, could result in his children growing up in “a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point.”
The quote was initially uncovered by Daria Roithmayr, a law professor at the University of Southern California (USC), in July 2019. But as Biden emerged from Super Tuesday on March 3, 2020, as a potential front-runner for the nomination, news stories containing the quote circulated anew.
Among stories readers widely shared was a July 15, 2019, Business Insider story that reported, “Former Vice President Joe Biden is facing increased scrutiny over his record on busing and racial issues, and this week old comments resurfaced in which he said, in 1977, that busing for the purpose of desegregation would cause his children to ‘grow up in a racial jungle.
The quote is accurate as reported and reads in full: Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point. We have got to make some move on this.
Biden made the remark in 1977 during a hearing about busing school children in order to desegregate public schools. As The New York Times reported in a detailed delineation of Biden’s history with busing, Biden at the time had emerged as the Democratic party’s crusader against busing, taking the same side as segregationists. Biden “joined up with Jesse Helms, the segregationist senator from North Carolina, to offer his own anti-busing amendment to that year’s education spending bill.” Biden’s “advocacy made it safe for other Democrats to oppose busing,” The Times reported.”
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-racial-jungle-quote/
Ray W. says
I am glad that you admit by inference that you unacceptably passed on a lie to FlaglerLive readers.
I acknowledged that what Biden said was unacceptable.
You apparently can’t bring yourself to admit that you passed on a lie. Intellectual rigor demands more of you than you are apparently willing to commit.
Your goal ought to be persuading people to your point of view. That cannot be achieved by passing on lies. It was easy for you to correct the lie before you passed it on. It is difficult for you to win any argument when you start from a losing position.
Please do better in the future.
Ray W. says
I owe Jake an apology. I must have scrolled past his name and linked my response to starryid.
I apologize, Jake.
FormerFlaPharmTech says
Over it. Leaving USA.
t says
LOL. Yeah, right…
Make it plain says
Yeah, I guess he does know what the Devil looks like. Too bad the facts don’t apply for his bearing. Funny thing is, has anybody asked him if he plans to accept the election results if things don’t go in his favor even though his running mate has not? Cowards behind the Gospel does not a spine make. Some believe we must include all or you serve yourself and those like you, not the Spirit.
Pierre Tristam says
He considers the 2020 election to have been “stolen.”
Laurel says
And ignoring endless requests for evidence.
I often wonder if the average Republican ever gets tired of being lied to. It doesn’t look too clever.
I’m glad you brought up billionaire Leonard Leo. I don’t think Fox Entertainment talks about these billionaires backing Trump and Vance.
“I am your retribution” stated Trump.
Uh huh.
DMFinFlorida says
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse … My father was a decorated Korean war vet and is likely rolling in his grave right now. Who opened the Pandora’s Box of psychos?
Pogo says
@Actual news and public service
Thank you, FlaglerLive.
Related
Secret Service flagged as world’s richest man shares AI video of ‘Trump murdering Biden’
https://www.rawstory.com/secret-service-elon-musk-trump-ai-biden/
I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen.
— W.H. Auden
James says
This situation with Trump certainly seems to just get more surreal with each passing day… can’t we all just drop dead at peace with our lot in life?
I guess not.
Btw, for some reason I don’t think the “Devil” collects cracked pottery… particularly someone else’s.
Just say’n… why I don’t know.
Jackson Gallagher says
Alex Jones has an opinion.
It differs from yours, and that is not a reason to silence him.
Ben Swann, Del bigtree, Ron Paul, Abby Martin, Lowkey from the UK. These are all
folks who are silenced because what they said didn’t jive with the narratives you hear
all over Sinclair owned stations.
But you allow Alex Jones to be censored, don’t get mad when everyone else is censored too.
This is not how our first amendment was supposed to exercised.
Pierre Tristam says
Among other fabrications, Alex Jones peddled the blood libel that the massacre of Newtown children was staged, and that they were never killed. No concern for the parents, no concern for the facts. Just for his equally repelling and enabling audience and his bottom line. That’s not an opinion he’s providing. It’s a slander and a libel for which he is liable for $1 billion in damages (more than Fox Noose). It has nothing to do with “narratives” or other dog whistled ways of hiding fabrications and hate behind your rank abuse of free speech. You’re not fooling anyone, and your attempt yo slime through perverse equivalencies in his defense, for which there is none, will not be permitted here.
Sherry says
@jackson gallagher,
Your despicable defense of alex jones tells me that you live in the mindless/soul less Fox cult of alternate reality. The first amendment does not allow even “animals” like alex jones to publish such horrific libel without consequences. You should be ashamed. . . but, you apparently are not. Therefore, you are quite sick. Some serious counseling sessions would be of benefit to you.
Laurel says
JG: Alex Jones doesn’t have an “opinion,” he’s a shit stirring, ratings seeker who got sued for lying about innocent children who were viciously murdered. He was not “censored,” he chose to lie. Nobody’s home with Jones. This is who JD Vance likes. Birds of a feather?
Wallingford says
The only reason JDVance is the VP Candidate is solely Peter Theil, the Tech Billionaire who delivered a speech at the 2016 Republican Convention. Theil has been JD’s benefactor since JD graduated from Law School. Theil gave JD multiple jobs in his Venture Capital firms, paid for and managed JD’s Senatorial campaign and personally introduced JD to Donald Trump. I’m sure there was also a promise of funding of a PAC. Seems like the Donald will be beholding to Theil.
Skibum says
The Donald is beholden to anyone who has lots of money and/or power, preferably both. He is attracted like a magnet to people with those traits, no matter how corrupt or despicable they might be. He praised Russia’s Putin as brilliant and a great leader, he is in awe of N. Korea’s Kim Jong Un as a very smart cookie, he gave Syria’s Bashar al-Assad an A in terms of leadership, he has said of both Libya’s dead Gaddafi and Iraq’s dead Saddam Hussein that we (America) would be much better off if both of them were still in charge of their countries, and he has praised even Hitler for what he called doing a lot of good things! Obviously, the Donald is completely incapable of making good choices of those he chooses to laud praise upon and the type of people he chooses to be associated with. So of course he chose JD Vance as his second banana. Never mind that Vance has previously despised Trump and derogatorily compared him to Hitler, but now thinks the Donald is more akin to Jesus himself. Maybe the Donald favors Vance for his own style of ridiculous and defamatory remarks about women. Vance has told the idiot Tucker Carlson that today’s democrats are lead by childless cat women! Oh wow, trying to go for the religious conservative viewpoint that somehow only those women who have children are blessed with the proper attributes to be good leaders. How exactly does that fit with their other religious conservative stand against funding proper nutrition and school lunches for those same children the GOP religious conservatives continue to be so faux-supportive of? How could ANY woman in America stand in support of a presidential candidate who has repeatedly bashed women who had the “audacity” to stand up to him or run against him for political office, and especially after this horrid man was found liable for sexual assault of a woman, for libel against her in court not once but twice, and ordered to pay her nearly 100 million dollars in actual and punitive damages? How could any woman listen to the vile, misogynistic comments coming from JD Vance’s mouth without wanting to throw up? To see for ourselves and hear for ourselves just exactly what the nearly dead and buried republican party has eviscerated itself into in such a vile and destructive way is almost incomprehensible… and yet, there are those who adore the Donald and JD Vance despite their near foaming-at-the-mouth hatred toward any strong-willed woman who would stand toe-to-toe with them and repudiate their disgusting lies, their verbal assaults and anti-American rhetoric. Regardless of their unhinged and unethical attacks on women and support of some of the most despicable dictators on the planet, I think Kamala Harris is exactly the right person to put the Donald AND JD Vance in their place, show America how small-minded both of them are, and revitalize this presidential race to the point where she will be an unstoppable force to be reckoned with on her way to winning the election and becoming our first female President of the United States.