J.D. Vance, a first-time senator from Ohio and a relatively unknown figure among most Republicans, has been selected by Donald Trump as his running mate for vice president of the United States. The former president made the announcement at the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he was confirmed Monday as the party’s nominee for the November presidential election.
Trump’s choice of J.D. Vance as his running mate in the White House was confirmed by Trump Social late Monday afternoon and was widely expected to follow his two other primary contenders, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who was informed that they had dropped out of the race that afternoon. “I have decided that the most qualified person to serve as Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the great state of Ohio. (…) As Vice President, you will fight for our Constitution, support our troops, and do everything in your power to help me ‘Make America Great Again,’” Trump wrote.
J.D. Vance has been a longtime critic of Trump, even calling him a “terrible candidate” in 2016. “I’m someone who was never a Trump guy, I never liked him,” he even said in an interview, as well as in messages sent to a friend, questioning whether Trump was “a cynical idiot like Nixon, or worse, the American Hitler.” His opinion has since changed dramatically, and Vance has become one of the former president’s most ardent supporters, helping him get elected to the Senate in 2022.
The Republican convention began with a moment of silence for the victims of the attack on Trump, and hopes were high to see how Republican officials, who will speak over the four days of proceedings, would respond to the attack on the candidate. The former president has repeatedly called for unity and promised a conciliatory speech to “unite America,” but in recent days, several Republican leaders have publicly placed responsibility for the attack on Trump squarely on President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, accusing them of “demonizing” the Republican nominee as a “threat to democracy” and of helping create a “hostile political climate” that led to the assassination attempt on the former president.
“Take a step back and cool down”
President Joe Biden called for restraint in political discourse Sunday night following the attack on Trump, stressing that violence is “never the answer.” In a rare speech from the Oval Office — only the third time in more than three years in office — Biden said the attacks on Trump showed “we have to step back.” “In America, we settle our differences with elections, not with bullets,” the president said, ensuring that violence “can have no safe haven.” “We cannot allow this violence to become normal. The political rhetoric in this country has become too hot. It’s time to cool down,” Biden urged.
