At the Debate, JD Vance Put a Lifetime of Spin to Use

Political Memo

At the Debate, JD Vance Put a Lifetime of Spin to Use

Mr. Vance sanded down Donald Trump’s edges the way he often sharpens attacks for rally crowds — picking the facts that can deliver the most impact and discarding the rest.

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By Michael C. Bender

Michael C. Bender has traveled on Senator JD Vance’s campaign plane to events in Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia and attended his vice-presidential debate this week in New York.

The debilitating self-doubt that nagged JD Vance as he graduated from high school was replaced with a thrilling new confidence that he discovered in the Marines when he thrived in one particular role: performing for the TV cameras as a media relations officer.

Mr. Vance flourished at building relationships with reporters and learning to stay on message. His work spinning for one of the largest military bases on the East Coast, as he wrote in his memoir, earned him a commendation.

This week, on the biggest stage of his life, Mr. Vance used the techniques acquired in the military to spin some of the core issues of the Republican presidential ticket with a level of skill and shamelessness few in his party have pulled off.

In his 90-plus minutes on the vice-presidential debate stage, Mr. Vance, 40, delivered a performance that gave Donald J. Trump’s words and plans an intellectual and emotional dimension and revealed himself to be a more complicated figure than the caricature portrayed by his critics.

Mr. Vance, a senator from Ohio, fleshed out his ticket’s populism in a way Mr. Trump has never been willing or able to do. Advisers said it was part of a planned debate strategy to win over viewers by appearing thoughtful and empathetic. But the question remains whether Mr. Vance has laid the cornerstone for a new foundation of Trumpism, or his vision is merely a mirage.

In some ways, Mr. Vance has simply rolled a smooth veneer over the harshness of his party’s unpopular positions without addressing the underlying policies that Americans find problematic.

On abortion, he showed his ability to engage his emotions — particularly on an issue in which his party comes across as scolding and rigid — and became teary-eyed while recalling a friend in an abusive relationship who had viewed the procedure as her only option. He vowed to support policies that “just give women more options” — failing to mention that, for him, abortion is not one of those alternatives.

He spoke about the “terrible epidemic of gun violence,” emoting in a way few Republican candidates would dare. But his solutions were tougher immigration laws and more school security, not stricter firearm regulations.

For a television audience, Mr. Vance sanded down the edges of Trumpism the way he often sharpens his attacks for his rally crowds — selecting which facts can deliver the most impact and discarding the rest.

For his allies, that proved Mr. Vance’s ability to communicate across multiple media platforms and understand the difference between what earns likes and shares on social media and what seems appealing on TVs in living rooms.

Politics is indeed an art, but so is deception. And for his opponents, Mr. Vance is simply whoever his audience wants him to be.

“He will lie if that’s the only way that he can get the media’s attention,” Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, told reporters on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, as the campaign moved from the debate stage and back into battleground states, Mr. Vance dropped the air of respect he had shown the night before.

During a pair of events in Michigan, he mocked the “dumbest” comments he heard from his Democratic debate rival, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. He referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “an absolute disgrace,” described her as “very insecure” and blamed her for “division and hatred” in American politics.

Cesar Conda, who was chief of staff for Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and has been a policy adviser to multiple Republican presidential candidates, said Mr. Vance has proved himself to be the heir apparent to Mr. Trump’s movement of economic populism. But Mr. Conda questioned whether it would take permanent hold inside the party.

“At some point, policymakers must address the debt crisis,” Mr. Conda said. “But fiscal conservatism isn’t part of Vance’s economic populism — at least for now.”

Mr. Vance’s allies were surprised by the command and control he displayed on Tuesday, but not shocked. The boy who spent summers exploring his great-grandmother’s Appalachian holler and navigated the competitive environment of Yale Law School as an adult has repeatedly shown resiliency in high-pressure moments, replicating the formula he first discovered in the military.

He spun his life story into a best-selling memoir. He spun his well-documented past as a viciously anti-Trump conservative into the role of Mr. Trump’s running mate.

He also spun a flagging first political campaign into a Senate seat in Ohio.

In that race in 2022, Mr. Vance revived his struggling campaign when he replaced all of his scheduled speeches with town-hall-style events, a move that, advisers said, played to his strengths, put him more at ease on the campaign trail and started to attract media attention.

This year, as a finalist in Mr. Trump’s vice-presidential selection process, Mr. Vance bet on himself by sitting for multiple TV interviews beyond the friendly confines of conservative media to prove his mettle. Simply keeping his composure during some of the toughest exchanges, he and his advisers believed, would be seen as a victory.

But Mr. Vance did more than endure. He never equivocated in his support for Mr. Trump, including during a particularly heated back and forth in February with George Stephanopoulos on ABC that focused exclusively on his past statements as a Never Trumper, the sexual-assault accusations against Mr. Trump, the riot of Trump supporters at the Capitol and when the president should or should not defy the Supreme Court.

Soon after winning a spot on the ticket, Mr. Vance faced a deluge of attacks over his past criticisms of “childless cat ladies” in positions of power. But concerns inside the Trump campaign started to ease on Aug. 11, when he kept his composure as he was grilled during interviews on Sunday morning news shows on ABC, CBS and CNN.

The positive feedback from Mr. Trump and his team has continued.

After the debate on Tuesday, Mr. Trump spent much of the night privately complimenting Mr. Vance. He also praised Donald Trump Jr., telling people that his son had been a driving force behind Mr. Vance’s addition to the ticket — even as he made clear that the selection was Mr. Trump’s decision alone.

“It just reconfirmed my choice,” Mr. Trump told Fox News on Wednesday about Mr. Vance’s performance.

Jason Miller, the longtime Trump whisperer and senior adviser, praised Mr. Vance for showing the nation he was “a very likable guy.” It was a curious compliment, considering the former president has built an entire political brand disparaging an astonishing list of people, places and things.

Since when had the former president or his MAGA movement ever cared about being liked?

Mr. Miller paused briefly and raised an eyebrow at the question.

“It’s an added bonus,” he said.

Simon J. Levien contributed reporting from Michigan.