'Phony baloney': Shapiro smacks down Vance over 'weird' Obama 'insult'

02 August 2024

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro criticized Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate JD Vance, telling reporters the Republican U.S. Senator can’t be honest with the American people because he’s not being honest with himself.

“JD Vance just said this about you,” a reporter told the Democratic governor Friday afternoon. “And these are his words, quote, he compared you to a really bad impression of Barack Obama. What is your response?”

Shapiro, who is reportedly one of six candidates Vice President Kamala Harris is considering to become her running mate, appeared to try to hold back laughter when hearing the question.

“Is that what he said?” a smirking Shapiro asked. “He’s great. I love how we get the real-time quotes here. I mean, look, I don’t know,” he continued, chuckling.

“Barack Obama is probably our most gifted orator of my time, so it’s kind of a weird insult, I guess,” the 51-year old former Attorney General said to applause as he gestured with his hands. “I’ll say this about JD Vance. It is real hard being honest with the American people, when you’re not being honest with yourself. JD Vance is a total phony baloney. He is the most inorganic candidate I think I have ever seen on the national stage.”

“He doesn’t know what he believes, and that is why it is impossible for him to articulate a coherent message to the American people, because he doesn’t believe it. This guy is not exactly off to a good start,” Shapiro noted, as some in the audience laughed. “And it is clear that Donald Trump really has buyer’s remorse with his pick. So if he wants to sling insults in my direction, which I’m not even sure it’s an insult. Let him do it. That’s fine. Bring it on. I’ll be ready for whatever the hell JD Vance throws in my direction,” he concluded, dismissively.

The clip (below) has received over 1.2 million views in under 90 minutes.

While he was not specific, Shapiro may have been referring to reports Vance’s birth name was James Donald Bowman, according to Politico, after his biological father, Donald Bowman. It later changed to James David Hamel when his mother remarried. And still later, to James David Vance, then J.D. Vance, and still later, just JD Vance, without the periods.

“Vance is descended from ‘hillbilly royalty’ on his father’s side: His grandfather’s distant cousin — also named Jim Vance — married into the Hatfield family and is rumored to have committed the murder that instigated the legendary Hatfield-McCoy feud,” Politico reported last month.

It also reported on Vance’s flip from anti-Trump to Trump-supporter.

“During the 2016 election, Vance emerged as a vocal critic of Donald Trump: ‘I’m a Never Trump guy,’ he told Charlie Rose in October 2016.”

He has said, “My god what an idiot,” about Trump on social media, and called Trump “cultural heroin,” “noxious,” and accused him of “leading the white working class to a very dark place.”

Earlier this week a Colorado Sun opinion column declared, “Vance once called Trump ‘America’s Hitler.’ Now he’s running as his VP. Voters can’t trust his flip-flops.” It added, Vance is “a man with precisely zero moral scruples, an ax to grind and clear narcissistic tendencies that make him fit to be only the second-worst con man on the Republican presidential ticket.”

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