The first and only vice presidential debate of 2024 was effectively a tie, according to a poll from CBS News which hosted the event. The mainstream media remarked on the surprisingly “civil” tone and “policy-driven” answers. And although U.S. Senator JD Vance‘s refusal to say Donald Trump lost the 2020 election may become the most-recognized remarks of the night, the Ohio Republican’s comments—and lies—on abortion are being seen as damning.
“If there was a jaw-dropping moment of the night, it was Vance’s answer on abortion. Vance acknowledged that there are a lot of Americans who don’t agree with what he’s said on the issue,” Punchbowl News reported, appearing to praise the GOP vice presidential nominee. “Then Vance flatly declared that Americans don’t trust Republicans when it comes to abortion.”
“We’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue, where they frankly just don’t trust us,” Vance said.
What Vance did not say is why Americans don’t trust the Republican Party on abortion, and, as he said later during the debate, “don’t agree with” what’s he’s said on abortion.
Many said it’s his lies, one of which MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow later fact-checked.
“Vance lied so much about his record on abortion,” noted HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery, with receipts (below).
“Holy Jesus,” remarked Esquire’s veteran liberal pundit Charles P. Pierce during the debate, “this abortion answer from Vance is such a heap of lies.”
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U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) observed, “Vance says his party’s support for abortion is really unpopular so they need [to] work harder to ‘win people’s trust’. In other words, they are DEFINITELY going to pass an abortion ban and just work harder to pull one over on you.”
PoliticusUSA’s Sarah Reese Jones remarked: “The abortion segment was by far the worst for JD Vance, who is already having a bad debate.”
Legal scholar and University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University Laurence Tribe remarked: “JD Vance told the biggest whopper of the night when he denied ever publicly supporting a national abortion ban. He’s on record having supported such a ban. Jaw-dropping.”
During the debate (full transcript via CBS News), Vance was asked point-blank: “Will you create a federal pregnancy monitoring agency?”
“No,” he told CBS News debate moderator Norah O’Donnell, “certainly we won’t.”
That was the extent of his response to that specific question—but he went on to talk extensively about abortion.
“I want to talk about this issue because I know a lot of Americans care about it, and I know a lot of Americans don’t agree with everything that I’ve ever said on this topic,” Vance acknowledged. “And, you know, I grew up in a working class family in a neighborhood where I knew a lot of young women who had unplanned pregnancies and decided to terminate those pregnancies because they feel like they didn’t have any other options. And, you know, one of them is actually very dear to me. And I know she’s watching tonight, and I love you. And she told me something a couple years ago that she felt like if she hadn’t had that abortion, that it would have destroyed her life because she was in an abusive relationship.”
“And I think that what I take from that, as a Republican who proudly wants to protect innocent life in this country, who proudly wants to protect the vulnerable is that my party, we’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American People’s trust back on this issue where they frankly just don’t trust us.”
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Laura Chapin, a Democratic communications strategist, responded on social media: “A note to the male pundits opining on the #VPDebate2024 : every woman in America heard @JDVance say his friend in an abusive relationship should have had her abuser’s baby and remain tied to him for the rest of her life.”
“I take this very personally,” Chapin added, “because that’s what happened to one of MY friends: she was 19 years old, in an abusive relationship, and had an abortion so she could escape his control and not be tied to him forever.”
Jessica Valenti, who writes a daily Substack on abortion, observed, “Vance tells the story of a friend who said she needed an abortion in order to leave an abusive relationship, but doesn’t say that the law he supports would have forced her to stay.”
As some have noted, Vance has suggested people in abusive, “even violent” marriage should stay together. His remarks have been thoroughly analyzed and he has issued a statement that offers no definitive answer, but his remarks during Tuesday night’s debate would make it appear that is what he believes.
“I find myself wanting to believe Vance’s moments expressing empathy,” remarked “The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as Trump White House Director of Strategic Communications and Assistant to the President. “Then I remember the entire persona he spent the last 5 years building as an internet bully who derides women, doesn’t care about war-torn Ukraine, & didn’t care about how his lies impacted Springfield.”
MSNBC Legal Analyst Kristy Greenberg, a former SDNY Criminal Division Deputy Chief, went even further in dissecting Vance’s remarks.
“At the VP debate, JD Vance said a woman he loves told him she was in an abusive relationship and had an abortion. His takeaway: shame that women don’t trust Republicans. And then he lied repeatedly,” she wrote, enumerating some of his lies and actions:
“1. He said he never supported a national abortion ban; he campaigned on eliminating abortion 2 years ago.
2. He said he supports fertility treatments; he and Republicans voted against Democrats’ bill establishing a nationwide right to IVF.
3. He said he supports affordable child care; he was a no show on Democrats’ bill to expand the child tax credit, which Republicans blocked.”
“My takeaway,” she concludes, “shame that women can’t trust Republicans because they lie. They say they support popular policies that help women when they don’t. We must call out their lies and expose the ugly truth every single time.”
CNN in July reported, “‘JD Vance said in 2022 he ‘would like abortion to be illegal nationally’.”
That same month HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery reported: “JD Vance Said We Just Need To Reframe The Idea Of Forcing Women To Stay Pregnant.” Bendery also posted a screenshot from his official Senate website which reads: “End Abortion.” She says that was later scrubbed from the site.
Watch the video above or at this link.
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