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OPINION

‘Brazen Gaslighting’: JD Vance Slammed for Telling Dems ‘Tone Down the Rhetoric’

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Ohio Republican U.S. Senator JD Vance published a 1203-word diatribe Monday night filled with falsehoods and feeble hypocrisies, demanding that Democrats “tone down the rhetoric” while insisting he opposes “censorship.” Critics are accusing the GOP vice presidential nominee of hypocrisy and gaslighting the public, given his and his running mate’s lies about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets, and Donald Trump’s vicious attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, which mirror what Vance is urging Democrats to not do.

“Reject censorship and you reject political violence. Embrace censorship, and you will inevitably embrace violence on its behalf,” Vance alleged in his post on X, before reaching this dramatic conclusion: “The logic of censorship leads directly to one place, for there is only one way to permanently silence a human being: put a bullet in his brain.”

That’s how Vance’s screed ended. But it began with a falsehood: “Yesterday, Donald J. Trump nearly lost his life.”

He was referring to the alleged attempted assassination on Sunday, during which a 58-year old man who voted for Trump in 2016 before publicly expressing his regret and supporting Republican Nikki Haley this year, was found by a Secret Service agent outside the perimeter of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf course, 300 to 500 feet away from the ex-president, with an AK-47. The agent shot at the suspect, who had been waiting in the bushes for about 12 hours.

“Ryan Wesley Routh did not fire any shots, never had Trump in his line of sight and sped away after an agent who spotted him shot in his direction, officials said. He was arrested in a neighboring county,” NBC South Florida reported.

RELATED: Trump Repeatedly Blames Biden, Harris for Assassination Attempt Allegedly by Another GOPer

And while this second alleged assassination attempt, once again by a GOP voter, is disturbing, Trump did not nearly lose his life anymore than he “took a bullet for democracy,” as he claimed after the first assassination attempt.

And yet Vance wrote, “The rhetoric is out of control. It nearly got Steve Scalise and many others killed a few years ago. It nearly got Donald Trump killed twice” – a clear attack on Democrats despite both alleged attempted shooters targeting Trump were his own supporters, at least at one time. As for the Scalise shooting in 2017, seven years ago, the perpetrator had a 20-year history of run-ins with the police, including an arrest “after a 2006 incident in which he was accused of beating his foster daughter, according to court records. The case crumbled after the victim decided not to testify,” Bloomberg reported. Had he been convicted he would have been unable to own a gun.

Vance also claimed that “Kamala Harris has said that ‘Democracy is on the line’ in her race against President Trump. The gunman agreed, and used the exact same phrase.”

NCRM could find no news reports making the claim Routh has said that, but you know who has? The American people.

“Americans agree that the future of democracy is on the line in the 2024 election but disagree about who poses the biggest threat,” is the headline of a December PBS News report.

“A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 62% of adults say democracy in the U.S. could be at risk depending on who wins next fall. Majorities of Democrats (72%) and Republicans (55%) feel the same way, but for different reasons.”

Vance also promoted the claim – again, nowhere to be found in news reports NCRM could find – that, he says, “suggest [the bomb threats] came from a foreign country, not–as the media suggested–a deranged Trump fan.”

It is the same suggestion made, apparently without public proof or substance, by Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine and Attorney General Dave Yost, also citing no source.

As for the bomb threats, Governor DeWine announced Monday there had been 33 since Donald Trump and JD Vance made their wild accusations that Haitian immigrants (20,000 “illegal” migrants they falsely claimed) are stealing and eating the cats and dogs of Springfield residents. 33 affecting 22 facilities including elementary schools and hospitals that were forced to be evacuated, shuttered, or searched.

RELATED: 33 Bomb Threats in Springfield Shuttered 22 Facilities in Days After Trump’s Immigrant Lie

Somehow, Vance and the GOP are claiming that the bomb threats coming from overseas (not proven) absolve them of any guilt. It does not. The bomb threats are a direct result of Vance’s and Trump’s lies attacking immigrants, which in turn are a hallmark of Donald Trump’s political career since he came down the golden Trump Tower escalator in 2015 and told the American people their problems are being caused by Mexicans.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems,” Trump said on the June day when he launched his first presidential run. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people.”

And while Vance is demanding Democrats “tone down the rhetoric,” he ignores the words of his running mate, Donald Trump, who just last week repeatedly called Vice President Harris “a threat to democracy,” in a speech before the Fraternal Order of Police.

Meanwhile, civil rights and national security journalist Marcy Wheeler blasted Vance’s massive social media post, calling it a “a fascist manifesto,” in which, she writes, the Ohio Senator argues “that false claims dehumanizing migrants is opinion the censorship of which will lead to violence, but Harris’ factual observations about Trump’s coup attempt is violence.”

Posting a screenshot, Wheeler sardonically remarked that his post “starts by feigning to care about incendiary speech, but ultimately says you have to let his Nazi buddies lie about Haitians eating kitties.”

Because it was a lie, a lie that Vance admitted to when he told CNN on Sunday he will “create stories” to promote his agenda: “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

National security attorney Brad Moss debunked Vance’s public remarks Monday in which the Senator claimed, “You know the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months. I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric, and needs to cut this crap out.”

Former Lincoln Project executive director Fred Wellman summed up Vance’s remarks, asking, “So if I understand the new MAGA messaging correctly; quoting Trump and Vance’s actual words they have said on the record multiple times is inciting violence?”

The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson also slammed Vance, writing: “All your gifts, wasted on a dissolute con man, a rapist, serial adulterer, a bankrupt wastrel, and an eager authoritarian who has stoked more violence, hatred, division, death, and chaos than any President in modern history. You, sir, are the cause of death and bomb threats happening *this instant* in Ohio and you elide your guilt with the grace of a Harvard law grad. Spare me.”

CNN host W. Kamau Bell blasted Vance’s remarks on Monday:

“This reads like your daddy Trump yelled at you & told you to make it right. You had an all-time debacle of an interview yesterday where all you had to say was ‘I’m sorry to my home state. As an elected official it is my responsibility to fact check the things I say.’ & today more bomb threats came into the schools that your constituents send their kids to. You talk about Democratic ‘rhetoric’ like your daddy didn’t lead an attack on a the Capitol. Well, since you said we are allowed to say mean things, let me say this, you are a disgrace.”

Mother Jones national affairs editor Mark Folman added, “What brazen gaslighting from JD Vance, who literally led the way on incitement blaming Dems for the shooting in Pennsylvania — ‘They even tried to kill him’ This BS rhetoric [was] repeated by Vance and many top Trump surrogates.”

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Scarborough Tuesday morning called Vance’s speech in which he called for Democrats to tone down the rhetoric, “gaslighting of the first order.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Remigration’: Trump Continues Attacks on Immigrants With New Vow of Forced Deportations

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OPINION

‘Strategically Disastrous’: How JD Vance Is Harming America’s Foreign Relations

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2 weeks ago

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April 16, 2025

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In the realm of foreign policy, Vice President JD Vance has drawn sharp criticism, with critics branding him as “extremist,” the “Malicious American,” and the “Brutal American“—labels sparked by what they describe as his “naked hostility,” his “morally wrong” and “strategically disastrous” posturing, and a demand to interchange “truth for trade.” If alienating allies is the objective, critics say, he’s well on his way to achieving it.

During the first Trump administration, the President repeatedly came under fire for promoting a brand of foreign relations that was seen as entirely transactional. Turning a blind eye to decades of presidents promoting democracy and human rights as critical components of their foreign policy, Trump forged friendships with authoritarian dictators, invited terrorists to Camp David, and delivered “extensive damage” to “the United States’ international interests and global security.”

In this new, second Trump administration, the President appears to have gone all in on that transactional approach. In what is seen as an effort to upend the world order, Trump is on the offensive, attacking friend and foe alike, distancing America from the rest of the world on the premise that the rest of the world needs America more than America needs the rest of the world.

But Vice President JD Vance appears to have taken Trump’s foreign policy to a far different place: an attempt to create a political and cultural reshaping of foreign nations into the far-right realm. Where Trump wanted trade and military deals, Vance seeks to promote the far right and encourage attacks on minorities.

His efforts, to some, were first noticed during the infamous Oval Office meeting with the President of Ukraine. When Vance took the lead in publicly berating Volodymyr Zelenskyy on live television, many saw it as the moment the United States pivoted—from supporting Ukraine to effectively siding with Russia.

The Vice President is now fully engaged in the role of President Trump’s attack dog.

READ MORE: ‘Willful Disregard’: Judge Finds ‘Probable Cause’ to Hold Trump Admin in Criminal Contempt

But the costs are high.

Vance’s assault on a world leader seen as a hero to Western democracies effectively killed what was billed as a wildly lucrative rare earth minerals deal with Ukraine, and with it, a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia that President Trump campaigned on—stating that he could bring peace in just one day.

The Greenland imbroglio was another embarrassing event—not only for Vance, but for the Second Lady, and for America. What was supposed to be a week-long charm offensive turned into a few offensive hours.

Now that Trump has imposed his worldwide tariffs, Vance appears to be the one attempting to negotiate country by country.

It is not going well.

Last week, Vance told Fox News that America is borrowing money from “Chinese peasants” to “buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.”

Robyn Dixon, Moscow Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, reports that the “JD Vance comment about ‘Chinese peasants’ was taken in China as deeply offensive, and it is now a hurdle to trade talks. Trump administration’s approach appears tone deaf on this.”

READ MORE: Secret Musk Pentagon Briefing Nixed by Trump Led to Ouster of Longtime Hegseth Associates

Spencer Hakimian, the founder and chief investment officer of the hedge fund Tolou Capital Management, one week after the Vance “peasants” comment, posted that “Chinese purchases of American oil are down -90% Y/Y, while Chinese purchases of Canadian oil are up +700% Y/Y.

“That’s a $20B annual loss for the United States at $60/barrel.”

Bloomberg News reports that “China wants to see a number of steps from President Donald Trump’s administration before it will agree to trade talks, including showing more respect by reining in disparaging remarks by members of his cabinet, according to a person familiar with the Chinese government’s thinking.”

It’s not just China, Greenland, Ukraine, or Germany that have had to experience the American Vice President.

According to The Independent, Vance wants the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to repeal hate speech laws “in order to get a trade deal over the line.”

The UK-based news outlet adds that “a senior Washington figure, who has provided advice for the administration, claimed he is ‘obsessed by the fall of Western civilisation’ – including his view that free speech is being eroded in Britain – and that he will demand the Labour government rolls back laws against hateful comments, including abuse targeting LGBT+ groups or other minorities, as a condition of any deal.”

“’No free speech, no deal. It is as simple as that,’ the Washington source said.”

That may come as a surprise to some, but taking a walk back to just a few months ago, it shouldn’t.

In February, Vance traveled to Germany to declare support for its growing neo-Nazi party.

“After berating European allies, Vance met with the leader of the far-right AfD party, Alice Weidel,” The Washington Post’s European Affairs columnist Lee Hockstader wrote.

“That Vance took up the cause of the AfD, a party polling at around 20 percent which many Germans regard as beyond the pale, is heedless of history and contemptuous of the transatlantic alliance,” Hockstader said. “In doing so, he managed to transform Europe’s old stereotype of the Ugly American into something more grotesque: the Malicious American.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘This Is a Big Deal’: Top Hegseth Advisor ‘Escorted’ Out of the Pentagon Amid Leak Probe

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OPINION

‘Dangerous’ New Trump Drug Tariffs Would Lead to Shortages, Soaring Costs, Death: Critics

Published

3 weeks ago

on

April 9, 2025

By

In his 2023 State of the Union Address, then-President Joe Biden vowed, “Make no mistake: if Republicans try to raise the cost of prescription drugs, I will veto it.” Democrats cheered and applauded, while Republicans remained mostly silent.

But Republicans cheered and applauded as President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday night he would impose “major” tariffs on pharmaceuticals—prescription drugs, some life-saving, taken by nearly two out of every three Americans, including nine out of every ten seniors aged 65 or older. Over-the-counter medications like pain relievers such as Advil and Tylenol, and allergy medications, for example, could also be included.

“We’re gonna tariff our pharmaceuticals, and once we do that, they’re gonna come rushing back into our country, because we’re a big market,” Trump declared in remarks (video below) at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner, a black tie event for the NRCC, which works to elect Republicans to the House of Representatives.

READ MORE: Noem Slammed for Pointing Assault Rifle at Law Enforcement Officer

The contrasts were striking: one President pledging to keep prescription costs down; the other, in black tie, announcing major tariffs on medications—many of them used daily by Americans, including seniors and low-income individuals who depend on them to manage serious conditions or even to stay alive.

“The advantage we have over everybody is that we’re the big market,” President Trump went on to say, “so we’re gonna be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals, and when you and when they hear that, they will leave China, they will leave other places, because they have to sell most of their product to [be] sold here, and they’re going to be opening up their plants all over the place in our country.”

According to NBC News, “Pharmaceutical imports were initially exempt from Trump’s first set of reciprocal tariffs last week,” but upon hearing the President’s announcement, global pharmaceutical manufacturers’ stocks took a tumble.

Late last month, the Brookings Institution warned that tariffs on pharmaceuticals will not provide incentive for U.S manufacturing of “off-patent generic drugs, which represent over 90% of the volume” of prescriptions dispensed. It also warned that tariffs on pharmaceuticals could lead to “product discontinuations or cost cutting that erodes quality.”

“Any production disruptions in the already fragile generic injectable markets are likely to result in shortages,” Brookings added.

Backlash to Trump’s announcement was swift, as many Americans, already under stress from the President’s massive tariff program, have seen markets in the U.S. and across the globe decimated.

Critics warn the tariffs could lead to deadly consequences

“Donald Trump wants to slap tariffs on pharmaceuticals, most of which are made outside the States, including the raw ingredients that go into almost every pill we take? That’s not being tough on China—that’s playing politics with people’s lives,” commented political strategist Shea Jordan Smith.

READ MORE: ‘Answer the Question!’: Dem Berates Trump Official Over Worst Policies ‘In My Lifetime’

“Make no mistake—this will kill Americans,” warned 314 Action, which says it is “the only organization in the nation focused on recruiting, training, and electing Democrats with a background in science to public office.” “Trump is gambling with people’s lives through his tariffs. This is why we need more doctors in Congress—to be able to stand up to Trump and protect our health care from weak spined Republicans.”

Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, lamented: “President Trump wants to tax low-income families’ and seniors’ prescription drugs at accelerating rates until they can no longer afford the medications they need to survive and function. Sadistic. And Congress does nothing about it.”

Middlebury College political science professor Gary Winslett, who focuses on politics around trade and global business writes, “This has got to be one of the absolute dumbest product classes you could ever tariff.”

Robert Tyler, a senior policy advisor at a conservative European think tank, observed: “It’s one thing to disrupt global supply chains for the auto industry (because frankly people just aren’t buying that many cars at the moment anyway) but pharmaceuticals is dangerous. A lot of the world don’t have the capacity to fill a shortfall.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: DOJ Accused of ‘Abuse of Power’ After Sending Armed Marshals to Whistleblower’s Home

 

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OPINION

‘No Adult Supervision’: Concern Escalates as Trump Increasingly Appears Out of Touch

Published

1 month ago

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March 27, 2025

By

Concerns are mounting over President Donald Trump’s ability, willingness, or even interest in engaging with the most pressing issues facing the country, as he increasingly—and casually—admits to being unaware of critical matters. His repeated declarations of ignorance, often delivered without hesitation or concern, have deepened alarm among critics who warn of a dangerous void in informed leadership in the Oval Office.

Late Wednesday afternoon, a reporter asked President Trump, “Have you been briefed about the soldiers in Lithuania? Who are missing?”

The Commander-in-Chief, appearing both uninformed and unconcerned, simply replied, “No I haven’t.” And moved on to take a question from another reporter.

The four soldiers went missing on Tuesday during a training mission in Lithuania, near the border of Belarus, a staunch ally of Russia. On Wednesday, as Axios reported, their Hercules armored vehicle was found submerged. Hours before Trump was asked, NATO and numerous media outlets had reported the soldiers were dead, only to walk that back later. They currently remain missing.

But President Trump said he was unaware of any of this.

“Is Trump just totally out of the loop?” asked journalist Matthew Yglesias. “Why wasn’t he briefed on the soldiers in Lithuania?”

READ MORE: Passwords, Contact Info for Top Trump NatSec Officials ‘Publicly’ Available: Report

Declaring President Trump “clueless” on “basic intel,” The New Republic on Thursday morning noted that “the armymen were known to be missing as early as Tuesday at 4:45 p.m., the Lithuanian military said, so why Trump was still unaware of the situation more than 24 hours later is unclear.”

Also Wednesday afternoon, President Trump was asked about his Secretary of Defense’s involvement in Signalgate. Pete Hegseth has been identified as the one who shared classified information in an insecure channel—seen as the greatest violation within the entire scandal. But the President appeared unaware of his Defense Secretary’s role in the massive nation security breach when asked by a reporter.

“Hegseth is doing a great job. He had nothing to do this. Hegseth? How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it. Look, it’s all a witch hunt,” Trump told the reporter. He then went on to try to blame Signal, saying he thought it could be “defective.”

Attorney and former Biden White House senior presidential speechwriter Dan Cluchey, responded to the video of Trump’s remarks on Hegseth and Signal.

“This is stronger evidence of cognitive decline than anything Joe Biden has ever said in his life, ever,” he wrote, and warned: “Something tells me the press will breeze right past it.”

READ MORE: ‘Liar’ Hegseth Faces ‘Immediate’ Resignation Demand From Growing List of Democrats

Journalist James Surowiecki observed, Trump is “so checked out of his job that he doesn’t even know Hegseth needlessly disclosed the weapons packages and times of the attack on the Houthis.”

On Monday, Trump had told reporters when asked about the Signal scandal, “I don’t know anything about it.” Appearing as if he had not been briefed, he then asked a reporter for more information about it.

“Trump initially told reporters he was not aware that the highly sensitive information had been shared, 2 1/2 hours after it was reported. He later appeared to joke about the breach,” the Associated Press reported.

The Signal texts that The Atlantic had published also reveal the President’s apparent lack of awareness, on numerous fronts.

On Wednesday, asked by a reporter if he believed the information shared in the Signal chat was not classified, the Commander-in-Chief told reporters, “That’s what I’ve heard. I don’t know. I’m not sure, you have to ask the various people involved.”

The White House has repeatedly insisted it was not classified, but countless experts, including lawmakers, say it was classified.

Vice President JD Vance in the texts says, “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this [military strike] is with his message on Europe right now.”

The Washington Post, citing a person with knowledge of Vance’s intentions, reported on Wednesday that “Vance wanted to ensure that Trump had been given all the facts about the potential attack, including that European nations stood to benefit more from it than the U.S.” That would suggest the Commander-in-Chief was not aware of “all the facts.”

Also of concern is that the 18 participants in the Signal chat appeared to be unsure of the President’s directive.

Calling him “President Bystander,” MSNBC’s Steve Benen writes, “Trump appears out of the loop in his own White House.”

Pointing to the Signal texts, Benen says one text “chain featured the White House’s Stephen Miller adding, in apparent reference to the attack plan, ‘As I heard it, the president was clear: green light.'”

“The problems should be obvious,” Benen added. “Vance was uncertain about Trump’s knowledge of the relevant details, and one of the president’s right-hand loyalists added an ‘as I heard it’ qualifier to the commander in chief’s directive about a deadly military operation abroad.”

The Commander-in-Chief appears to have been uninvolved in important portions of the planning of the military strike. Based on the Signal texts, it appears likely that he was absent from key portions of the decision making process.

Jared Ryan Sears, who writes The Pragmatic Humanist, offered this observation.

“Trump didn’t know about the Signal group chat or that a reporter was included. Trump says he didn’t sign the authorization to use the Enemy Alien Act to deport people without due process. His signature was on the document. Trump didn’t know that US service members went missing during a training exercise in Lithuania,” he noted. “What kind of leader knows nothing about what his administration is doing, what he himself is doing, and what is happening with the military he is in charge of?”

Attorney, Republican, and former U.S. Representative Barbara Comstock on Wednesday shared her concerns via social media.

“There is no adult supervision at the White House. Grandpa does not know what is going on except on the Golf Chanel or if someone takes a bad picture of him. Where’s Melania? Does he have a COS or caretaker?”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Quite a Bit of Perjury’: Texts Shatter Trump Admin’s ‘Bungled Coverup’ of Classified Leak

 

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