Donald Trump was right to say a presidential candidate’s running mate has “no impact” on an election’s outcome, Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance said in a clip released by CBS’s “Face the Nation” ahead of an interview airing Sunday. “I think President Trump’s right about that, actually. I think most people are voting for Donald Trump or for Kamala Harris,” Vance said.
Vance’s comments appear to be a direct response to concerns raised by Trump himself while being interviewed at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention in Chicago last month. With Vance polling poorly and receiving other unfavorable attention since he was announced as Trump’s running mate, Trump told attendees, “The vice president, in terms of the election, does not have any impact.”
“I mean, virtually no impact … virtually never has it mattered,” Trump added at the time. “You’re voting for the president, and you can have a vice president who is outstanding in every way. And I think J.D. is, I think that all of them would have been, but you’re not voting that way.”
“Donald Trump delivered rising wages and a secure border,” Vance said in the “Face the Nation” clip, praising his running mate’s record before pivoting to an attack on Democratic rival Harris. “Kamala Harris has delivered an open border and falling wages relative to inflation and groceries and housing and so forth. So I think that he’s actually right — that most people, when they cast their ballots, they’re making it based on who the presidential nominee is, not the vice presidential nominee.”
In a separate interview for ABC’s “This Week,” also released ahead of a full interviewing airing Sunday, Vance insisted that though he doesn’t believe his nomination will have an impact on the election results, he does think Trump believes he “can be president on day one if, God forbid, something happens.”
“I’m absolutely… I’m sure that Donald Trump is confident in my abilities. I also think that he’s right, that the politics of this really don’t matter that much,” he added.
Last week, Vance told the “Full Send Podcast” he doesn’t feel particularly relevant to the Trump campaign. “My attitude is, it doesn’t really matter, as much as this hits my ego,” Vance said. “People are going to vote primarily for Donald Trump or for Kamala Harris. That’s the way these things go. I think my job over the next few months is to just drive home the message that Kamala Harris has been a bad vice president, and she’d be a worse president.”
