Democrats slam ‘clone’ JD Vance as Republicans heap on the praise

Most Republicans publicly heaped praise on Donald Trump’s selection of Ohio Senator JD Vance as his Vice Presidential running mate, while Democrats sought to highlight his allegedly extreme views on foreign policy, abortion and health care.

Republican ticket: Donald Trump and JD Vance

President Joe Biden has criticised Republican senator JD Vance as a “clone of Trump” after the former president picked the 39-year-old former marine as his vice-presidential running mate, pitting him against Kamala Harris in November’s critical election.

Speaking as he was leaving for campaign events in Las Vegas, Mr Biden said he couldn’t see “any difference” between the two, echoing more strident criticism from other leading Democrats who cast Senator Vance as an extremist on abortion, foreign policy, healthcare and his criticism of the 2020 presidential election.

Biden campaign chairman Jen O’Malley Dillon said “billionaires and corporations are literally rooting for JD Vance because they know he will cut their taxes”, providing the party a welcome opportunity to shift the news cycle away from the attempt on Mr Trump’s life and criticism of the President’s competence.

“Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” she said.  Senator Vance, who first rose to prominence with his best-selling book, Hillbilly Elegy, had already stirred up Democrats’ ire last weekend after he blamed the party for the assassination attempt, alleging their extreme campaign rhetoric that demonised the former president was “directly” responsible.

Frequent Democrat party surrogate Van Jones said on CNN that Senator Vance, who Democrats typically deride as an economic populist and social conservative, was “a much more dangerous virus” than Mr Trump.

While establishment Republicans such as Bill Kristol and Karl Rove distanced themselves from the selection over Senator Vance’s isolationist tendencies in foreign policy, most Republicans praised the ambitious Ohio senator, at 39 the first millennial to be nominated to such a position.

“JD is a father, military veteran, best-selling author, and has served Ohio well as our US senator. In ­addition, JD’s unique life story will resonate with Republicans and ­independent voters across the country,” Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said.

US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said Senator Vance, long seen as one of the more intellectual Republicans in congress, was one of the country’s “most thoughtful senators”.

“He possesses a profound understanding of the anxieties of working families and has both the lived experience and the policy ­expertise to help President Trump deliver a government worthy of the people it is supposed to serve,” Mr Johnson said.

Conservative journalist Ben Shapiro told his millions of followers on social media that “in terms of pure IQ and speaking ability, Vance is the best candidate Trump could pick”.

Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who became one of Mr Trump’s greatest champions after dropping out of the race to win the GOP presidential nomination earlier in the year, could be a direct beneficiary should Mr Trump and Senator Vance win in November.

Republican senator Mike Lee urged the Ohio Governor to pick Mr Ramaswamy as Senator Vance’s replacement in the Senate.

Trump allay and right-wing journalist Tucker Carlson slammed Republican senator Lindsay Graham as a “liar” in a social media post.

“No one lobbied harder against JD Vance than he did, and in the sleaziest, most vicious way. He was doing it this morning,” he said.