J.D. Vance “Sanewashes” Donald Trump in V.P. Debate.

​When Donald Trump picked J.D. Vance as his running mate a lot of people were left scratching their heads. Anyone watching last week’s vice-presidential debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz now has a better understanding of Vance’s strengths. Vance was poised, polished, smart and an articulate defender of Donald Trump and his policies. He was clearly the best debater on stage that night, but more importantly he presented himself, and by extension Donald Trump, as reasoned, rational and well within the mainstream. He clearly did his job of “sanewashing” the Trump ticket, and that is what troubles me. 

The term “sanewashing” has been around for a few years, but it entered the political lexicon this year in the craziness of the 2024 presidential election.  It has come to mean the act of packaging or massaging radical and outrageous statements in a way that makes them sound normal. News outlines covering Trump have been accused of this. In some cases it is a purposeful attempt to present Trump in a more favorable light, and in other cases it is simply to help the intended audience make sense of his ramblings.  In either case it creates a misleading picture of Trump to the public and sanitizes what can only be categorized as unhinged, delusional and the utterances of an unwell man.     

In the hands of J.D. Vance, the concept of sanewashing has been taken to a new level. He has the ability to spin, distort, and deflect in such a way that overcomes any criticism of Trump, casting a favorable light on any of his discredited policies. The vice-presidential debate highlighted the dangers of an articulate Trump enabler like J.D. Vance.  Vance’s performance attempted to rewrite the history of the first Trump administration and normalize a deeply flawed candidate who doesn’t have a coherent plan to lead the country forward in a dangerous world.  

J.D. Vance may have won the debate on delivery, but he lost it on substance. Most of what he said sounded good, but it doesn’t hold up to close examination. If you are interested in a fact-check of the debate, I refer you to the  CBS News’ analysis.

I’m not claiming that everything that Walz said was 100% accurate. But the difference is that Walz’s inaccuracies pertained mostly to his own personal history, while those of Vance were misleading or false statements about Donald Trump and his policies. ​

Here are the most important inaccuracies uttered by Vance that all voters should consider:

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Also know as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare, it was signed into law in 2010 and was the crowning achievement of the Obama Administration. This law represented the most significant overhaul and expansion of the U.S. health system since 1965, providing affordable healthcare coverage to tens of millions of Americans. It was opposed by all Congressional Republicans, who have vowed to repeal and replace it every year since its inception.

In the debate Vance claimed that Trump had “salvaged” the ACA, saying that “۰۰۰when Obamacare was crushing under the weight of its own regulatory burden and healthcare costs, Donald Trump could have destroyed the program. Instead, he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.”

This statement was blatantly false. Trump was no champion of the ACA; in fact, he was just the opposite. He did everything in his power to dismantle the program which millions of Americans depend on for affordable health care. During his 2016 presidential campaign Trump vowed to repeal and replace the ACA. On his first day in office, he signed an executive order which proclaimed: “It is the policy of my Administration to seek the prompt repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”
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Throughout his term Trump pushed Congress to repeal the ACA, with little success. To undermine the law, Trump cut funding for advertising and outreach programs for the ACA and reduced subsidies to insurance companies for low-income enrollees. Trump still doesn’t have a healthcare plan that would replace the ACA and admitted as much in his September debate with Kamala Harris.  

Peaceful Transfer of Power: The biggest takeaway from the debate for me was that Vance refused to acknowledge that Trump had lost the 2020 election. This came after Vance claimed that Trump had peacefully handed over the reins of presidential power to Joe Biden. Here is what Vance said, “It’s really rich for Democratic leaders to say that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy when he peacefully gave over power on January 20th.” This is a dangerous revision of what actually happened in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

​The transfer of power from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration took place in a city under siege. Thousands of troops lined the streets and miles of fences restricted access to the grounds of the Capitol. This all took place in the aftermath of Trump’s failed attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election. It was not the peaceful transfer of power that Vance claimed.

​After losing the 2020 presidential election, Trump convinced millions of his supporters that the election had been stolen. This led to hundreds of election workers and state officials being threatened with violence. The life of Vice President Mike Pence was threatened for refusing to assist Trump in overturning the results of the election. The Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, resulted in over 150 Capitol police officers being injured and the lives of at least seven people were lost. No Mr. Vance, the transfer of presidential power was not peaceful!

​Vance did a great job during the debate of sanitizing Donald Trump’s record and sanewashing his often incoherent ramblings.  But he doesn’t believe any of it, and neither should you.  It was very self-serving. Vance is looking to his own political future and Trump is the most expedient way to move it forward. 

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Thanks,
Armchair American