Leland Vittert Asks Ron Johnson Whether Republicans Are Having ‘Buyer’s Remorse’ Over JD Vance: ‘Is He Ready for Primetime?’
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and NewsNation anchor Leland Vittert got into an argument on Tuesday over Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s suitability for “primetime” after Vittert asked whether it was true that Republicans were having second thoughts.
“Donald Trump could have essentially ended the presidential race at the convention by picking Nikki Haley as his running mate,” said Vittert on his NewsNation show On Balance. “Instead, he chose JD Vance, firebrand senator from Ohio. Tim Alberta of The Atlantic reports that Republicans are having buyer’s remorse.”
After Vittert asked Johnson whether reports about Republicans having “buyer’s remorse” about Vance were true, Johnson replied, “I don’t think so. I’ve served with JD now for almost two years and I don’t feel he’s a firebrand or bombastic. He’s intelligent.”
Vittert went on to play Johnson a compilation of some of Vance’s “unflattering” moments during a campaign rally in Ohio on Monday, before asking, “Is he ready for primetime?”
“First of all, you start out saying he’s a firebrand, you know, implying he’s bombastic. That seems like a pretty measured approach. He’s got a sense of humor. He’s engaging. I think that’ll appeal to an awful lot of voters, particularly here in Wisconsin,” replied Johnson. “I personally found that pretty appealing the way he was presenting himself.”
Vittert explained, “Well, firebrand in terms of his views. I think we can all agree some of the things he’s said on abortion and marriage and others appeal to a certain demographic. I’ll leave it at that.”
He continued:
The delivery of those lines, if we made a mashup, we could make an equally sort of unflattering mashup of Kamala Harris, and I’m wondering if, given now that Kamala Harris is at the top of the ticket, if picking JD Vance wasn’t an enormous missed opportunity? A Glenn Youngkin, a Doug Burgum, a Nikki Haley, somebody to appeal to the center now that Democrats have an enormous amount of wind in their sails.
Johnson shot back, “I’m just not agreeing with your assessment here. I didn’t hear any word salads coming out of JD. He was just trying to be personable there,” before concluding, “The extreme position on abortion is held by Vice President Kamala Harris. She wants unrestricted abortion up to the moment of birth.”
Watch above via NewsNation.
