JD Vance's populist plans to break up Big Tech monopolies



Last night, Sen. JD Vance officially accepted the Republican nomination for vice president at the 2024 Republican Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sending optimism to Silicon Valley and the tech community.

A right-wing populist, Vance has been critical of the old right’s market fundamentalism in favor of the new right’s pro-worker economic nationalism — one that calls for antitrust crackdowns on Big Tech. A New York Times article described Vance as “pro-labor, a fan of crypto and the F.T.C.'s Lina Khan, and says Big Tech is too powerful.”

Without tough antitrust legislation against Big Tech monopolies and pro-innovation regulatory reform, Big Tech will continue to enjoy its “wall of laws and regulations that protect and entrench their positions and that new startups cannot possibly scale.” Breaking up Big Tech, on the other hand, will empower startups and foster an innovative environment.

Last February, Vance called for government action against Google, tweeting, “It’s time to break Google up,” since Google is “an explicitly progressive technology company“ and “a threat to democracy.”

“In October and November, as millions of undecided voters consider their choice for president, they will go to Google and ask 'Did Donald Trump say X?' 'Is Biden too old to be president?' The results they see will be explicitly biased towards Democrats,” Vance tweeted.

A conservative trustbuster?

Vance has drawn criticism from the libertarian right for bucking the GOP’s free-market orthodoxy and praising Biden-appointed Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan’s aggressive trust-busting revolution against Silicon Valley and private equity. As FTC chair, Khan has battled various big multinational businesses by cracking down on corporations who make bogus “Made in America” claims, going after a private equity firm’s plan to “drive up the price of anesthesia services provided to Texas patients,” and suing Kochava for selling geolocation data and violating Americans’ privacy.

At RemedyFest, an antitrust conference organized by Y Combinator and Bloomberg, Vance told conference attendees that he “look[s] at Lina Khan as one of the few people in the Biden administration who ... is doing a pretty good job.”

Following Vance’s VP announcement, Reason, a libertarian publication,put out a story attacking Vance’s “love” for Khan’s “anti-free markets” and “anti-innovation, anti-tech, anti-big business, and anti-consumer agenda.”

“A second Trump administration may mirror some of the tactics of Khan and the Biden administration but turn them against policies and companies that left-leaning types support. No matter who wins the election this November, we're looking at four more years of aggressively anti-free market policies coming from the FTC,” Reason’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown wrote.

Some, like libertarian journalist Brad Polumbo, have also likened him to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), claiming Vance “has more in common with [her] on economic policy than Ronald Reagan” due to his open willingness to go after large corporations, raise their taxes, and “do whatever else is necessary to fight these goons.”

Others, however, are pleased with the GOP’s populist trajectory. Oren Cass, chief economist at American Compass, tweeted, “Exceptional VP pick. @jdvance1's conservative economics and dedication to American workers captures perfectly the Republican Party’s transformation over the past eight years.”

Little Tech vs. Big Tech’s agenda

Marc AndreesenJustin Sullivan/Getty

Vance’s support for aggressive trust-busting and regulations creates an interesting dynamic within the GOP. With the exception of being pro-crypto, Vance holds many ostensibly anti-tech stances, putting him at odds with some of his biggest supporters — tech billionaires and venture capitalists.

It was reported that Elon Musk and tech investor David Sacks helped push Vance over the line for Trump’s VP selection. Furthermore, Vance first got into politics through his exploration into venture capital. He initially worked at Peter Thiel’s Mithril Capital after briefly working in corporate law. And a couple of years later, he started his own venture capital firm, Narya Capital, where he raised $93 million from several tech billionaires, including Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen.

After his spell in venture capital, Vance shifted his eyes to holding public office. Vance went on to win an Ohio Senate seat even after a hotly contested GOP primary in large part due to Peter Thiel’s record-breaking $15 million donation. Thiel also helped garner large donations from wealthy individuals, including David Sacks.

Considering the tech sector’s increasing support for Trump and Vance’s ties to tech billionaires and venture capitalists, some are starting to think the 47th administration might go soft on Big Tech and “switch on Lina Khan now.”

Fortunately, Vance is not likely to. After all, Big Tech’s agenda isn’t always in the interest of America’s tech sector because “their interests are often at odds with a positive technological future as they are more interested in regulatory capture and preserving their monopolies. As a result, technology startups need a voice,” venture capitalist Ben Horowitz wrote in a blog post.

Startups, also referred to as “Little Tech,” are at the heart of the American tech sector and could turn the 21st century into the American century. In Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz’s Little Tech Agenda, they highlight Little Tech’s role as "the vanguard of American technology supremacy." They say, “From Edison and Ford to Hughes and Lockheed to SpaceX and Tesla, the path to greatness starts in a garage.”

Vance’s endorsement of Khan’s antitrust revolution serves as a net positive for America’s tech industry since Little Tech faces huge disadvantages by having to “go up against incumbent companies that have overwhelmingly superior brands, market positions, customer bases, and financial strength — incumbents that are out to strangle startup competition in the cradle.”

The Little Tech agenda could be the catalyst that recaptures American supremacy. The Trump/Vance ticket must not back down from Big Tech. Andreessen and Horowitz don’t explicitly endorse Khan’s trust-busting, but without tough antitrust legislation against Big Tech monopolies and pro-innovation regulatory reform, Big Tech will continue to enjoy its “wall of laws and regulations that protect and entrench their positions and that new startups cannot possibly scale.” Breaking up Big Tech, on the other hand, will empower startups and foster an innovative environment.

As Andreessen and Ben Horowitz write, “The glory of a second American Century is within our reach. Let’s grasp it.”

Tucker Carlson explains precisely why JD Vance was the right VP pick



President Donald Trump named Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) Monday as his running mate, emphasizing that as "Vice President, J.D. will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN."

Vance noted in response, "What an honor it is to run alongside President Donald J. Trump. He delivered peace and prosperity once, and with your help, he'll do it again. Onward to victory!"

Tucker Carlson, who joined Trump and Vance at the Republican National Convention following the announcement, made clear earlier in the day precisely why Vance was the right pick.

Addressing a crowd Monday at the Heritage Foundation's Policy Fest, Carlson prefaced with a condemnation of the political class and the type of people he regards as its predominant constituents.

"I spent the whole day dealing with politics — this day, starting at 5 a.m. — and I ... forgot how repulsive a process it is, and how feline and ruthless the players are. It was a reminder why I don't like politicians," said Carlson, who later suggested that "deception is at the core, actually, of who they are."

'Every bad person I've ever met in a lifetime in Washington was aligned against JD Vance.'

Carlson suggested that whereas those he regularly speaks to on both sides of the spectrum are invested in their causes and mean what they say, politicians alternatively tend to be opportunists who traffic in empty rhetoric in pursuit of power. According to Carlson, the efforts by various personalities to lock down one job in particular — that of Trump's running mate — helped illustrate this point.

"There's this job. One person makes the decision, and whoever gets the job immediately has a lot of power. And it really is like waving a flank steak over an alligator," said Carlson.

While disgusted by the process and some of the prospects vying for the steak in question, Carlson intimated that Vance stood apart from the others.

"Now JD Vance is the VP pick, and I think every person who pays close attention has gotta be thrilled by that," continued Carlson. "And if you don't know much about JD Vance, I'm not even going to make a case for JD Vance. I'm going to tell you what I just saw, which is that every bad person I've ever met in a lifetime in Washington was aligned against JD Vance."

While various deep-pocketed Republican donors were actively demeaning the Appalachian populist, Rupert Murdoch reportedly launched a massive lobbying campaign to dissuade Trump from picking Vance. A source in the Trump camp apparently told NOTUS that Murdoch had been calling Trump multiple times a day to instead choose North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for his running mate — the would-be VP pick Republican strategist Karl Rove also tried to boost over Vance.

Murdoch's personal campaign against Vance spread to two of his publications, namely the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, which both ran multiple editorials hammering Vance.

As the desperation grew and the choice neared, the campaign against Vance among establishmentarians became increasingly desperate and aggressive.

Blaze News previously reported that former Obama adviser and Democratic strategist David Axelrod said Vance should be disqualified for suggesting that Biden's inflammatory rhetoric set the stage for the attempted assassination on Trump.

Vance wrote shortly after Trump was nearly murdered by a would-be assassin, "The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

Axelrod wrote, "If @JDVance1 is on the short list for VP, this Tweet, sent an hour after the assassination attempt in PA, ought to disqualify him in the eyes of the Trump campaign. Wrong vibe in that moment."

"Trump probably doesn't want a shoot-from-the-hip VP," added Axelrod.

Adam Kinzinger, a former member of the House Jan. 6 committee, joined the Democratic strategist in suggesting Vance's remark was disqualifying.

Failed Republican presidential candidate Joe Walsh responded to Vance on X, writing, "What a sick, disgusting tweet. Donald Trump IS an authoritarian fascist. The Biden campaign is correct to say that. And to connect the millions of Americans who believe that to this shooting is utterly irresponsible. You’ll make a perfect Trump VP. Shame on you."

Trump's decision to ignore such statements and to ultimately pick Vance enraged Bill Kristol and his fellow travelers.

"Having turned the Republican Party into the Trump Party, [Trump is] now turning a Trumpist party into a Trumpist movement. Indeed, the selection of Vance marks the completion of the transformation of a conservative political party into an authoritarian movement," wrote Kristol. "Vance has been more consistently and fervently America First in foreign policy than Trump. He's more committed to ethno-nationalism and anti-'elite' populism than Trump. He's been more committed to destroying any non-political civil service than Trump. He's more contemptuous of the norms, institutions, and mores of liberal democracy than Trump."

Republican strategist Karl Rove called the selection a "missed opportunity" in a Fox News op-ed.

Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney also melted down over Vance's selection, writing, "JD Vance has pledged he would do what Mike Pence wouldn't — overturn an election and illegally seize power. He says the president can ignore the rulings of our courts. He would capitulate to Russia and sacrifice the freedom of our allies in Ukraine. The Trump GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln, Reagan or the Constitution."

Carlson emphasized that the nature and disposition of Vance's detractors spoke volumes about the former Marine.

'They thought he would be harder to manipulate and slightly less enthusiastic about killing people.'

"It's not like I think ... God's always on my side. Sometimes I'm not on God's side," said Carlson. "But I definitely know who's representing the other side."

"It's a lot easier to tell who the people who are only in it because they like, I don't know, killing other people in pointless wars," continued Carlson. "I know who those people are, and their odor is so powerful that I can smell one when he walks in the room. And every single one of those people, in a line that would extend from Milwaukee to Chicago, was lined up last week to knife JD Vance."

According to Carlson, this enmity toward Vance was not because of who he is as a person, noting he is a nice guy and one of the few in Washington with a happy marriage. Instead, the attacks were launched because "they thought he would be harder to manipulate and slightly less enthusiastic about killing people. That's it — that he would be an impediment to their exercising power and, boy, they went after him in a way I've just kind of never seen."

Carlson went on to note that the attacks on Vance and the assassination attempt on Saturday have underscored for him that the battles underway are not simply political but spiritual.

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Trump finally announces his VP pick



President Donald Trump named Sen. James David Vance (R-Ohio) Monday as his vice presidential pick.

Trump said in a statement Monday afternoon that after "lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio."

Vance is former Marine who was born in Middleton, Ohio; served with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing in the Iraq War; graduated from Yale Law School; served as a corporate lawyer; worked as a venture capitalist; penned the best-selling book "Hillbilly Elegy"; and then became a U.S. senator.

Vance was initially a fierce critic of Trump, telling NPR in 2016 that he couldn't stomach the then-Republican presidential candidate. While insisting in a 2016 New York Times op-ed that Trump was "unfit for our nation's highest office," Vance nevertheless understood the real estate magnate's appeal, noting:

To those humiliated by defeat, he promises we'll win again. To those discouraged by a government unable to care for the people it sent to war, he promises to take care of our veterans. To those voters furious at politicians who sent their children to fight and bleed and die in Iraq, he tells them what no major Republican politician in a decade has said — that the war was a terrible mistake imposed on the country by an incompetent president.

Having seen over time that Trump was not only willing but able to make good on many of his promises — including driving up wages, securing the border, and refraining from partaking in his predecessors' custom of starting at least one new war — Vance quickly came over to Trump's side.

Vance apologized to Trump on cable news in 2021, stating, "I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said in 2016 because I've been very open that I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy. I think that he was a good president. I think that he made a lot of good decisions for people, and I think he took a lot of flak."

Vance also came to understand that Trump's America First agenda was not devoted to the protection of America as an idea but rather to the prioritization of the concrete realities that make up America, specifically its citizens and physical homeland.

In his recent speech at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, D.C., Vance said, "I'm most optimistic about the future of this movement and the future of our country ... because for the first time in a very long time, it is clear that the leader of the Republican Party is not some donor who's desperate for cheap labor, and it's not some random person who claims to speak for this or that constituency. The leader of the Republican Party is a guy who actually plans to put American citizens first — and that is Donald Trump."

In an interview last week with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, Vance provided additional insights into his political conversion, noting, "Like a lot of other elite conservatives and elite liberals, I allowed myself to focus so much on the stylistic element of Trump that I completely ignored the way in which he substantively was offering something very different on foreign policy, on trade, on immigration."

Trump clearly did not hold a grudge about Vance's earlier comments and misgivings, having endorsed him when he ran for the U.S. Senate in Ohio.

'He will not let you down. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!'

"Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades," Trump said in his endorsement statement. "He's strong on the Border, tough on Crime, understands how to use Taxes and Tariffs to hold China accountable, will fight to break up Big Tech, and has been a warrior on the Rigged and Stolen Presidential Election. J.D. is a Marine who served in the Iraq War, a graduate of The Ohio State University, and earned a Law Degree from Yale — a great student."

"He will put America first," added Trump. "J.D. Vance has my Complete and Total Endorsement. He will not let you down. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Concerning the recent efforts by the media to dig up Vance's old critiques of Trump, Donald Trump Jr. said to CNN, "We're 100% confident that JD is America First to the core."

"No one in the Senate has been a stronger supporter of my father," added Trump Jr.

Outside the Trump family, Vance has also secured the confidence of other big names on the populist right.

Tucker Carlson told Politico earlier this year, "I feel like I've got a really good sense of senators, and he's by far the smartest and the deepest of any I've ever met."

"He's the one public intellectual that we have who’s in office, and it's incredibly powerful," said Steve Bannon. "This movement has needed someone like J.D.."

While there may have been numerous reasons behind Trump's decision to pick Vance as his running mate — including Vance's staunch pro-worker populism and the fact he does not hail from the same state — the former president's contrarian reflex may have been a factor.

After all, leftists, liberals, and even some nominal Republicans have urged Trump not to pick Vance.

'Picking Vance would allow the Biden campaign to sell the message that this is truly a MAGA ticket that needs to be defeated.'

USA Today columnist Dace Potas suggested Saturday that Trump should choose "a more traditional" and "boring" candidate — certainly not Vance.

"A radical VP choice, such as 39-year-old Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, could shift some of the heat away from Biden and refocus media and voter attention back onto Trump's MAGA message and the extreme politics that come with it," warned Potas.

"First, Vance is off-putting to principled GOP voters. I know because I am one, but the stats agree," said the self-described Republican columnist. "Second, picking Vance would allow the Biden campaign to sell the message that this is truly a MAGA ticket that needs to be defeated. Sure, Democrats will try this tactic anyway, but a more unity-focused Republican ticket with a traditional conservative would make this angle look even more preposterous to the right-leaning swing voters that Trump needs to win."

Instead of Vance, Potas recommended former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley as the ideal running mate.

Former Obama adviser and Democratic strategist David Axelrod suggested Vance should be disqualified for suggesting that Biden's inflammatory rhetoric set the stage for the attempted assassination on Trump.

After the shooting at the Trump rally Saturday, Vance wrote, "The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

Axelrod wrote, "If @JDVance1 is on the short list for VP, this Tweet, sent an hour after the assassination attempt in PA, ought to disqualify him in the eyes of the Trump campaign. Wrong vibe in that moment."

"Trump probably doesn't want a shoot-from-the-hip VP," added Axelrod.

Trump evidently had no problems proving Axelrod wrong again or disappointing the likes of Potas.

Trump noted further in his announcement of Vance as his VP, "J.D. honorably served our Country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, Summa Cum Laude, and is a Yale Law School Graduate, where he was Editor of The Yale Law Journal, and President of the Yale Law Veterans Association. J.D.’s book, 'Hillbilly Elegy,' became a Major Best Seller and Movie, as it championed the hardworking men and women of our Country. J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond."

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JD Vance: Had Tim Ryan done his job on border security, 10-year-old Ohio girl wouldn't have been raped by illegal alien



Ohio Senate nominees J.D. Vance (R) and Rep. Tim Ryan (D) clashed in their first statewide debate in Cleveland on Monday night. Both men are vying for retiring Sen. Rob Portman's seat.

While Ryan, a 10-term Democrat congressman, frequently attacked Vance for his political associations, Vance, a best-selling author and venture capitalist, often responded both by pointing out major faults in the congressman's track record and indicating a better way forward for Ohioans.

After discussing the depredations committed against the homeland by the communist Chinese and President Joe Biden's responsibility for inflation, the debaters were asked about their support for the termination of babies in the womb.

Abortion

Ryan, who formerly claimed to be pro-life, said that he now supports "going back to Roe v. Wade."

Ryan also claimed that Ohio women who are impregnated by rape have to travel out of state, but "that's not good enough for J.D. Vance. He supports a national abortion ban in which he wants women to have to get a passport and go to Canada" to procure their abortions.

The proposed national abortion ban to which Ryan was referring, the "Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act," would not require rape victims to travel abroad to procure abortions, as they would be permitted to domestically terminate their pregnancies under the law.

Additionally, the rape victim to whom Ryan alluded and was purportedly unable to procure an abortion in Ohio was in fact able to do so, according to the state's attorney general.

In his response, Vance indicated that while each state should be able to fine-tune its own abortion laws, "some minimum national standard is totally fine with me," such as the 15-week national abortion ban introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.).

"We're talking about five-month-old babies," Vance added. "Fully formed babies who can feel pain. No civilized country in the world allows elective abortion that late in pregnancy. I don't think the United States should be an exception."

Vance highlighted how Ryan had voted both "for a piece of legislation that would have overturned Roe and required abortion on demand at 40 weeks for fully elective reasons" and "for a piece of legislation that would have prevented doctors from providing medical care to babies who survived botched abortions."

In 2019, Ryan indicated his support for killing the Hyde Amendment, which currently prohibits the federal funding of abortions. He voted accordingly last year. He also voted in 2021 in support of having American taxpayers pay for abortions around the world.

Convenient revisionism

Ryan suggested that Vance had called pregnancies resulting from rape an "inconvenience."

ABC News reported the original context of Vance's remarks, which did not comport with the Democrat congressman's framing.

When speaking to Spectrum News in 2021 about the inclusion of possible exceptions to pro-life laws, Vance said, "It's not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term; it’s whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society."

Vance indicated that the birth of a human being, not its conception, may be perceived to be inconvenient or problematic if conceived as the result of a rape. In Monday's debate, he stressed that he "did not call rape inconvenient."

Tragic exceptions, Democrat rules

When both Ryan and the moderators revisited the story of the 10-year-old Ohio girl who was reportedly raped by 27-year-old Gershon Fuentes, Vance underlined how it was an "incredibly tragic situation" and reiterated his support for abortion in exceptional cases such as rape.

While recognizing the tragic nature of the crime, Vance emphasized that it was wholly preventable, since the rapist who preyed upon the 10-year-old was allegedly an illegal alien.

"You voted so many times against border wall funding, so many times for amnesty, Tim," said Vance. "If you had done your job, she would never have been raped in the first place. Do your job on border security. Don't lecture me about opinions I don't actually have."

\u201cHoly shit, @JDVance1 just KO'd Tim Ryan!!!\n\n"You voted so many times against border wall funding...If you had done your job, she would have never been raped in the first place. Do your job on border security, don't lecture me about opinions I don't actually have." #OHSenDebate\u201d
— Donald Trump Jr. (@Donald Trump Jr.) 1665444413

Ryan has routinely supported incentives for illegal immigration and against border security measures.

For instance, he voted against or indicated he would not support the "Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act" (July 23, 2015); the amendment to prohibit undocumented immigrants from obtaining housing assistance in (June 9, 2015); and a bill expressing support for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (July 18, 2018).

Ryan also said that he did not support additional border wall funding while also supporting both the so-called "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" program and amnesty for over 11 million illegal aliens.

Of the 10,778 illegal aliens arrested for various crimes so far this year, 323 of those interdicted by U.S. Border Patrol had previously been convicted of sexual offenses. Last year, 488 illegal aliens were arrested for sex crimes.

Such crimes committed by illegal aliens surged last year and remain high after having declined under the Trump administration.

According U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 2,150,639 illegal aliens have already stolen into the United States over the southern border in 2022.

Full: Vance/Ryan debate youtu.be

J.D. Vance and Mike Gibbons exchange blows over abortion as the Ohio Senate primary intensifies



The Ohio GOP Senate primary continues to intensify as J.D. Vance’s campaign attacked Mike Gibbons as “squishy,” Fox News reported.

An article published by the Associated Press in 2017, when Mr. Gibbons last ran for the United States Senate, indicated that Gibbons might not be as staunchly pro-life as his campaign at the time indicated. The Associated Press reported that Gibbons said he “personally opposes abortion, but politically, he’s ‘not a woman’ so wouldn’t choose for them. He said he wasn’t ‘pro-choice,’ though, but ‘pro-people.’”

On Thursday, Vance raked Gibbons over the coals for his ostensible lack of commitment to the pro-life movement during a town hall event.

Vance said, “If you’re not willing to stand up for unborn babies in this country, then what else are you going to cut tail and run on when the going gets tough. If you’re not willing to stand on that issue, I think it indicates your character is weak, and you don’t have the fortitude to actually serve the interests of our voters.”

Noting that he was proud to be outspoken in support of the pro-life movement, Vance continued, “I’ve had the left attack me for a long time for having the courage of my convictions. And, you know what, when Mike Gibbons, they asked him whether he was pro-life, he said, no I wouldn’t call myself pro-life I think ultimately it should go to the woman’s choice.”

Condemning Gibbons’ apparent noncommitment to the pro-life cause, Vance added that his unclear stance “is the language of pro-abortion.”

OH SENATE: @JDVance1 rips fellow candidate @MikeGibbonsOH at a Townhall yesterday for comments Gibbons made in 2018 where he rejected the pro-life label, in favor of calling himself "pro-people" & said that since he's "not a woman," he can\u2019t make the choice on abortion for them.pic.twitter.com/mg6XWwl2xz
— Henry Rodgers (@Henry Rodgers) 1645199685

Responding on Twitter, Mike Gibbon’s spokeswoman Samantha Cotten said that Vance “is lying, and he knows it.”

She added that it was “sad that he has resorted to pushing fake news.”

.@JDVance1 is lying and he knows it. Sad that he has resorted to pushing fake news. Mike Gibbons is and has always been 100% pro-life. He's been active with crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life causes for decades.https://twitter.com/JDVance1/status/1494704525059502086\u00a0\u2026
— Samantha Cotten (@Samantha Cotten) 1645200707

Ms. Cotten told TheBlaze that “Mike Gibbons is 100% pro-life. This spin was debunked in the 2018 election cycle. This attack is a desperate attempt by JD Vance to deflect the narrative away from his sinking campaign and his past comments attacking President Trump.”

The Vance Campaign’s press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, told TheBlaze that “Using pro-abortion language and being squishy on the issue tells conservatives who you really are. Trying to walk it back after you realize its political weakness makes you a coward. JD is proud to be 100% pro-life and will fight to end abortion in America.”

Recent polling indicates that Vance and Gibbons are within striking distance of each other.