Category: Jd vance
Debate: Can JD Vance become the right’s great unifier — or does his VP role stand in the way?
The young conservative movement is experiencing a notable leadership gap amid ongoing chaos in the online right-wing space. Sure, there are passionate influencers and rising political voices, but no one has fully stepped up to unify and guide the broader coalition with a commanding presence.
One person investigative journalist and BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo thinks might be able to step into the role, however, is Vice President JD Vance. But Rufo’s co-host Jonathan Keeperman isn’t sure Vance is up for the job either.
In this episode of “Rufo & Lomez,” the hosts debate whether JD Vance can step up as the unifying leader the conservative movement needs amid escalating chaos.
“I’ve been so far a bit surprised that the vice president hasn’t tried to step into this role,” says Rufo, arguing that Vance has both the “charisma” and the “authority” to effectively lead the movement.
“I’ve known JD over the years. … It does feel like he has some hesitation or maybe even some fear,” he adds.
While Keeperman agrees that Vance “has all of the tools and charisma and … the right talking points” to be an excellent leader, his role as the vice president would actually be a hindrance.
“I don’t think JD Vance should actually do that in his vice presidential position. Not right now. I think it’d be a bit presumptuous. I think people might kind of see it as him stepping in to sort of correct a situation that I think needs to just happen organically,” he counters.
For one, Vance’s position prohibits him from “[speaking] candidly about the administration.”
“Whoever is going to step into this role has to feel credible to this audience, and part of that credibility is going to come from just speaking honestly about all of these different things happening in this ecosystem — whether it’s the different personalities, the ideas, the sort of ideology that’s animating Trump but also the specific actions that the Trump administration is taking,” Keeperman explains.
In other words, the kind of leader people will follow needs to be an outsider who can speak brutal truths about the current administration, and Vance, as Trump’s right-hand man, can’t be that person.
Secondly, President Trump is still the top dog, Keeperman explains. For his VP to assume the authority of this role as the leader of the conservative movement “might not sit well inside of this coalition.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Rufo concedes. “We need some sort of native figure to step up in the same way that Charlie Kirk did, in the same way that Tucker had done.”
To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode above.
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‘First she gave them binders full of nothingness’
Vance refuses to throw Tucker Carlson under the bus, emphasizes America is a ‘Christian nation’
Several speakers at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest offered competing and ostensibly irreconcilable views of the way forward for the MAGA coalition, in some cases identifying one another as cowards, saboteurs, or worse.
In his speech closing out the conference in Phoenix, Vice President JD Vance emphasized that “President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through endless, self-defeating purity tests.”
‘Do I have disagreements with Tucker Carlson? Sure. I have disagreements with most of my friends.’
Vance, the Republican front-runner going into 2028 whom TPUSA CEO Erika Kirk endorsed last week for president, faces mounting public pressure to throw Tucker Carlson under the bus over his criticism of Israel and perceived bigotry as well as to censure Nicholas Fuentes, the head of the so-called Groypers who has been particularly critical of the vice president.
Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” told the Washington Post, “The reasonable actors can see that JD is being a reasonable arbiter of this debate, and that’s a really important signal to send out — that Israel is our ally. They’re an important ally. They’re not our only concern, though.”
“I think JD understands the needs, wants, and concerns of young Americans as well, if not better than, any other leading politician in the country,” added Kolvet.
“I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform,” Vance told the crowd of thousands gathered on Sunday.
“We have far more important work to do than canceling each other.”
The vice president underscored that the “America First movement” constitutes a big tent welcoming those who seek to make America “richer, stronger, safer, and prouder.”
In a recent interview with Sohrab Ahmari, the U.S. editor of UnHerd, Vance provided some insights into why he refused to denounce Carlson or waste any time discussing Fuentes.
“Tucker’s a friend of mine,” he told Ahmari. “And do I have disagreements with Tucker Carlson? Sure. I have disagreements with most of my friends, especially those who work in politics. You know this. Most people who know me know this. I’m [also] a very loyal person, and I am not going to get into the business of throwing friends under the bus.”
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Photo by Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images
Vance noted further that “the idea that Tucker Carlson — who has one of the largest podcasts in the world, who has millions of listeners, who supported Donald Trump in the 2024 election, who supported me in the 2024 election — the idea that his views are somehow completely anathema to conservatism, that he has no place in the conservative movement, is frankly absurd.”
As for Fuentes, Vance intimated that a condemnation of the 27-year-old host of “America First” podcast wasn’t worthwhile.
“[Fuentes’] influence within Donald Trump’s administration, and within a whole host of institutions on the right, is vastly overstated, and frankly, it’s overstated by people who want to avoid having a foreign-policy conversation about America’s relationship with Israel,” Vance said in the interview.
‘Anyone who attacks my wife, whether their name is Jen Psaki or Nick Fuentes, can eat s**t.’
While the vice president maintains that Israel is an “important ally,” he indicated that he welcomes substantive disagreements with the Middle Eastern nation as well as debates at home about American foreign policy.
Vance told Ahmari that anti-Semitism and all forms of ethnic hatred “have no place in the conservative movement” but noted that “if you believe racism is bad, Fuentes should occupy one second of your focus, and the people with actual political power who worked so hard to discriminate against white men should occupy many hours of it.”
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Photo by Caylo Seals/Getty Images
Although recognizing Fuentes as an apparent sideshow to an important conversation, Vance did make a point of telling Ahmari, “Anyone who attacks my wife, whether their name is [former Biden press secretary] Jen Psaki or Nick Fuentes, can eat s**t.”
On the theme of America First’s genuine spirit of inclusion, the vice president made clear in his AmericaFest speech that the Trump administration and the broader movement supporting it has “relegated DEI to the dustbin of history, which is exactly where it belongs.”
“In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white any more. And if you’re an Asian, you don’t have to talk around your skin color when you’re applying for college, because we judge people based on who they are, not on ethnicity and things they can’t control,” said Vance. “We don’t persecute you for being male, for being straight, for being gay, for being anything. The only thing that we demand is that you be a great American patriot.”
‘It is better to die a patriot than live a coward.’
In addition to risking offense with his acknowledgement that white Americans needn’t apologize for their pigmentation and with his refusal to betray a friend, Vance realized the fears articulated in recent years by liberals and anti-Christian activists by noting in his speech that “the only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God, we always will be, a Christian nation.”
For the benefit of those who might strategically misconstrue his meaning, Vance clarified that Americans don’t have to be Christian but that “Christianity is America’s creed,” despite the decades-long campaign by the left to remove Christianity from public life.
“That creed motivated our understanding of natural law and rights, our sense of duty to one’s neighbor, the conviction that the strong must protect the weak, and the belief in individual conscience,” continued the vice president. “Even our famously American idea of religious liberty is a Christian concept.”
The vice president noted further that the “fruits of true Christianity” are good men like his murdered friend, Charlie Kirk.
“The fruits of true Christianity are good husbands, patient fathers, builders of great things, and slayers of dragons,” said Vance. “And yes, men who are willing to die for a principle if that’s what God asks them to do. Because so many of us recognize that it is better to die a patriot than live a coward.”
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‘That’s the virtual feeling of everyone’
DEI hustlers lash out after Trump official solicits discrimination complaints from white men
In his damning Dec. 15 article in Compact magazine titled “The Lost Generation,” Los Angeles-based writer Jacob Savage detailed the disenfranchisement of white male Millennials and their systematic exclusion from various industries, especially academia, entertainment, medicine, the news media, and tech.
While America has long been reckoning with the fallout of the DEI war on meritocracy, Savage’s viral article — which journalist Matt Taibbi indicated was initially accepted by the Atlantic on the condition that it avoid making the bigger societal point — crystallized for many, with the help of statistics and personal accounts, the extent and true impact of that racist campaign.
‘This was an injustice, plain and simple.’
After Vice President JD Vance weighed in on the article and the discrimination discussed therein, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chairwoman Andrea Lucas released a video on social media imploring white men to seek damages — a video that Vance subsequently shared.
“Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws,” said Lucas, a Republican critic of DEI and mother of two who was appointed to lead the EEOC by President Donald Trump in January.
The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to probe and litigate against private companies for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.
Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Image
Lucas, who previously noted that Savage’s article told “a story chock full of unlawful discrimination,” said in the video that it was imperative that those keen on taking action contact the EEOC as soon as possible, as “time limits are typically strict for filing a claim.”
The EEOC chairwoman also noted in a follow-up message, “You may have waived your right to money, but you still have the right to blow the whistle and participate in the EEOC process — and EEOC can sue on behalf of a class.”
Lucas has made no secret of her contempt for DEI.
In a May 2024 speech — nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard/UNC, banning race-based college admission — Lucas stated:
Race or sex cannot be even a plus factor, a tiebreaker, or a tipping point in the employment context. People sometimes think that race or sex can be part of the equation for an employment decision if race or sex is not the sole factor, the exclusive factor, or the deciding factor. That is dead wrong. If race or sex was all or part of an employer’s motivation, that violates federal employment law.
She noted during the Q&A following her remarks that “many employers, by doing lazy, high-level virtue signaling, paint-by-numbers DEI, have mass discrimination.”
Proponents of the DEI regime were evidently prickled by Lucas’ latest remarks.
David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the NYU School of Law, told the Associated Press that Lucas’ recent posts demonstrate a “fundamental misunderstanding of what DEI is.”
“It’s really much more about creating a culture in which you get the most out of everyone who you’re bringing on board, where everyone experiences fairness and equal opportunity, including white men and members of other groups,” Glasgow said. “If DEI has been this engine of discrimination against white men, I have to say it hasn’t really been doing a very good job at achieving that.”
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Photo by Tom Brenner-Pool/Getty Image
Jenny Yang, a former EEOC chairwoman who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, similarly complained, suggesting it was “problematic” for Lucas to speak out about the disenfranchisement of white men.
“It suggests some sort of priority treatment,” said Yang, who served as deputy assistant to former President Joe Biden for so-called racial justice and equity. “That’s not something that sounds to me like equal opportunity for all.”
Hours ahead of Lucas sharing her video to social media, Vice President JD Vance noted on X that Savage’s article was “an incredible piece that describes the evil of DEI and its consequences.”
“A lot of people think DEI is lame diversity seminars or racial slogans at NFL games,” Vance wrote. “In reality, it was a deliberate program of discrimination primarily against white men.”
“This is why the Trump administration has so dedicated itself to eradicating racist discrimination. We’ve eliminated funding for DEI, required government grantees to certify that they’re not engaged in DEI, fired a number of DEI employees, and asked the great [Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon] to aggressively prosecute all forms of racial discrimination,” the vice president continued. “For too many Democrat leaders, racial discrimination was bad unless it targeted white men. This was an injustice, plain and simple.”
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