I have never enjoyed watching the Sunday shows more than this 2024 election cycle. Thanks to the artful rhetoric and cogitative skills of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance and the top-tier of Trump surrogates, the days of hammering the hackneyed and false legacy media narratives while making Republicans look stupid are over.
This past Sunday morning, Vance appeared on ABC’s “This Week” with Martha Raddatz filling in for George Stephanopoulos, and quickly made mincemeat of Raddatz when she dismissed as fiction the fact that Tren de Aragua had taken over low-income apartments in Aurora, CO. Raddatz was insistent on Vance answering whether he supported Donald Trump’s “claims.”
RADDATZ: — […] But I want to — we played some other comments about migrants and migrants including in Aurora, in Colorado, where Trump said the city had been invaded and conquered by Venezuelan gangs. The Republican mayor of the city said flatly, the city and state have not been taken over or invaded or occupied by migrant gangs.
So, do you support Donald Trump making those claims that the Republican mayor says were grossly exaggerated and have hurt the city’s identity and sense of safety? I understand what you’re saying that some people left behind. But he’s making these statements that the mayor is flat out disputing.
VANCE: Well, Martha, you just said the mayor said they were exaggerated.
RADDATZ: Grossly exaggerated.
VANCE: That means there’s got to be some — that means there’s got to be some element of truth here and, of course, President Trump was actually in Aurora, Colorado, talking to people on the ground and what we’re hearing, of course, Martha, is that people are terrified by what has happened with some of these Venezuelan gangs.
When Vance refused to accept the premise she wanted to craft, Raddatz decided to break it down for him as if he was dull of hearing. Vance was having none of it.
WATCH:
Raddatz: “The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes… A handful!”@JDVance: “Do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes were taken over by Venezuelan gangs and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris’ open border?”
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 13, 2024
RADDATZ: Senator Vance, I’m going to stop you because I know exactly what happened. I’m going to stop you. The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complex — apartment complexes and the mayor said our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns. A handful of problems.
VANCE: Only, Martha, do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem, and not Kamala Harris’s open border? Americans are so fed up with what’s going on and they have every right to be and I really find this exchange, Martha, sort of interesting because you seem to be more focused with nitpicking everything that Donald Trump has said rather than acknowledging that apartment complexes in the United States of America are being taken over by violent gangs.
I worry so much more about that problem than anything else here. We’ve got to get American communities in a safe space again. And unfortunately, when you let people in by the millions, most of whom are unvetted, most of whom you don’t know who they really are, you’re going to have problems like this. Kamala Harris’ 94 executive orders that undid Donald Trump’s successful border policies, we knew this stuff would happen.
Raddatz actually became tongue-tied and flustered before Vance went in for the kill.
RADDATZ: That’s —
VANCE: They bragged about opening the border and now we have the consequences and we’re living with it. We can do so much better, but frankly, we’re not going to do better, Martha, unless Donald Trump calls this stuff out. I’m glad that he did.
RADDATZ: Okay. Let’s — let’s just — let’s just end that with they did not invade or take over the city as Donald Trump said.
I want to move on to just —
VANCE: A few apartment complexes, no big deal.
Ouch. I’m sure Raddatz is applying some ice to that, as it left a mark. The rest of the segment went pretty much along these same lines. Raddatz trying to push an agenda, Vance artfully pushing back, Raddatz getting indignant, Vance exposing her puffery, and Raddatz quickly needing to move on to a more important topic.
Apparently, all the Sunday morning female journalists colluded with the same playbook. But just as Vance has become a formidable weapon in the Trump campaign arsenal, so have Trump’s surrogates. Next up to bat was Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson (R-LA), who squared off against both Margaret Brennan of CBS’ “Face the Nation” and NBC’s Kristen Welker of “Meet the Press.”
Brennan attempted to paint Speaker Johnson into a corner concerning Congress returning early to address additional FEMA funding for the hurricane season instead of their scheduled return after the November 5 election. Johnson said it would be “premature” to call Congress back into session, as well as pointed out that before Congress ended their last session, they had appropriated an additional $20 billion to FEMA to address disaster preparedness. Johnson concluded that FEMA just needed to step up and do its job. Not getting the answer she wanted there, Brennan she switched to the 2024 election and what measures Speaker Johnson had in place to prevent another J6 from occurring should the election not turn out in former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump’s favor.
Speaker Johnson pointed out the irregularities and unconstitutional moves made by certain states ahead of the 2020 election, and explained how those states have shored up their election processes to ensure integrity is established and maintained.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON:Now, look, as President Trump says all the time, and I agree, our side, what we say at the rallies, you’ve heard, is, we’ve got to make it too big to rig. I think that’s really important. I think there is going to be some cheating in this election. I think noncitizens are going to vote.
Look, case in point…
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know that it is against the law…
This is the same ridiculous attitude these legacy types take with gun control: assuming that criminals have any interest in following laws. Brennan kept probing the Speaker, pushing the narrative that he was contradicting himself: On the one hand, he was saying that the election would be secure, while on the other hand, casting doubt on the possible result of the election. Johnson made the strong points that 1) Republican governors were doing the hard work to secure the voting rolls and maintain election integrity, and 2) Biden and Harris were doing everything in their power to interfere and keep the door wide open to election fraud.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: … Glenn Youngkin, the governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia…
MARGARET BRENNAN: … for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. That’s established law.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: Of course it is. Of course it is, but – of course it is, but here’s the problem.
There’s a number of states that are not requiring proof of citizenship when illegals or noncitizens register to vote. We know that’s happening.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But, respectfully, Speaker, you…
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: We want – everybody should want the law to be followed
MARGARET BRENNAN: Absolutely.
Respectfully, Speaker, you both, in the course of this interview, said that you do believe that states have taken measures that will help the integrity of this election…
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: That’s true.
MARGARET BRENNAN: … and then you just also seemed to undermine confidence in the integrity of the state elections.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: No, no. Margaret, hold on. Wait a minute. Wait. Wait just a minute. It’s not me undermining it. It’s the actions of the Biden/Harris administration and some of these states.
Noncitizens are not allowed to vote under federal law.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, if your issue is with certain governors, shouldn’t you be talking to them?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: We have been. We have been. And the Republican governors have done heroic work. They’ve done their own audits of the – their voter rolls to try to ensure and do their best duty to make sure that this we – this is a free, fair and legal election.
We’re calling on all the governors to do the same thing, Democrat governors as well. And Democrat-led states in the legislatures, they need to do the same thing. A lot of good work has been done since 2020, but there are still questions out there.
WATCH:
In Johnson’s segment with Kirsten Welker on “Meet the Press,” Welker decided to insert the lie that the monies FEMA diverted from disaster preparedness and relief into “migrant resettlement” started under Donald Trump’s administration. Johnson quickly divested this, and pointed out that the funding was not needed because Trump had secured the border. It was Biden-Harris who signed 92 executive orders to remove the proven border policies Trump had in place. The look on Welker’s face alone is worth the watch.
Welker also tried making the case that since Kamala Harris released her medical records, it behooved Donald Trump to release his. That it was a matter of national import that we know Donald Trump’s cholesterol numbers. Along with bringing the facts about Donald Trump’s proven physical stamina, Johnson laid waste to Welker’s ridiculous argument, exposing the real reason Kamala Harris wanted to make this an issue.
WATCH:
Wow! Hats off to Speaker Mike Johnson on Meet the Press this morning. He would not let Kamala’s spokesperson, Kristen Welker, get away with any of the lies she was trying to push, and his reaction to the “cholesterol” question was priceless 👏 pic.twitter.com/21BGAr7j7i
— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) October 13, 2024
The final knockout was rendered by Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Dana Bash. Bash challenged Donalds with former President Barack Obama’s claim that the good economy that Trump enjoyed during his presidency was all a result of him. As Donalds does so well, he used his own experience as a finance person and his knowledge of the Trump tax cuts to put a fine point on the reason why Trump is ahead of Harris on who would best restore the economy.
BASH: Let me just quickly play for you what former President Obama said exactly on this question of the economy a couple of days ago.
OBAMA: Yes, it was pretty good, because it was my economy. It wasn’t something he did. I spent eight years cleaning up the mess that the Republicans had left me the last time.
(CHEERING)
OBAMA: He didn’t do nothing, except those big tax cuts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: How do you do respond to that?DONALDS: Very easily.
I was working in finance during Barack Obama’s administration. Let me tell you, the economy under his last — especially the last five years was growing at about 1 to 1.5 percent per year. I think, at the time, President Obama was saying that this era of large economic growth is something of the past. We’re going to have a more consistent economy.
Well, in his words, a consistent economy meant one that barely grew. So, when Donald Trump came in, he brought his tax cut policy in, which cut taxes across the board for everybody in our country. Couple the fact that he did cut massive regulations from the Obama administration, and what did we see?
Economic growth in the United States went from 1-1.5 percent under Barack Obama to 3-3.5 percent under Donald Trump. Wages adjusted for inflation, like I said, because it’s the truth, increased for every subgroup of Americans in our country.
BASH: Yes.
DONALDS: The wealth gap was closing. We were actually booming economically far more than we did under Barack Obama.
So that’s a cool statement he made on the stump, but it’s not true.
Having her lunch handed to her once again, Bash quickly tries to recover with yet another tired election integrity question and whether Donalds will follow the new version of the Electoral Count Act. Bash literally tries to put words in Donalds’ mouth, and he respectfully but firmly tells her to go pound sand.
WATCH:
It is legitimately embarrassing that the “quality” correspondents at ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN bring their Nerf pistols when Vance and the surrogates bring guns with ammunition. This occurs week after week, and these correspondents come off like mewling Karens against the reasonable, measured, and fact-based delivery and pushback by Team Trump. Why would the legacy media brass continue to subject their supposed star anchors to this type of embarrassment? Ratings, of course. Thanks to Vance, Johnson, Donalds, and the other Trump campaign surrogates’ masterful handling of the issues and their ability to stand on principles and facts rather than float on the legacy media’s preferred narratives, viewership of these shows has increased. They haven’t had it this good since the glory days of David Brinkley, Bob Schieffer, Tim Russert, and John King.
