A highly prominent conservative columnist and Wall Street Journal editorial board member has gone nuclear on the “AWOL” Vice President, JD Vance.
The headline and opening gambit of Kimberley A. Strassel’s July 16 piece left little to the imagination. “President Vance Goes AWOL,” the column was topped, with its subheading adding, “The leader of the Senate could bring Congress together. He’s hawking a book.”
That set the tone for the article. In it, Strassel, who authored a book titled Resistance at All Costs: How Trump Haters Are Breaking America, didn’t afford his understudy the same protection, arguing that he has abandoned Americans at a time when they need him.
“Congress is crying out for a dedicated White House ambassador—someone who can be trusted to speak for the president, to yea or nay ideas, to shuttle proposals, to wrangle rebels in line,” she argued.
“Mr. Vance is promoting a book.”
Vance’s media blitz to plug his second book, Communion, about his conversion to catholicism, kicked off with an appearance on The View on June 16. On June 19, NBC News reported that Vance “had this week circled on his calendar for months.”
It came at a time when negotiations to end the war in Iran were in full swing. A framework deal was struck just as the book tour was about to begin. Sources close to the VP told NBC News that he “treated the confluence of the Iran deal and his book release as a happy coincidence.”
Strassel wasn’t buying it. “Lawmakers can count on a few fingers the times former Sen. Vance has set foot in the Capitol,” she wrote, touching on Vance’s role as president of the Senate.
She added: “As they twist in the legislative winds, they glimpse him mainly on his TV and podcast book tour— Real Time With Bill Maher, CBS News Sunday Morning, Fox News, even ABC’s The View. Or he’s in Switzerland leading fruitless Iran negotiations. The anger has only grown over Mr. Vance’s decision to position himself as scolder of the body over which he constitutionally presides, rather than showing up for the work.”
Strassel cited a Republican senator who feels similarly, protecting their identity for fear of repercussion. “As we approach incredibly consequential midterms for this nation and this presidency, Senate Republicans are pretty confused as to why the president of the Senate is actively criticizing the GOP, while also being absent from his Senate duties,” they said.
She argued that the GOP has become slightly rudderless since Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, started undergoing treatment for breast cancer. The party has been stymied further by the death of South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham and the hospitalization of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, two power players in the ranks.
“Never have they more needed an empowered White House bridge to hammer out a basic political strategy. The glaringly obvious candidate is Mr. Vance,” she said of a man who represented Ohio in the Senate less than two years ago.
“He is—by his reports—trusted by the president. Yet he’s nowhere,” Strassel said, arguing that this shows a “lack of interest.”
Even stronger yet, she added, “It fuels criticism that Mr. Vance is putting his presidential ambitions ahead of a GOP Congress’s success. Worse, that he is bashing his own party to win praise from online influencers.”
Warning that all of this conspires to create the potential for disaster at the midterms in November, she concluded, “Now might be a good time for the Senate president to show up at the Senate.”
Vance’s team has been approached for a response.
