PHOENIX — Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, slammed Liz Cheney and John McCain's son as “Republican losers” after they announced their support for Vice President Kamala Harris for president this week.
The 40-year-old Ohio senator told The Post on Thursday that the Trump campaign represents the “major party” and dismissed the two as people who no longer have any influence within the Republican Party.
“The fact that Kamala Harris has received endorsements from several losers who no longer have any influence in the Republican Party is degrading to them and I think it doesn't say anything good about her campaign,” he said during a campaign event at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix.
Cheney, the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and who once ran for Congress as a representative from Wyoming, said she would vote for Harris because she believes Trump is dangerous.
She has been a fierce critic of the former president since his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election, which led to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
Lt. Gov. Jimmy McCain, son of the late Republican Sen. John McCain, said Tuesday that he is now a registered Democrat and will vote for Harris.
McCain, who served in the military for 17 years, said he had become a converted supporter after Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery last month and accused the 78-year-old Trump of using his visit to the nation's largest cemetery as a campaign ploy.
Vance told reporters after the Washington Post interview that it doesn't matter what a former politician's family thinks about a candidate, saying he believes McCain's father would not have been happy with a Biden-Harris administration if he were alive today.
Harris has said that if elected she would choose Republicans for her cabinet, a comment that Vance laughed off.
“When she says she wants Republicans in her cabinet, I think she means someone like Liz Cheney, who is not really a Republican anymore and hasn't been for years,” he said.
The senator argued that a wide range of politicians support Trump in the 2024 presidential election, including prominent Republican figures such as his former rival, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, as well as former independent presidential candidate and Democratic family scion Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
“We are a major party of common sense,” Vance said.
Vance also confirmed he will meet with conservative media outlet Tucker Carlson in Pennsylvania later this month after the former Fox News host came under fire for hosting podcaster Daryl Cooper, who claimed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the “greatest villain” of World War II and downplayed Nazi atrocities.
“Tucker is a guy who is willing to talk to anybody, whether he agrees or disagrees, has a lot of conversations with people and always does what he wants,” Vance said.
“You don't have to agree with him, you don't have to agree with what people said in his interviews, but I believe in free speech and I think it's important to air these debates and disagree publicly, but not to condemn people. And I think that's Tucker's stance.”
Vance said he also met with Carlson on Thursday.
Carlson praised Cooper as America's “best and most honest popular historian,” despite his many outrageous claims.
He presented his case against the actions of world leaders and called Churchill “the great villain of the Second World War.”
He also said that Germany was not prepared to take millions of “prisoners of war” when it started the war and “just threw these people in camps, where millions died.”
Carlson and Cooper's comments drew condemnation from all sides, including from Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. They said, “It's really unpleasant.”
Vance, who is in the midst of his first term as a U.S. senator, was selected by Trump as his running mate in July.
Since then, he has faced a wave of criticism and polls have shown him to be less popular than Ms Harris's vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who has also faced backlash over a series of false reports, including exaggerating his military record.
But Vance is downplaying those numbers as he and Trump vow to make their case to the American people.
“It's up to the voters to make these decisions and what I'm worried about is the polls in November,” he said.
