Former Republican consultant Mark McKinnon said Tuesday that a joke that current GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio recently made at a rally about Diet Mountain Dew was “embarrassing.”
“Yeah, it’s a really embarrassing moment. And it’s evidence of a story that we’re hearing more and more that the Trump campaign is really having second thoughts about J.D. Vance,” McKinnon said. He spoke on “CNN This Morning” With anchor Casey Hunt.
He was speaking about voter ID at a rally in Ohio on Monday. Vance said the Democratic Party “No matter what you do, they say it’s racism.”
“I had a bottle of Diet Mountain Dew yesterday, and people will still say it’s racist today, but it tastes good,” Vance said.
In an interview with CNN, McKinnon said Vance had warned the Trump campaign that “everyone [President] Biden was going to be the nominee.”
“And they thought they were in a comfortable position. They could take a gamble. All they had to do was pick someone who was very popular with the MAGA base,” McKinnon continued. “But he didn’t. It didn’t add anything to the J.D. Vance equation. He didn’t add any voters, he didn’t broaden his base at all.”
President Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race on Sunday raised the possibility that Vice President Harris could become the Democratic nominee, as Democrats see her as a stronger candidate than Biden because she is seen as better at getting her message across and is relatively young compared to former President Trump.
In a Hill/Decision Desk average of national polls, Vice President Harris has an approval rating of 45.5% compared to former President Trump’s 48%, giving her a 2.5 point lead over Trump.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign.
