Before he became one of the most prominent faces of the “Make America Great Again (MAGA)” movement and Vice President of US President Donald Trump, J.D. Vance took political positions completely different from those he adopts today, especially towards Trump and his political movement. In a new development that sheds light on the path of his political transformation, a press report revealed that in 2016, Vance not only criticized Trump, but rather, according to testimonies of informed people, he sought to communicate with the Hillary Clinton campaign and offer her assistance or advice in confronting the Republican candidate at the time.
The political shift in US Vice President J.D. Vance’s positions toward the “Make America Great Again (MAGA)” movement and Donald Trump is well-known, but a new report reveals that he made efforts against the man who later became his partner in the presidential race, in an attempt, according to the report, to help obstruct his arrival to the White House, according to the Independent newspaper,
According to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Vanity Fair, Vance sought to reach out to senior officials in Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, with the aim of offering to assist or advise the campaign in its bid to win that year's general election.
According to a person who played an intermediary between Vance and the Clinton campaign in 2016, Vance specifically wanted to reach out to Jake Sullivan, who at the time was Clinton's senior policy adviser.
Vanity Fair quoted one person as saying that Vance called him and asked, “Can you put me in touch with Jake Sullivan?” To which he responded, “Jake is running Hillary’s campaign, and he is very busy.”
But Vance was eventually able to set up a meeting with Sullivan, according to the magazine. As reported, during the meeting the two parties discussed Clinton's strategy in a number of states known as the “Blue Wall,” namely Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, in addition to Vance's home state of Ohio.
During the meeting, Vance warned, according to sources, of the need for the Clinton campaign to deal more seriously with the growing populist sentiments in the country, and to reconsider the way it communicates with voters in those states.
Vanity Fair quoted the source familiar with the meeting as saying that Vance listed the states of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, which are states referred to as “blue wall” states, and said that Clinton should go to them instead of appearing with singer Beyoncé in Miami.
According to the source, Vance believed that Clinton should also “apologize for the Iraq war,” and address voters who felt, according to what he described, that members of their communities sacrificed in wars and were then forgotten. The source quoted him as saying, in this context, that Clinton should apologize “for sending so many people - members of my community, and all those people in those states who lost their sons and fathers, and then everyone completely forgot about them.”
Another person close to Sullivan confirmed that the meeting took place, noting that Vance urged Sullivan to “focus” and intensify efforts to defeat Donald Trump.
Ultimately, Clinton lost the four states that Vance reportedly warned the campaign about: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio. This came in elections that witnessed Trump gaining ground in a number of states that formed a major axis in the race, while Clinton, according to the political analyzes that dealt with the election result, faced a problem related to the prevailing impression among a segment of voters that she represented the political establishment.
On the other hand, Trump focused his campaign on exploiting feelings of anger and resentment toward the elites and existing political institutions, presenting himself as a candidate from outside that system and capable of challenging them.
This account highlights how different Vance's political positions were in 2016 from his current position within the pro-Trump camp. At that stage, Vance was a critic of Trump, before his political position witnessed a major shift that ended with him joining the “MAGA” movement and then running for vice president alongside Trump.
However, Vance's spokeswoman denied in a statement that the vice president wanted Clinton to win the election, rejecting the characterization that he was trying to help the Democratic nominee win.
“We completely reject the characterization that he was trying to help Hillary win,” Vance spokeswoman Taylor Van Kirk said.
