It’s been barely a month since former president Donald Trump named Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate for the upcoming election, and the potential vice president is not generating many positive headlines.
Vance is notably younger than the other candidates at age 40, presenting him at first as a favorable candidate for younger voters. But some of the things he has said are giving pause to those who may have jumped on board with him initially.
And while it’s true that mainstream media has been digging up odd stories from his past (not unlike the apparent smear campaign recently waged against independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.), Vance did have an unusual analogy about the border crisis which may not have inspired much confidence about his handling of the issue.
On Thursday August 15, the Ohio senator was addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars group in Pennsylvania when he was asked about Trump’s promise to initiate the “largest deportation operation” the United States has ever seen. Specifically, he was questioned as to whether that effort would include the National Guard scouring the country for deportees.
Vance first replied by saying the initial step to address the immigration crisis is to “stop the bleeding.” Once the number of illegal immigrants is near “zero” as much as “physically possible,” he went on, there is the question about what the president would do with the millions of illegal residents who are already in the country.
The lawmaker continued by saying that problem is a “really big sandwich” that is “10 times the size” of one’s mouth, wondering how one would “eat the whole thing.” And yes, Vance took that analogy all the way. He answered his own question by explaining that the problem (or sandwich) must be solved by taking one “bite” at a time, which is the way to “approach” the millions of illegal residents “who are here.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Vance is polling as the least popular vice-presidential candidate in modern American history. Last month, polls showed that the candidate’s post-RNC favorability rating was –6 points, significantly lower than the +19-point average.
