Politics
JD Vance’s debate performance was a masterclass on how to gaslight women
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance arguably had one job going into Tuesday night’s debate: convince the American public that he, and his party, don’t hate women.
Even with that painfully low bar, I’d say he failed to do the job. The once anti-Trump senator did wear a pink tie, but did not face up to his past comments about menopausal women“childless cat ladies” and a historically low favorability rate. Instead, he used most of his allotted speaking time to mansplain his views to the two women who were moderating, women who vote, and even his own wife.
He used most of his allotted speaking time to mansplain his views to the two women who were moderating, women who vote, and even his own wife.
During a question on immigration, Vance tried to talk over CBS moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennanafter he regurgitated dangerous lies about Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio. To Vance’s dismay, Brennan reminded the audience that the immigrants in Springfield are there legally.
“The rules that you were not going to fact-check,” Vance quipped, referring to CBS’ statement that it would leave it to Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to fact check each other during the debate. “And since you’re fact checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on.”
Vance talked over and interrupted both O’Donnell and Brennan as they tried to move forward with the debate.
“Thank you, senator, for describing the legal process,” Brennan said, before the network then muted Vance’s mic.
“The audience can’t hear you because your mics are cut,” Brennan said. “We have so much we want to get into. Thank you for explaining the legal process,” she added, in a tone every woman sitting in a cubicle, boardroom or classroom knows deep in her bones.
Unlike his windmill-, shark– and Hannibal Lecter-obsessed running mate, Vance deftly wields a very specific type of misogyny that, while far less obvious, is just as insidious — one that can come off as empathic, but is undeniably condescending as it normalizes the most draconian right-wing policies.
One example of this was Vance consistently referring to Brennan — a woman he does not personally know — by her first name rather than addressing her appropriately. The slight-of-hand misogynistic move may have been Vance’s attempt to appear likable and down-to-earth, but many viewers saw it differently: condescending, patronizing and rude.
Vance himself admitted that the Republican Party has a problem when it comes to women’s trust. He reminded women watching Tuesday that they do not trust Republicans when it comes to abortion and the human right to bodily autonomy — yet failed to explain how he, his running mate and his fellow party members plan to address the problem.
“We’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue where they, frankly, just don’t trust us,” Vance said, before claiming that is “one of the things that Donald Trump and I are endeavoring to do.”
To demonstrate his party’s commitment to earning that end, Vance lied about not supporting a nationwide abortion banthe realities of abortion care later in pregnancyand Minnesota’s PRO Act, signed by his opponent, Gov. Tim Walz. Because nothing says “trust me, I know what’s best for you” like holding an impromptu masterclass on gaslighting.
While Vance was able to appear far more level-headed than Trump in his fateful debate performance against Vice President Kamala Harris last month, it was Vance’s faux praise of his wife while discussing the necessity of child care that truly embodied his very specific type of mansplaining and misogyny.
It was Vance’s faux praise of his wife while discussing the necessity of child care that truly embodied his very specific type of mansplaining and misogyny.
“I speak from this very personally because I’m married to a beautiful woman who is an incredible mother to our three beautiful kids, but is also a very, very brilliant corporate litigator, and I’m so proud of her,” Vance began. “But being a working mom, even for somebody with all of the advantages of my wife, is extraordinarily difficult.”
It’s telling, when a man publicly laments the challenges his working wife faces, yet doesn’t seem to face those same challenges as a working father. While appearing to appreciate all his wife does, Vance still chose to mansplain how hard it is to work outside the home while managing the majority of child care and household responsibilities without structural support — the exact structural support Republicans have historically opposed.
For his bropropriating coup de grâce, Vance then pontificated on the importance of giving a “family care model that makes choice possible.”
“The cultural pressure on young families, and especially young women, I think, makes it really hard for people to choose the family model they want,” Vance said, ignoring how anti-abortion laws make it difficult, dangerous and in some cases impossible for women to choose when and how to start creating a “family model” in the first place.
Overall, it’s true that during Tuesday’s debate Vance succeeded in portraying himself as a level-headed, somewhat ordinary politician (if the definition of “ordinary” is calmly discussing the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history). But that is perhaps what makes Vance far more Machiavellian than Trump even. And it’s what should put us all on high alert as we prepare to head to the polls in November.
Danielle Campoamor is a freelance journalist who has been published in Teen Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, BLN Opinion, Playboy, Newsweek, BuzzFeed and Marie Claire, among others.
WASILLA, Alaska — Three weeks out from Election Day, President Donald Trump took a helicopter to a plane to another helicopter to a motorcade to an ice hockey rink in Alaska’s Matanuska-Susitna Valley, traversing nearly 4,000 miles over more than eight hours to turn out his base here to help Republicans defend the Senate.
But Trump’s trek might not be enough to save Sen. Dan Sullivan, who’s running in a tougher-than-expected race against Democrat Mary Peltola in a state where the president’s approval rating is underwater and independents outnumber both Republicans and Democrats.
Alaska strategists and voters who spoke to Blue Light News acknowledged that Sullivan faces a difficult path to reelection, despite Trump’s time investment and the outside money pouring in.
“Very conservative MAGA voters can’t vote for you harder,” said Scott Kendall, a veteran political strategist who worked on two of Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaigns and was chief of staff to former Alaska Gov. Bill Walker. “Donald Trump’s support in this current climate is both a blessing and a curse.”
Even some Trump supporters at the Tuesday night rally admitted the outlook appeared bleak.
“I think Alaska’s turning blue,” said Matt Niessink, a 45-year-old general contractor from Wasilla. He said he had voted for Trump three times and planned to support Republicans this year.
What did he wish the president would do differently? “I wish he’d shut his mouth sometimes and not be such a pompous ass,” Niessink said.
The president was in Wasilla — population 10,556 — because the outlook is darkening for his party in a state he carried by 13 points just two years ago. In a midterm year defined by the cost of gas and groceries, the Last Frontier has been hit particularly hard, with the average price of diesel nearing $7 per gallon. In the Senate race, Peltola is flush with cash and leads Sullivan in most polls. MAGA Inc., the cash-rich Trump-aligned super PAC, is increasingly focusing on Alaska as one in a slate of states that can help Republicans hold the Senate.
Enter Trump, who has been spending the cycle’s crucial final weeks holding rallies in red states to juice support among his base, which tends to see depressed turnout in years when he’s not on the ballot.
“That was a lot of flying,” the president said at the top of his remarks. “In fact, they were thinking about canceling. They said, ‘Sir, you’re very busy, this is very tough.’” But, Trump continued, he refused to cancel for a state he won three times.
Echoing his comments at other red-state rallies, Trump asked the roaring crowd for “one big favor” — to “pretend that I’m on the ballot, because every time I’ve been on the ballot, we win.” He repeated his promise that Americans will receive $5,000 dividends if Republicans hold both chambers.
“What this is about is getting out the vote,” Sullivan told reporters before Trump’s speech. “A rising tide of enthusiasm lifts all the candidates.”
Unlike some other Republican candidates in tight races, Sullivan has shied away from distancing himself from the least popular aspects of Trump’s presidency.
Sullivan proclaimed on stage at the rally that “the conflict in the Middle East is temporary. The true forever war is the national Democrats’ war against Alaska oil and gas and our jobs.” And although a campaign aide released a statement condemning Trump’s move to import Russian diesel, Sullivan did not join four of his Republican Senate colleagues, including Murkowski, who called on Trump to reverse the decision.
Art Hackney, a veteran Republican strategist in Alaska, said that “most of the people who support” Sullivan “think that he should” break more with the president.
Hackney, who runs a pro-Sullivan super PAC called “We Stand with Dan,” attributed that choice to loyalty — but suggested the president’s demand of fealty, and treatment of frequent dissenter Murkowski, could also be part of Sullivan’s calculus.
“A lot of his longtime supporters and the people who are in the industries that would benefit from that wish he would be more blunt,” Hackney said. “But with what Murkowski has done, if Dan did something considered a disrespectful trigger or something, what do you think would happen? It could well have implications for things that affect Alaska’s economy.”
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Some top congressional Republicans have privately concluded that it is likely impossible for them to keep control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, and they are now focused on limiting the scale of the defeat and salvaging the party’s Senate majority.
Five senior Republican lawmakers, all granted anonymity to speak candidly about their party’s dire position, told Blue Light News the House had all but slipped away.
One senior House Republican said the GOP’s goal at this point was to “save as many Republican seats as we can.” The president, this person said, was not helping.
“President Trump has made this election all about himself,” the lawmaker said. “Now we have to survive that political storm.”
A second Republican member of Congress said the movement of campaign advertising made plain which side was in control of the midterms. This lawmaker predicted Democrats would pick up about 10 seats, more than enough to take control of the chamber.
Even in newly redistricted red states like Florida and Texas, this person said, Republican candidates were “hanging on with their fingernails.”
Republicans have already fallen back from several contested House districts that they feel are no longer winnable, including those held by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa and Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey. Trump carried their districts just two years ago. The party last week gave up on an Omaha-based district held by retiring Rep. Don Bacon.
Trump officials and other top GOP operatives say more candidates may be cut off in the coming days, in order to shift advertising money to races where it can make more of a difference. Republican groups have already given up on multiple races where they once hoped to unseat Democratic lawmakers.
The Republican Party is under extreme pressure across the Midwest, where it is now spending heavily to defend Senate seats in once-reliably MAGA states like Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.
Bacon, a maverick often at odds with the White House, said there was no mystery in his party’s political tribulations.
“I’ve talked to some who are making these decisions: The biggest problem is the president’s polling numbers and unfavorables,” Bacon said.
White House officials insist they’re not giving up on either chamber of Congress. In a statement, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said Trump remained “committed to maintaining Republican majorities in both the House and Senate.”
As he departed on Tuesday to campaign in Alaska for embattled GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, Trump professed optimism about the midterms but acknowledged that sitting presidents typically see their party lose seats in the off year.
“But I’m doing a tour right now and I’m doing rallies,” Trump added. “The level of enthusiasm for the Republican Party is way up.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson went even further, flatly declaring during a campaign stop in deep-red Texas that “the polling is wrong” in showing his party on the brink of a broad defeat.
Yet at a tactical level, the Republican Party’s moves to shift money away from defending the House and toward saving the Senate are clear enough. In recent days, the Congressional Leadership Fund, the top super PAC for House Republicans, canceled advertising for key House candidates in Nebraska and Iowa and allowed the Senate Leadership Fund – a Republican group focused on the upper chamber – to swoop in and claim the airtime to support Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts and Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running for Senate in Iowa.
“These are not the moves of a party that’s going to keep the House,” a third Republican lawmaker said.
In statements to Blue Light News, both CLF and the National Republican Congressional Committee said they had no intention of giving up on the fight for control of the House.
NRCC spokesperson Mike Marinella said districts are won “one by one,” and that the GOP has “the financial firepower and ground game needed to win.”
Chris Winkelman, president of CLF, said his group would keep moving money around to maximize the impact nationally.
The goal, he said, was to “keep the pressure on the most vulnerable Democrats and preserve a path to 218 seats.”
Former Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Florida Republican who lost his swing seat in Trump’s first midterm election eight years ago, said his former colleagues were clear-eyed about where the election seemed to be headed.
“The environment is about as tough as one could expect,” Curbelo said. “There is no one who has privately stated that they believe Republicans can hold the House — not in recent weeks, anyway.”
Megan Messerly, Lauren Fedor, Lisa Kashinsky and Myah Ward contributed to this report.
Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff said Tuesday he will not run for president in 2028 and committed to serving a full six-year Senate term if reelected.
“I have zero interest in running for president. I’m not running for president. I’m running for reelection to the Senate,” Ossoff said during a Georgia Senate debate against Republican Rep. Mike Collins.
Asked by Greg Bluestein of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution whether he would serve his full term if he wins in November, Ossoff replied: “Yes, I will.”
The remarks are Ossoff’s most forceful rejection yet of a potential 2028 presidential bid even as his name has repeatedly surfaced in national Democrats’ conversations about possible contenders for the party’s nomination. His public commitment to a full Senate term on Tuesday is the latest of his campaign’s many efforts to tamp down that speculation.
Ossoff gained national attention this year given his strong fundraising numbers, his consistent lead in public polling against Collins and his ability to generate viral moments on the campaign trail, particularly through his attacks on President Donald Trump. Democrats are bullish about Ossoff’s ability to hold onto his Senate seat — so much so that the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC said Tuesday it was removing its ad spending in Georgia for the week.
He’s also taken steps to boost the state Democratic party in Georgia, a perennial battleground that has been and will be key to winning the presidency. If November brings historic wins up and down the ballot, Ossoff will get some of the credit — and he’ll have confirmed his status as a leader in the swing state.
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