Vice President JD Vance was raked over the coals on Friday in the pages of the New York Times for his defense of all things Donald Trump during a press availability on Wednesday.
In a back-and-forth between the Times’ Frank Bruni and conservative columnist Brett Stephens on Trump’s week, Stephens took an off-ramp to discuss Democrat Gavin Newsom by suggesting California’s governor could face off with Trump’s veep in the 2028 presidential election.
Criticizing Newsom for how he has run California, Stephens quipped, “If I were JD Vance, I’d be praying for Democrats to nominate Newsom.”
That set up Bruni to take his shot at Vance by writing, “If I were JD Vance, I’d have little time to pray because I’d be so busy massaging President Trump’s ego 24/7.”
He then asked, “Could Vance be more sycophantic?”
Bruni added FBI director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi to the mix by suggesting, “I guess he has to compete against the obsequious likes of Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, who both stood adoringly beside the president in the Oval Office on Wednesday for a news conference ostensibly about crime statistics.”
“Knowing how much Trump loves a lofty superlative, Patel touted ‘the best numbers for fighting crime in U.S. history’ and credited them to — you guessed it! — Trump, whom he thanked for his ‘brave leadership’ and also his ‘incredible leadership,’” Bruni wrote before observing, “That’s the torrent of gushing Vance is up against, and he’s obviously in it to win it.”
Suggesting that Vance could break ranks and pipe “...up now and then to question — I don’t know — a $20 billion bailout for Argentina? Blowing up Venezuelan boats before you even know for sure if there are drugs aboard them or just water-skiers behind them?” Stephens joked, “The little-known Article II Section 5 of the Constitution states, ‘The vice president shall at all times on all things suck up to the president.’ Or something like that.”
You can read their back-and-forth here.