Former President Donald Trump took a huge "gamble" by selecting Ohio senator and former venture capitalist J.D. Vance as his running mate in the 2024 election, a White House communications official during the Trump administration told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday.
Vance, said Alyssa Farah Griffin, is an effective communicator — but has an army of skeletons in his closet, ranging from extreme political positions to a history of attacks on Trump himself.
"It's a strategic gamble, but I think it speaks to just how confident the Trump campaign is," said Griffin.
"Strategic gamble, why?" asked Cooper.
"There are major vulnerabilities with J.D. Vance," said Griffin. "You have tons of times that he's been on the record, back when he was a Never Trumper, calling the most terrific names that you could ... America's Hitler, among others."
"But he's also someone — his talent, to give him credit, he's incredibly savvy. He can appear on mainstream media and give a coherent, eloquent version of MAGA and go toe to toe with the best interviewer. But then he'll appear on extremely far-right media where he's said much more outrageous things that I'm sure Democrats everywhere are digging up now to portray him as the most extreme version of MAGA."
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What this means, she added, is that, "There's going to be a big dump of some of the things he said on Steve Bannon's 'War Room' and elsewhere that I think the campaign needs to be ready for, whereas a Doug Burgum would be about as safe as can be. However, J.D. Vance, I think, really resonates in key Pennsylvania. He's got the story, he's got that national profile, so there's some pros and some major cons."
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Alyssa Farah Griffin breaks down Trump's choice of J.D. Vancewww.youtube.com
