JD Vance’s telling ‘give us another chance’ flub

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Vice President JD Vance this week asked voters for “another chance” — something that is decidedly contrary to President Donald Trump’s midterm messaging — before seeming to catch himself.

“Give us another chance — or, give us another couple of years to continue to work on the amazing things that we’ve been doing for the past two years,” Vance said on the “All In” podcast .

A couple of reflections.

The first is that Vance seemed to think better of the phrase he had just uttered and tried to change it. Indeed, asking for “another chance” sure makes it sound like Republicans haven’t succeeded with the chance they’ve been given.

His comment is also decidedly different from what Trump says, which is all about the “golden age” and how everything is so great in the United States.

Vance has been offering a more nuanced and conciliatory message to voters who might be disillusioned, as his speech last week at the Republican midterm convention made abundantly clear. In that speech, in his “All In” appearance and in closed-door remarks to House Republicans this week, Vance made a point to acknowledge the concerns of voters who might not like everything the administration has done, like the Iran war, or are struggling financially.

“Right now, we have a country where people are frustrated. You got to level with them,” he advised GOP lawmakers, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by CNN.

But there’s a difference between “I feel your pain” or acknowledging discontent, and “give us another chance.”

This is also the latest evidence that Vance, despite being the odds-on favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028, just isn’t that gifted a messenger. Everyone assumes he’s the heir to Trump’s political movement, but he’s not a natural on the stump, by any means, and his ability to lock down the Trumpian base is very much to be determined.

But perhaps the biggest point is that whichever version of this talking point Vance offers — be it “another chance” or “another couple of years” — it’s virtually irreconcilable with the campaign that Trump ran in 2024.

The message back then wasn’t just that Trump would fix the problems created by then-President Joe Biden; it was that he would do so thoroughly and quickly.

I ran through some of the promises a week before Trump took office:

“We will be slashing energy and electricity prices by half within 12 months – at a maximum 18 months.” (Energy prices have instead gone up — by a lot.)

“When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One.” (Inflation has continued and is higher today than when he took office.)

On ending the Russia-Ukraine war: “I’ll have that done in 24 hours.” (The war is still going, 20 months later.)

“We’re going to have more auto production in the United States than we’ve ever had before, and it’s going to happen very fast. … I’ll get that done in less than 100 days. I’ll get that done in the first two weeks.” (The longstanding decline has continued.)

After talking about the border, drug cartels, China-Taiwan tensions, the war in Ukraine, rigged elections, abortion and inflation, Trump said: “In six months to a year, many of the problems, almost all of the problems that you and I have just spoken about, will be solved.” (The border has been largely shut down and there is still no evidence of rigged elections, but everything else conservatives consider problematic largely remains.)

“I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.” (He has, in fact, started a war with Iran.)

The 2024 campaign was hardly the only time Trump promised voters the world. This is a guy who in 2016 literally said, “ I will give you everything .”

But the broken promises are much more difficult to ignore when the consequences are so roundly despised by voters. Maybe Trump didn’t make everyone rich like he promised in 2016, but the economy was still pretty strong before Covid. Today, his promise to lower prices instantly looks worse with each passing day, and three-quarters of Americans think he’s neglected the issue .

Ditto the Iran war. It’s so contrary to how Trump pitched himself, and it won’t go away.

And that’s what makes Vance’s comments particularly jarring.

Even more than his somewhat conciliatory speech last week at the GOP midterm convention, they suggest he knows the Trump administration hasn’t delivered on what it promised.

Before he said “another chance,” he listed a number of administration accomplishments. But none of them were about lowering prices across the board or delivering a new “golden age” for the American people. They were narrower items like “no tax on tips” and securing the border.

And that’s a pretty remarkable lack of an endorsement, from Trump’s own VP.

贾斯汀·沙利文/盖蒂图片社

本周，副总统 JD Vance 请求选民再给他一次机会——这与唐纳德·特朗普总统的中期选举信息截然相反——之后他似乎意识到自己说错了话。

“再给我们一次机会——或者，再给我们几年时间，让我们继续做过去两年里我们一直在做的那些了不起的事情，”万斯在“All In”播客节目中说道。

几点思考。

首先，万斯似乎对自己刚才说的话有所顾虑，并试图修改。的确，要求“再给一次机会”听起来好像共和党人没有把握住他们所获得的机会。

他的评论也与特朗普的说法截然不同，特朗普的言论全是关于“黄金时代”，以及美国的一切是多么美好。

范斯一直在向可能感到失望的选民传递一种更加微妙和温和的信息，他上周在共和党中期选举大会上的演讲就充分体现了这一点。在那次演讲中，以及在他“全力以赴”的亮相和本周与众议院共和党人的闭门会谈中，范斯都特意承认了那些可能对政府某些举措并不满意的选民的担忧，例如伊朗战争，或者那些面临经济困境的选民。

据 CNN 获得的会议录音显示，他建议共和党议员：“现在，我们国家人民感到沮丧。你们必须坦诚地与他们沟通。”

但“我感同身受”或承认不满与“再给我们一次机会”之间是有区别的。

这也再次证明，尽管万斯是2028年共和党总统候选人提名的热门人选，但他并非一位出色的代言人。人人都认为他是特朗普政治运动的继承人，但他绝非天生的演讲家，能否牢牢抓住特朗普的支持者还有待观察。

但或许最重要的一点是，无论万斯提出的这个论点是什么版本——无论是“再给一次机会”还是“再过几年”——它都与特朗普在 2024 年开展的竞选活动几乎完全不符。

当时传递的信息不仅仅是特朗普将解决时任总统乔·拜登造成的问题；而是他将彻底、迅速地解决这些问题。

在特朗普就职前一周，我回顾了他的一些竞选承诺：

“我们将在12个月内——最多18个月内——将能源和电力价格削减一半。”（但能源价格反而上涨了——而且涨幅很大。）

“如果我当选，我将立即降低物价，从上任第一天就开始。”（通货膨胀仍在继续，而且现在的通货膨胀率比他上任时还要高。）

关于结束俄乌战争，他曾说：“我会在24小时内完成这件事。”（20个月过去了，战争仍在继续。）

“美国的汽车产量将比以往任何时候都高，而且速度会非常快……我会在100天内完成，甚至两周内就能完成。”（长期以来的下滑趋势仍在继续。）

在谈到边境问题、毒品集团、中台紧张关系、乌克兰战争、选举舞弊、堕胎和通货膨胀之后，特朗普说：“六个月到一年内，你我刚才谈到的许多问题，几乎所有问题，都将得到解决。”（边境已基本关闭，目前仍无选举舞弊的证据，但保守派认为的其他问题依然存在。）

“我不会发动战争，我会制止战争。”（事实上，他已经对伊朗发动了战争。）

2024年的竞选并非特朗普唯一一次向选民许诺美好未来。这个人曾在2016年信誓旦旦地说：“我会把一切都给你们。”

但当选民如此普遍地厌恶其后果时，这些违背的承诺就更难被忽视了。或许特朗普并没有像他在2016年承诺的那样让每个人都富裕起来，但在新冠疫情爆发之前，美国经济仍然相当强劲。如今，他降低物价的承诺随着时间的推移显得愈发不切实际，四分之三的美国人认为他忽视了这个问题。

伊朗战争也是如此。这与特朗普的竞选纲领截然相反，而且这场战争不会就此结束。

正因如此，范斯的言论才显得格外刺耳。

比起他上周在共和党中期选举大会上略带和解意味的讲话，这些言论更表明他知道特朗普政府没有兑现其承诺。

在提出“再给我一次机会”之前，他列举了一系列执政成就。但这些成就与全面降低物价或为美国人民带来新的“黄金时代”无关。它们都是一些比较具体的项目，比如“小费免税”和加强边境安全。

而这竟然是来自特朗普副总统的相当令人震惊的不支持。