JD Vance stupidly agreed to “the New York Times interview.” One of my big questions is: why? Did the Trump campaign not know about it? Did Vance think that his awkward sociopathy would somehow translate to a grilling from the Times? Donald Trump obviously can’t handle anything like this, so they gave it to Vance? As you can imagine, the interview didn’t go well, as Vance hemmed and hawed and tried to lie smoothly about his creepy obsession with women’s reproduction. He also tried to sleaze his way out of answering the “who won the 2020 election” question. Some highlights (you can read the full piece here):

Converting to Catholicism & being married to a Hindu: “Usha was raised in a Hindu household, but not an especially religious household. And she was, like, really into it. Meaning, she thought that thinking about the question of converting and getting baptized and becoming a Christian, she thought that they were good for me, in sort of a good-for-your-soul kind of way. And I don’t think I would have ever done it without her support, because I felt kind of bad about it, right? Like, you didn’t sign up for a weekly churchgoer. I feel terrible for my wife because we go to church almost every Sunday, unless we’re on the road. She does [go to church with me but] No she hasn’t [converted]. That’s why I feel bad about it. She’s got three kids. Obviously I help with the kids, but because I’m kind of the one going to church, she feels more responsibility to keep the kids quiet in the church. And I just felt kind of bad. Like, oh, you didn’t sign up to marry a weekly churchgoer. Are you OK with this? And she was more than OK with it, and that was a big part of the confirmation that this was the right thing for me.

On calling childless women sociopathic, psychotic, deranged. “Well, as I said when I made those comments — and look, they were dumb comments. I think most people probably have said something dumb, have said something that they wish they had put differently. [NYT: You said it in several different venues.] In a very, very short period of time. It was sort of a thing that I picked up on. I said it a couple of times in a couple of interviews, and look, I certainly wish that I had said it differently. What I was trying to get at is that — I’m not talking about people who it just didn’t work out for, for medical reasons, for social reasons, like set that to the side, we’re not talking about folks like that. What I was definitely trying to illustrate ultimately in a very inarticulate way is that I do think that our country has become almost pathologically anti-child.”

He does think it’s sociopathic to not have kids because of climate change: “You know, when I’ve used this word sociopathic? Like, that, I think, is a very deranged idea: the idea that you shouldn’t have a family because of concerns over climate change. Doesn’t mean you can’t worry about climate change, but in the focus on childless cat ladies, we missed the substance of what I said…. I think that is a bizarre way of thinking about the future. Not to have kids because of concerns over climate change? I think the more bizarre thing is our leadership, who encourages young women, and frankly young men, to think about it that way…And if your political philosophy is saying, don’t do that because of concerns over climate change? Yeah, I think that’s a really, really crazy way to think about the world.

He lies about referring to Kamala Harris as a childless cat lady: “Everything that I know about Kamala Harris, that I’ve learned about Kamala Harris, is that she’s got a stepfamily, she’s got an extended family, she’s a very good stepmother to her stepchildren. I would never accuse Kamala Harris along these lines. What I would say is that sometimes Kamala Harris, she hasn’t quite jumped over the “You shouldn’t have kids because of climate change.” But I think in some of her interviews, she’s suggested there’s a reasonableness to that perspective. But again, I don’t think that’s a reasonable perspective. I think that if your political ideas motivate you to not have children, then that is a bizarre way of looking at the world. Now, again, sometimes it doesn’t work out. Sometimes people choose not to have children. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the political sensibility that’s very anti-child.”

Whether he will support the election results this time and commit to a peaceful transfer of power: “Well, first of all, of course we commit to a peaceful transfer of power. We are going to have a peaceful transfer of power. I of course believe that a peaceful transfer of power is going to make Donald Trump the next president of the United States. But if there are problems, of course, in the same way that Democrats protested in 2004 and Donald Trump raised issues in 2020, we’re going to make sure that this election counts, that every legal ballot is counted. We’ve filed almost 100 lawsuits at the R.N.C. to try to ensure that every legal ballot has counted. I think you would maybe criticize that. We see that as an important effort to ensure election integrity. But certainly we’re going to respect the results in 2024, and I feel very confident they’re going to make Donald Trump the next president.”

[From The NY Times]

I’m also including his back-and-forth over the election denialism in the video below. He literally cannot admit that Trump lost the 2020 election. He cannot admit that he’s said wildly crazy sh-t about a national abortion ban and states creating laws to keep women from traveling out of state to seek abortions. He cannot admit that he spent years bashing “childless cat ladies” as inferior and sociopathic. And the stuff about his conversion to Catholicism and “She’s got three kids.” They’re your kids too, you f–king psycho. Vance stays in all women’s business except his wife’s, it’s the strangest f–king thing.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.