MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Sunday alleged that Donald Trump's selection of Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, as his running mate may have been a critical misfire after President Joe Biden has bowed out of the presidential race.
On Sunday, Biden announced that he would be dropping out. "It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president," he wrote in an official letter shared on social media. "And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term."
In a later post, the president added that he would be endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, for the Democratic nomination. "Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year," Biden wrote. "Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this."
Biden's decision to exit the race comes after a flailing debate performance that sowed considerable doubt in his candidacy amongst Democrats. Now, with Biden clearing the way for Harris to take center stage, "you can feel the Democratic Party consolidating," Maddow argued.
"You can feel it coming together. And that momentum — she's gonna be choosing from a position of strength," Maddow said. "The next three and half months are just gonna be lights out in terms of this campaign against Donald Trump. Donald Trump thought that he did not need to worry about winning this election because he thought he was going to be running against Joe Biden."
"Because he thought he didn't really have to compete very hard to win, he picked JD Vance. Someone who isn't going to help him at all," Maddow claimed.
"He picked JD Vance because he wanted him for governing, not campaigning,” she said. “They picked JD Vance because they thought they had this election in the bag, and Joe Biden did this today, and now it is an absolutely different ball game. JD Vance and Donald Trump are going to lose in November and Donald Trump is going to regret picking JD Vance as his running mate.”
“Any Democrat who can talk about the kinds of issues where JD Vance has taken the kinds of stances … those are not 50/50 issues in this country," the host said, speaking of Vance's extremely hardline approaches to issues like reproductive rights. "They are not 60/40. He is taking the kind of stances that single digits of Americans support."
“You do not need any type of Democrat in particular to prosecute a case against J.D. Vance. He is a real weirdo from a really, really narrow slice of the far right side of the ideological doctrine," Maddow continued. “They picked him because they didn't think he would have to be defending himself at all. Because he thought he didn't need to compete very hard to win, he picked J.D. Vance. He picked someone who's not going to help him at all.”
