Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ridiculed former President Donald Trump’s selection of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his vice presidential pick, and suggested the GOP nominee may want to ditch him.
“The addition of JD Vance to this ticket — it’s incredibly a bad choice,” Schumer (D-NY) told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “Every day, it comes out Vance has done something more extreme, more weird, more erratic.”
“I’ll bet President Trump is sitting there scratching his head and wondering, why did I pick this guy? The choice may be one of the best things he ever did for Democrats,” Schumer added.
Trump, 78, unveiled Vance, 39, as his running mate during the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee earlier this month.
Vance, a freshman senator who won a bruising 2022 GOP primary with Trump’s backing, had made particularly close ties with Donald Trump Jr., who pushed for him to get the VP slot.
Trump’s decision for runningmate came before President Biden made the seismic announcement that he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now scrambling to select a VP contender of her own.
Harris, 59, is expected to make that decision within roughly two weeks ahead of a virtual roll call where the Democrats will coronate their presidential nominee ahead of the Democratic National Convention.
Democrats are doing a virtual roll call due to concerns about Ohio’s Aug. 7 deadline to ensure they can get on the ballot. Technically, Republicans in the Buckeye State green-lit a patch to ensure the Democrats get an extension.
However, Democrats made clear they don’t trust it and are forging ahead with the virtual roll call nonetheless.
Schumer, 73, needled Trump over the deadline and suggested that he may want to select another running mate by the deadline
“The president has about 10 days — 10 days before the Ohio ballot is locked in. And he has a choice: does he keep Vance on the ticket?” Schumer taunted. “Or does he pick someone new?”
When asked about Schumer’s swipe, Trump campaign communication director Steven Cheung said the former president is “thrilled” with his pick.
“They are the perfect team to take back the White House. Meanwhile, Democrats are in complete disarray after their coup that forcibly removed Biden from the campaign, proving they are the real threats to democracy,” Chueng said in a statement.
“The fact remains that Kamala Harris is weak, failed, and dangerously liberal, and no amount of gaslighting from her moronic, too-online campaign, or idiots like Chuck Schumer, will erase her despicable record.”
Meanwhile, the newly rebranded Harris for President campaign has embarked on a bid to unearth Vance’s past and use it against Trump.
Schumer made waves last week when he declined to shake hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the latter’s address to a joint meeting of Congress.
“I went to this speech because the relationship between Israel and America is ironclad and I wanted to show that. But at the same time, as everyone knows, I have serious disagreements with the way Benjamin Netanyahu has conducted these policies,” Schumer explained.
Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish politician in the US, had taken to the Senate floor back in March and delivered a dramatic speech calling for new elections in Israel and ripped Netanyahu as an “obstacle” to peace.
Dozens of Democrats in Congress boycotted Netanyahu’s speech to Congress last Wednesday, which also triggered a wave of protests in the nation’s capital that same day.
“Our ironclad commitment to Israel that transcends any one prime minister, or any one president, no matter how much you might disagree with that prime minister,” Schumer added.
The Empire State Democrat also refused to dish on the details of his July 13 meeting with President Biden in which ABC News reported that he privately encouraged the 81-year-old to drop out of the race.
“I’m not going to get into the specifics. But President Biden will walk away from the presidency with his head held high, because of all the great things he’s done and because he put America first he always has,” Schumer said.
