JD Vance Is A Hog That’ll Eat Any Slop

The operating principle of JD Vance's life in politics seems to be as follows: How can I serve every powerful person while appealing to literally no normal person? There is no boot he won't lick, no special interest he won't kowtow to, no family member he won't throw under the bus, in order to advance his standing in the administration of a man he previously saw as "America's Hitler." He'll even take on the grimy work when necessary.

So when it was time for Donald Trump's administration to address and blindly defend last week's killing of Renee Good by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross, they must have been relieved to remember this readily available cretin. Someone servile and charmless, someone who could absorb the reputational damage that might follow reckless endorsement of a point-blank execution by an officer of the federal government ... where was that guy when you needed some shit eaten?

The vice president made a rare appearance in the White House press briefing room on Jan. 8. The previous day, he was willing to characterize the event as "a tragedy," albeit, according to him, one of Good's own making. But in his televised remarks, he decided to stake out a more extreme position. Even his boss, shown a new angle of the video that same day by the New York Times, found more ambiguity: “It’s a terrible scene ... I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.” When you are trailing Donald Trump on issues of nuance and delicacy around a tragedy, you should drop everything and walk into the wilderness.