Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) called Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) a “phony” and a “fake” after the GOP vice presidential nominee criticized Democrats — in particular, Vice President Harris — for not publicly raising concerns about President Biden’s mental capacity earlier.
In an interview on CNN’s “The Source” with Kaitlan Collins on Monday, Beshear responded to Vance’s criticism by saying the senator was “grasping for straws.”
“Listen, JD Vance is a phony. He’s fake. I mean, he first says that Donald Trump is like Hitler, and now he’s acting like he’s Lincoln,” Beshear said about Vance, referring to his reversal in support for the former president.
Vance began his career in the public eye by writing a best-selling memoir that was highly critical of Trump and his presidency. Vance had called himself a “never Trump guy” and described Trump as an idiot and reprehensible. Behind closed doors, Vance reportedly compared Trump to Hitler.
In the Senate, however, Vance has been one of Trump’s staunchest supporters and a champion of the “America first” mindset in his approach to policy.
“I mean, the problem with JD Vance is he has no conviction, but I guess his running mate has 34,” Beshear added, referring to Trump’s conviction in New York on 34 counts of falsifying business records in a conspiracy to shield potentially damaging information from the public ahead of the 2016 election.
Beshear was responding to a clip from a rally earlier Monday when Vance criticized Democrats for only now speaking out against President Biden, who bowed out of the race Sunday but had previously said he had no intention of doing so and still says he will not resign before the end of his term.
“This is not OK, ladies and gentlemen. You cannot, for three and a half years, take a guy who clearly didn’t have the mental capacity to do the job,” Vance said at a rally in Middletown, Ohio, on Monday — his first solo rally since joining the ticket.
“Kamala Harris lied about it. My Senate Democratic colleagues lied about it. The media lied about it. Every single person who saw Joe Biden knew that he wasn’t capable of doing the job, and for three years, they said nothing, until he became political deadweight,” Vance continued.
Before calling Vance a “phony,” Beshear pushed back on the way Vance referred to the vice president, the clear front-runner to replace Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
“Well, first, he ought to call the vice president by her title. She earned it. She is Vice President Harris,” Beshear said.”
A spokesman for Vance fire back at Beshear, nothing that the vice presidential nominee has always said that while he was raised in Middletown, Ohio, his family’s “ancestral home is Jackson, Kentucky.”
“JD grew up spending his summers in Appalachia and came from a poor family, something Andy Beshear could never relate to because he grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth thanks to his politician/lawyer daddy,” Vance spokesman Taylor Van Kirk said. “Unlike Beshear, who rode his father’s coat tails into the governor’s mansion, Senator Vance has had to earn everything he’s accomplished in this life.”
Beshear, a popular Democratic governor in a deep-red state, has been mentioned among the candidates who could serve as Harris’s hypothetical vice president if she wins the Democratic nomination.
This story was updated at 10:11 a.m.