Vance says ‘dark message’ on Trump at DNC doesn’t gel with Democrats’ ‘joyful’ rhetoric

Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), the GOP vice presidential nominee, says Democrats’ “dark message” on former President Trump does not match their claims of a “joyful” message at this week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Democrats have not been holding back in their criticisms of Trump and his running mate at the convention, frequently warning of what a second Trump term could bring to the country.

Vance told CNN’s Jake Tapper Wednesday night that Democrats are not talking about what their vision is.

“So what you see from the Democrats is instead this argument that if you want to vote for Donald Trump because you want to change the direction of this country, you’re somehow a bad person,” he said. “And I really think that that dark message really doesn’t gel at all with the idea that somehow the Democrats are the joyful party.”

“There’s a lot of attacks on Donald Trump, a lot of criticisms of what he’s done and what he said. Not a whole lot of positive vision for how Kamala Harris is going to fix the problems that plague the country,” the senator continued.

Democrats have been needling and mocking the former president throughout the convention, hoping to spark a reaction from Trump. Vance has urged them to “pump the brakes” on their criticisms in the name of safety in the wake of Trump’s attempted assassination last month.

Trump has reacted to many of the speeches at the convention, hitting back at former President Obama and Michelle Obama for their addresses earlier this week. He questioned if he still needed to “stick to policy” if his opponents are “getting personal.”

Vance also responded to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) speech accepting the vice presidential nomination Wednesday, accusing him of not speaking about Vice President Harris’s record.

“Because they can’t talk about Kamala Harris’s record, they’re creating a phantom of Donald Trump’s leadership. The Donald Trump that I know, and that the American people know, I think, produced really good results for the American people,” Vance said. “It’s a record to be proud of, and a record I’d like to get back to, frankly, because it was good for the American people.”

The Hill has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.