In private, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio has been quite candid about the devastating impact the end of President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has caused to the GOP’s electoral hopes for 2024.
“All of us were hit with a little bit of a political sucker punch,” Vance privately told donors during a fundraiser in Golden Valley, Minnesota on Saturday, per a recording obtained by The Washington Post.
Vance made those remarks just days after Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race on July 21.
Since then, the Democratic Party has coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris, who was named presumptive Democratic nominee on Tuesday night.
But Harris’ sudden rise, Vance said, has dealt a blow to the GOP presidential campaign.
“The bad news is that Kamala Harris does not have the same baggage as Joe Biden, because whatever we might have to say, Kamala is a lot younger. And Kamala Harris is obviously not struggling in the same ways that Joe Biden did,” Vance said on Saturday.
The candidness of Vance’s statements are a break from the image of confidence that his campaign has sought to project in the wake of Biden’s departure.
For one, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly slammed Harris on Truth Social, saying that she will “be a disaster for the USA.”
When contacted for comment, Vance spokesperson William Martin said “poll after poll” shows Trump “leading” Harris.
“Her far-left ideas are even more radioactive than Joe Biden, particularly in the key swing states that will decide this election like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin,” Martin said of Harris.
To be sure, Vance’s admission on Saturday isn’t the first time the Trump campaign has expressed their preference for Biden as a rival.
During an interview with The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta in mid-June, Trump’s campaign advisor Susie Wiles called Biden a “gift.”
And in a subsequent report published on July 21, Alberta said Wiles once told him that she was more afraid of other Democratic talents than Biden.
“I don’t think Joe Biden has a ton of advantages. But I do think Democrats do,” Wiles told Alberta on Super Tuesday this year, which took place on March 5.
Representatives for the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
