Trump Running Mate JD Vance Papers Over Extremism In RNC Speech

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Eight years after warning that Donald Trump might be “America’s Hitler,” Ohio Sen. JD Vance on Wednesday night nevertheless officially accepted the offer to serve as his right-hand man.

But the man who addressed thousands of delegates on day three of the GOP convention couldn’t have sounded more different from the MAGA die-hard who has made a name for himself defending Trump, in a radical transformation that catapulted him from political novice to possibly a heartbeat from the presidency.

Vance, 39, delivered a relatively conventional prime-time acceptance speech, introducing himself to the country and leaning into the GOP’s stated themes of unity following an attempt on Trump’s life by a shooter in Pennsylvania.

“ This evening could’ve been so much different,” Vance said, referring to Saturday’s shooting. “Instead of a day of celebration, it could’ve been a day of heartache and mourning. For the last eight years, President Trump has given everything to the people of this country. He didn’t need politics, but the country needed him.”

“I want all Americans to go and watch the video of the would-be assassin coming within a quarter of an inch of taking his life,” Vance added. “Consider the lies they told you about Donald Trump, and then look at that photo of him defiant, fist in the air. When Donald Trump rose to his feet in that Pennsylvania field, all of America stood with him.”

He also drew on his blue-collar roots to call for more supply chain in-sourcing, for beefing up manufacturing in America and for pro-labor policies — an area in which he has sometimes has challenged GOP orthodoxy.

Vance, who was introduced onstage by his wife, Usha Vance, an attorney he met as a student at Yale Law School.