JD Vance has 'six-figure stake' in online video platform known to welcome Neo-Nazi content
Following last month's Republican National Convention, CNN's Harry Enten submitted that Senator JD Vance (R-OH) "is the worst vice presidential pick of my lifetime," according to The New Republic.
Enten posted on social media that the Ohio senator "is making history as the least liked VP nominee (non-incumbent) since 1980 following his/her party's convention," as the "first to have a net negative favorable rating."
One could argue Vance's low ratings stem from his "extreme comments about 'childless cat ladies,' abortion, and more," as Talking Points Memo (TPM) noted Thursday — or it could even be that the Republican lawmaker invests in one of the most extreme video platforms on the internet.
Per TPM, "Vance has had a six-figure stake in Rumble," which "has played host to Russian propaganda and to far-right personalities like Stew Peters and Tim Pool," and "also featured even more extreme content, including explicitly neo-Nazi images and themes like this song touting the 'Reich' and calling for Jews to be placed in ovens from a 'dissident rapper' with a dedicated page on the site."
Last week, journalist Carlos Berrios Polanco brought attention to a tweet Vance posted on September 11, 2021 — without comment — of a photo of himself "holding his infant child while looking at a table displaying several revolvers of various calibers."
The Hillbilly Elegy author is seen holding his infant child while looking at a table displaying several revolvers of various calibers. One vendor at a nearby table is seen sitting next to framed Nazi memorabilia, including a flag bearing a swastika, and two different Nazi war ensigns known as "Reichskriegsflagge" and a variety of Nazi war medals. One of the guns on the table Vance is standing over is a Luger pistol commonly used by Nazi soldiers during World War II.
"They really did not do any social media vetting or clean up on this guy at all. Kind of hilarious if it wasn't so bleak," Polanco wrote via X, retweeting the photo.
TPM notes that Vance's hand in Rumble "is notable because it represents a direct financial link between Vance and a key outlet for some of the most extreme elements of the far right."
Per the report, the VP hopeful's "stake in Rumble was the subject of a New York Times piece during his Senate race in 2022. That story focused on Rumble hosting the Kremlin-backed propaganda network RT, but gave less attention to the extensive hate speech on the site."
TPM reports Harris' spokesperson, Joseph Costello, told the news outlet in a statement: "The American people deserve a president who works to bring people together and who gives hate no safe harbor. Every day the words and actions of Donald Trump and JD Vance prove they belong nowhere near the White House."
President Joe Biden on Thursday announced the finalization of a 24-prisoner exchange involving five different countries that resulted in the release of falsely imprisoned journalist Evan Gershkovich and other American captives. But the 2024 Republican presidential ticket's response to the news has prompted head-scratching.
JD Vance had a puzzling response of his own when asked about the prisoner exchange. According to CNN, the Ohio Republican acknowledged that the news of U.S. citizens and residents being released as part of the deal was "great news, at least what little we know," and that it was "ridiculous that they were in prison to begin with." However, he then pivoted to suggesting that Trump was more responsible for the safe return of the hostages than the Biden administration.
"But we have to ask ourselves, why are they coming home?” Vance told the network. “And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house. That’s a good thing, and I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.”
Vance's statement drew mockery on social media. Matt Steinglass — a Europe correspondent for the Economist — posted sarcastically to the social media platform Bluesky: "Why did the sun go down? I think it’s because it’s scared. Scared of Donald Trump. It’s a tribute to Donald Trump’s unimaginable majesty." Former New York Daily News journalist Helen Kennedy piled on, noting that "even Trump didn't have the chutzpah to claim credit."
Back in June, Donald Trump, the ex-president running for re-election again, announced in a video on his social media website that Russian President Putin would release Gershkovich but only if Trump was re-elected.
“Evan Gershkovich, the reporter for The Wall Street Journal who is being held by Russia will be released almost immediately after the election, but definitely before I assume office,” Trump claimed. “He will be home, he’ll be safe. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia will do that for me. And I don’t believe he will do it for anyone else.”
One month earlier, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung had said, “There is only one person who can negotiate the safe return of Mr. Gershkovich back to his family – President Trump.”
Reuters describes the exchange as “a complex deal negotiated in secrecy for more than a year,” while The Wall Street Journal reported that President Joe Biden “about an hour before he notified the world he was dropping out of the presidential race on July 21—called the prime minister of Slovenia, whose country was contributing two convicted Russian spies to the swap, to secure the pardon necessary for the deal to proceed.”
WSJ aded, “CIA Director William Burns traveled to Turkey last week to meet his counterpart there and finalize the logistics for the swap,” and, “White House officials, U.S. diplomats and personnel from the CIA had crisscrossed Europe and the Middle East looking for friendly governments willing to release the Russian spies in their custody in return for Americans held by the Kremlin.”
All done in secret to ensure the deal’s success.
Veteran political pundits and journalists are saying Russian President Vladimir Putin is now betting that Trump will not win the White House in November, and opted to do the deal now because he wanted certain Russians back.
“Trump publicly told Putin to withhold a prisoner swap until after the election, saying it wouldn’t happen unless he was elected. Putin clearly is not listening: he’s reading the polls and realizes Trump is not going to be our next president. So he has to work with Biden,” progressive political commentator Thom Hartmann wrote.
Brookings Institution’s Norm Eisen, a CNN legal analyst, observed, “Even Putin is losing confidence in Trump after the past two weeks! —& so finalized this (long-brewing) deal with Biden-Harris.”
“Trump bloviated about how he was going to have the hostages released because of his bromance with Putin. Putin however chose to do it while Biden was in office, because he knew Trump would not have a relationship with our key allies like Germany to make a deal happen,” wrote civil rights and national security journalist Marcy Wheeler.
“Looks as if Putin has abruptly lost confidence that Trump will win in November. Locking in his hostage-taking payoff early,” remarked The Atlantic’s David Frum, a former Bush 43 speechwriter.
Talking Points Memo founder and editor-in-chief Josh Marshall agreed with Frum: “My thought too. Putin thinks his boy doesn’t have the juice.”
