Lots here, but these are the juicy parts:
Donald Trumpās running mate, JD Vance, said that professional women āchoose a path to miseryā when they prioritize careers over having children in a September 2021 podcast interview in which he also claimed men in America were āsuppressedā in their masculinity.
The Ohio senator and vice-presidential candidate said of women like his classmates at Yale Law School that āpursuing racial or gender equity is like the value system that gives their life meaning ā¦ [but] they all find that that value system leads to miseryā.
Vance also sideswiped the Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a one-time Somali refugee, claiming she had shown āingratitudeā to America, and that she āwould be living in a crapholeā had she not moved to the US.
Of Afghans who assisted US troops during the occupation of that country who were now seeking to come to America, Vance asked whether ācertain groups of people can successfully become American citizensā, and said those hostile to Minneapolisās Somali American community ādonāt like people getting hatcheted in the street in [their] own communityā.
At the same time, Vance claimed that āthe left uses racism as a cudgelā, and that he had been a ālittle too worriedā in the past about such accusations because they can be ācareer-endingā and ādestroy a personās lifeā.
At about 39 minutes into the recording, when asked what he saw inside elite institutions like Yale Law School that made him view them as corrupt, Vance answered: āYou have women who think that truly the liberationist path is to spend 90 hours a week working in a cubicle at McKinsey instead of starting a family and having children.ā
Vance added: āWhat they donāt realize ā and I think some of them do eventually realize that, thank God ā is that that is actually a path to misery. And the path to happiness and to fulfillment is something that these institutions are telling people not to do.
āThe corruption is it puts people on a career pipeline that causes them to chase things that will make them miserable and unhappy,ā Vance said. āAnd so they get in positions of power and then they project that misery and happiness on the rest of society.ā
Minutes later, Vance adopted the perspective of a hypothetical professional woman to answer Sharmaās question about where āthe racial and gender resentment comes fromā.
āOK, clearly, this value set has made me a miserable person who canāt have kids because I already passed the biological period when it was possible,ā Vance began, āAnd I live in a 1,200 sq ft apartment in New York and I pay $5,000 a month for it.ā
He continued: āBut Iām really better than these other people. What Iām going to do is project my, like, racial and gender sensitivities on the rest of them ā¦ even though the way that I think has made me a miserable person, I just need to make more people think like that.ā
On the other hand, Vance depicted men and boys as āsuppressedā, saying 52 minutes in that āone of the weird things about elite society is itās deeply uncomfortable with masculinityā.
Warming to the theme, Vance said: āThis is one weird thing that conservatives donāt talk about enough ā¦ We donāt talk enough about the fact that traditional masculine traits are now actively suppressed from childhood all the way through adulthood.ā
Assessing his young sonās habit of fighting imaginary monsters, Vance said: āThereās something deeply cultural and biological, spiritual about this desire to defend his home and his family.ā
He connected this with a hypothetical invasion: āIf the Chinese invade us in 10 years, theyāre going to be beaten back by boys like you who practice fighting the monsters who become proud men who defend their homes.ā
By contrast, for Vance, āTheyāre not going to be defended by the soy boys who want to feed the monsters.ā
At about 22 minutes into the recording, Vance mocked the claims of Afghan refugees to have helped the US military in its occupation, saying: āApparently, Afghanistan is a country of translators and interpreters because every single person thatās coming in, thatās what they say is this person is: a translator and interpreter.ā
He attributed the idea that the US should grant asylum to those who helped US forces to āthe fraudulence of our elitesā, saying: āYou talk to people who served in Afghanistan. And one of the things they will tell you is, yeah, a lot of the translators and interpreters who helped us were great guys.ā
Vance added, however, that āa lot of the interpreters who said they were helping us were actively helping terrorists plant roadside bombs, knowing our routesā, without substantiating the claim.
Vance continued: āThe idea that every person in Afghanistan, even those who said they were helping us, are actually good people is a total joke.ā
Vance expressed similar skepticism about another immigrant group, while characterizing himself and others as victims of the left.
At about 25 minutes into the recording, Solheim said: āThereās like a whole section of downtown Minneapolis that they call Little Mogadishu. Like thatās what they call it. Thereās nothing in English. People are frequently hatcheted to death in the street.ā
Solheim added: āI was just down there a couple of weeks ago. Itās like a totally different country.ā
Replying, Vance said: āThe thing that I hate about this is the left uses racism as a cudgel. And I myself was guilty of being a little worried about that. Like, I donāt want to be called a racist because I knew it can be career-ending and they can destroy a personās life.ā
Vance then asked, rhetorically, āWhy donāt you want, you know, people getting hatcheted in the street in downtown Minneapolis? Is it because youāre a racist or is it because you donāt like people getting hatcheted in the street in your own community?ā
āLike, obviously, the answer is the latter,ā he concluded. āBut the left uses racism as a cudgel to shut us up and to make it impossible to complain about obvious problems.ā
Last July, not long after being named as Trumpās VP pick, Vance suggested in a speech that Democrats would describe drinking Diet Mountain Dew as racist. The comment backfired and was widely mocked.
At about 28 minutes in, Sharma said: āYou know, thinking about the Minnesota example, specifically, thatās how you get someone like Ilhan Omar, who despises the country.ā
Vance replied, āI mean, [the US] gave her an incredible amount of opportunity and she has a complete lack of gratitude,ā later adding: āMy family has been here as far as I can tell for nine, 10, like many generations. Iāve never heard a person in my family express the ingratitude towards this country that Ilhan Omar does towards this country.
āAnd look, this is the way the laws work. This country belongs to Ilhan Omar in the same way that it belongs to me,ā Vance allowed.
āBut my God, show a little appreciation for the fact that you would be living in a craphole if this country didnāt bring you to a place that has obviously its problems, but has a lot of prosperity, too,ā he concluded.
Vance also talked about institutions like universities and the media as components of a ābroken elite systemā, and portrayed their inhabitants as enemies whom conservatives would need to reckon with.
āThere is no way for a conservative to accomplish our vision of society unless weāre willing to strike at the heart of the beast. Thatās the universities.ā
Heās not wrong, except itās anyone in that pipeline not just women, and the alternative isnāt necessarily childbearing. But of course this thought isnāt anywhere near his pumpkin.