Summary
Nate Vance, a former U.S. Marine and cousin of JD Vance, criticized the Trump administration’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
After volunteering to fight for Ukraine in 2022, he condemned his cousin and Trump for “ambushing” Zelensky and pausing military aid.
He expressed disappointment that JD Vance never sought his perspective on the war.
The administration’s stance has sparked concerns over its alignment with Russia.
I imagine it’s a combination of not wanting to reveal sources and mechanisms for acquiring intelligence, needing to follow due process, unwillingness to show federal agencies interfering with a federal election, as well as a certain amount of fascism within the agencies involved.
Add to that the previously common assumption that “it can’t happen here.”
The real question is, why did the Biden administration not recognize the existential threat in letting them try again?
They did. And people were trying to warn everyone about this pretty much since Trump left office last time. Two problems. One is that people just didn’t listen or didn’t care. Especially his base. Trump could have ran Putin himself as VP and his base still would’ve voted for him. All the warnings in the world wouldn’t have done jack shit.
The other problem is that, especially as the incumbent running for re-election, Biden can only say and do so much before giving off the appearance that he is using his position of authority to attack political rivals and interfere in elections. I’m not even saying he’d be wrong per se, but using a position of authority to make those accusations and have someone prosecuted, jailed, and/or disqualified from running is a common tactic in authoritarian regimes, and people absolutely would be making those comparisons, likening Biden to a wannabe-dictator trying to hang onto power. Trump absolutely would have latched onto that with a deathgrip, and given the political environment we’re living in, he could have easily won by an even bigger margin than he did on the backs of people saying that Biden overstepped his authority by trying to have Trump disqualified based on what would be perceived as wild accusations and conspiracy theories.
And when it comes to political campaigns, perception is typically far more important than reality. Doesn’t matter how true the accusations are. It would come off as a Biden conspiracy theory to try to have a political rival disqualfied, which most Americans are dead set against.
Was the Trump Base running the DOJ between 2021 and 2025? Was it running the FBI back in 2016? Why did Trump’s criminal prosecution happen in New York County Court rather than a Federal District Court? And why didn’t that court deliver a penalty as part of the verdict against him? Were Alvin Bragg and Juan Merchan part of the Trump base? Was AG Merrick Garland?
You don’t think staunch evangelical stalwart Mike Pence and shameless Peter Thiel bagman JD Vance brought anything to the Trump ticket in '16 and '24 respectively?
Love to call Donald Trump a treasonous crook guilty of 91 different crimes and needing a good long stay in federal prison along with a stiff fine amount to his entire personal fortune, because of all the evil things he’s done.
But then turn around and say “There’s literally nothing I can do - as The President of the United States of America - to protect you from an American in America flagrantly doing crimes against his neighbors, because that guy is running for President and I wouldn’t want to look biased against him.”
I’ll posit you this. By not actually prosecuting Donald on day one of his administration, the Biden Administration gave off the appearance of using his presidential campaign to slander the incumbent with false rumors and baseless accusations.
Because if you say all this gnarly shit about a man and build up this entire case for their removal from office, then step into the Chief Executive’s Office and announce “Lolz, jk! Nothing to prosecute!” it looks like the guy you were badmouthing was actually not guilty of any crimes. If he was guilty, you’d have prosecuted him, you’d have won the case, and you’d have put him in jail. But you didn’t do that. So why would anyone believe your VP when she started in on the same shit four years later?