‘Awkward guy’: White House insiders fear Vance may do ‘more harm than good’ with speech
Hours before he is expected to speak at a Turning Point USA gathering in Mississippi, Vice President JD Vance did not get a vote of confidence from one White House insider.
According to a report from MSNBC’s Jake Traylor, Donald Trump's MAGA heir-apparent will attempt to step into the shoes of the late TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk by giving a speech and then taking questions at the SJB Pavilion on the University of Mississippi campus.
As Traylor wrote, Vance will attempt to mimic Kirk’s appearances on college campuses that came to an abrupt end during a visit to Utah Valley University.
The report notes that Vance’s performance will be “graded” against how Kirk was received, and there is some trepidation at the White House about whether he will pull it off.
With Traylor writing, “He will try to avoid the potential pitfalls that accompany an unpredictable, live college debate format that could lead to him seeming to diminish the office he now holds. And he will try to not be too obvious in his angling for a 2028 presidential bid,” one White House official attempted to downplay expectations by admitting, “There’s tons of risks.”
Vance has claimed, “I’m going to do exactly what Charlie did. {Kirk] would answer tough questions from the left and from the right, and so I want to do that, too,” which has MSNBC reporting, “White House officials and people close to Vance caution that simply playing Kirk may do more harm than good.”
”[Charlie] had unique skills,” one person admitted. “Vance can be an awkward guy on stage. He’s not going to be what Kirk was, he’s just different from that.”
According to the report, for Vance to advance his hopes of replacing Trump, he needs to get organizations like TPUSA on his side.
To political observers, "his proximity to Turning Point in recent weeks highlights his growing alliance with the powerhouse youth group amid early speculation of his own 2028 presidential run,” MSNBC is reporting.
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Trump’s revenge crusade on Adam Schiff crashes into brick wall: report
President Donald Trump sought to target Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) after the lawmaker served on the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 probe and worked on both impeachment cases. That effort has reportedly hit a brick wall, however.
Last week, MSNBC revealed that the Maryland prosecutor who went after former National Security Advisor John Bolton was stuck on the Schiff case, so she pivoted to focus more on Bolton. Now it appears the Schiff case has stalled entirely.
Writing Thursday, Ryan J. Reilly, Kristen Welker, Michael Kosnar and Carol E. Lee wrote for NBC News that the investigation “came to a standstill," according to a federal law enforcement official.
U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes reportedly met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche earlier this week to ask how to move forward without the goods on Schiff.
"The decision out of that meeting was for Hayes to pursue more evidence, and the case remains ongoing," reported NBC, citing one of the sources.
Schiff has retained former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara as his counsel.
In a statement to NBC News, Bharara said: “It seems pretty clear that a team of career prosecutors have thoroughly reviewed the politically-motivated allegations against Senator Schiff and found they are unsupported by any evidence and are baseless.”
“The transparently vindictive effort to pursue the Senator has no merit, and if there is any justice left in the Justice Department, this should be the end of the matter,” he added.
