MILWAUKEE — In another dimension, Republicans at their convention here on Monday would have renominated the Trump-Pence ticket that won the White House in 2016 and ran as a team in 2020.
But I’m reporting from Milwaukee, not the Twilight Zone.
As we know, former President Donald Trump turned against ex-Vice President Mike Pence because he certified the presidential election results on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a Trump-inspired mob invaded the Capitol, hunting down Pence to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president.
Trump wasn’t going to repeat his Pence mistake. He needed someone he could count on to follow orders.
The former president filled the job opening with Ohio freshman Sen. JD Vance, who rose to fame as the author of “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Vance clinched the VP spot by being more MAGA than Trump.
For history… I’m standing by the Illinois delegation when Ohio Senator JD Vance is announced officially as Trump’s vice president nominee… pic.twitter.com/cMW0K9agK6
— Lynn Sweet (@lynnsweet) July 15, 2024
And while Republicans cheered Vance being added to the ticket — all the Illinois folks I interviewed liked the pick — everyone from Illinois I talked to was fine with overlooking the impact Vance has made in our own Chicago area back yard.
Vance is the reason there is no Senate-confirmed top federal prosecutor in Chicago. Remember that when the Trump-Vance ticket talks about crime.
The Tuesday convention theme is “Make America Safe Once Again,” with the Trump campaign expected to put Democratic-run cities in the spotlight. There’s going to be talk about Trump standing up for law enforcement and President Joe Biden and Democrats supposedly soft on crime.
Standing up for law enforcement is not what Vance did when it came to the Senate confirming April Perry to be the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Vance put a hold on Perry to protest the federal prosecutions of Trump, well beyond the time needed to make his point.
Starting in June 2023, Vance used the power a single senator has —and stalled a confirmation vote for Perry. His hold dragged on for so long that Sen. Dick Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee — and who was Perry’s chief Senate champion — moved on as the months rolled by.
Durbin tried to get Vance to lift his blockade, appealing to him several times from the Senate floor. “We’ve heard a lot of tough talk about ‘law and order’ from a lot of senators, but when it comes to ‘law and order,’ we shouldn’t allow one senator to prevent us from confirming well-qualified law enforcement nominations today,” Durbin said.
In April, Biden ended his bid to make Perry the first female to serve as Chicago’s top federal prosecutor, a position she could be fired from by the next president in January. Instead, Biden nominated Perry to be a U.S. District Court judge based in Chicago. Given Senate politics, Perry has yet to receive a confirmation vote for the lifetime position.
I asked Don Tracy, outgoing Illinois Republican Party chair, about his views on Trump’s vice presidential pick twice on Monday. The first time was at a breakfast at the hotel in a Milwaukee suburb housing the Illinois delegation. This was before Trump announced Vance as his running mate.
Tracy said the top criteria is that it has to be someone “that helps Trump win the White House. That is important, because if we don’t win, if he doesn’t win, nothing else really matters.”
Asked if Pence did the right thing on Jan. 6, Tracy said, “I believe he did.” Looking ahead, Tracy said, he was “hopeful” Trump will pick a VP “who always does the right thing.”
On the convention floor Monday afternoon, where delegates ratified as Trump’s running mate Vance, 39, a Marine Corps vet with a Yale law degree, I asked Tracy his views about Vance.
“I think he’ll be good for the military vote, for the working-man votes, good for the working-woman vote, good for the Midwest vote and especially good for the youth vote.” Tracy said. He liked Vance’s life story, growing up in a broken home, going to a great school and joining the Marines and then becoming a U.S. senator.
I asked Tracy about Vance blocking the confirmation vote for a U.S. attorney in Chicago.
Said Tracy, “Nobody’s perfect. There’s no perfect person. There’s no perfect candidate. There’s no perfect vice president candidate. I think he’s going to be a good one.”
While Trump got himself a loyalist, it won’t do him much good when it comes to certifying the results of the 2024 election. It won’t be Vance wielding the gavel at what should be only a pro forma proceeding. The vice president presiding over that session will be Vice President Kamala Harris.
