Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear slammed Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) — the new GOP nominee for Vice President — for Vance’s alleged changeling nature and unvarnished opportunism. Beshear holds a rare position in American politics as a Democratic governor in a deeply red state, a status backing his bona fides as a pol with centrist appeal.
Shown a clip of Vance pushing a conspiracy theory that Biden’s presidency has been a three-and-a-half year “Weekend at Bernie’s” where the President has been MIA while Democrats covered for him, Beshear told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Republicans are “grasping at straws” before hitting Vance as a “phony, a fake.”
Beshear: “Listen, J.D. Vance is a phony, he’s fake. I mean, he first says that Donald Trump is like Hitler, and now he’s acting like he’s Lincoln. The problem with JD Vance is he has no conviction, but I guess his running mate has 34.”
I'm a fan of my fellow southerner, @AndyBeshearKY. https://t.co/UVf9seZlP7
— Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) July 23, 2024
There is history between Vance, the Ohio politician who lays claim in part to an Eastern Kentucky Appalachian background, and Beshear, who says Vance has insulted hardworking Kentuckians and that Vance “ain’t from here.”
Vance responded to Beshear, reportedly knocking the Governor’s less hardscrabble upbringing.
Vance to reporters on Beshear saying he “ain’t from here”: “Eastern Kentucky will always have a special place in my heart…it’s very weird to have a guy whose first job was at his dad’s law firm and who inherited the governorship from his father criticize my origin story.”
— Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) July 22, 2024
Vance’s authenticity and sincerity is a matter of opinion, as shown in the two divergent comments below:
I was born in Fleming County, Kentucky. We all know the Beshears from their long service to our state. Hillbilly Elegy is a self-serving fallacy perpetuating all the worst tropes about Appalachia.
— Cheryl (@cclaypoole) July 23, 2024
During his convention speech, Vance said Breathitt County is one of the 10 poorest in the nation, but lauded the character of the people. “They’re very hardworking people, and they’re very good people,” Vance said. “They’re the kind of people who would give you the shirt off…
— Peri Fine (@Perifinesse) July 23, 2024
Vance’s story — rising from poverty to Yale Law School to venture capitalist to VP nominee — has been an inspiration to many, while others have characterized his memoir about his experience, Hillbilly Elegy, as a self-serving political tract that threw his community “under the bus.”
Director Ron Howard made a film of Vance’s book which became a bestseller just as Donald Trump was first running for president. More recently, with Vance’s political rise and his alleged propensity to, as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg accuses, “say anything to get power,” the book title has inspired a new nickname for Vance’s story — shillbilly elegy.
One TikTok creator below comes down on Vance like Beshear does. There is also a popular comedian — a hillbilly himself, he says — who finds Vance to be a calculating opportunist.
@myelasticheart A friendly reminder – don’t trust the shillbilly!
♬ original sound – Britt Belwine
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