As the third night of the Republican National Convention began, critiques surrounding Senator and vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance (R-OH) before his formal convention speech were rising amongst many in the liberal media. It was apparent that with former President Donald Trump naming Vance as his running mate, Vance had become their next target. CNN Political Commentator and former communications director for VP Kamala Harris, Jamal Simmons, perfectly exemplified this as he critiqued the vice presidential pick for “eliminating DEI.”
Hours before the up and coming Vance was set to speak, political commentators from CNN convened to either praise or air their grievances regarding the VP pick. Simmons took his time however to share his disappointment around the politician stating:
I met him in 2016 and I was a fan because of the book and I thought, wow, as somebody who grew up in Michigan in a black community, that was very similar to the community he grew up in that was a white community. I felt like this was amazing. Here's somebody who's talking about the plight of the white working class, the struggling white working class, but he's not pointing fingers at the black people who live on the other side of town. He's not pointing fingers at the immigrants who are coming, everyone’s saying they are taking their jobs. He’s saying we've got to talk about what's happening inside this community and there’s space for everybody else.
With a classic shift, however, Simmons then critiqued Vance’s shift towards Trump emphasizing his disappointment:
But the new JD Vance isn't somebody who's not pointing fingers. He’s somebody who has got the eliminating DEI act and he wants to get rid of diversity and inclusion in federal programming.
With an outrageous take, the commentator began to praise DEI programs and just how successful they have been. “The reality is the reason why we have had so much progress on race and gender and inclusion it's because we've been trying to make progress.” As many organizations, such as Microsoft, have dropped these Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, as major failures, it is clear that, in reality, Vance has a better understanding of the issue than Simmons.
The transcript is below, click “expand” to read:
CNN The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer
7/17/2024
5:20:15 PM EST
JAMAL SIMMONS: I think he’ll probably, he's going to tell the story of pulling himself up by his bootstraps. But the history, the recent history has been that he doesn't really believe that for everyone else. When I met him, I only met him once. I met him in 2016 and I was a fan because of the book and I thought, wow, as somebody who grew up in Michigan in a black community, that was very similar to the community he grew up in that was a white community. I felt like this was amazing. Here's somebody who's talking about the plight of the white working class, the struggling white working class, but he's not pointing fingers at the black people who live on the other side of town. He's not pointing fingers at the immigrants who are coming, everyone’s saying they are taking their jobs. He’s saying we've got to talk about what's happening inside this community and there’s space for everybody else. But the new JD Vance isn't somebody who's not pointing fingers. He’s somebody who has got the eliminating DEI act and he wants to get rid of diversity and inclusion in federal programming. And the reality is the reason why we have had so much progress on race and gender and inclusion it's because we've been trying to make progress. And when we stop trying to make progress, we're going to stop making progress. And that's what makes me worried about JD Vance. And you just can't trust what flip-flop is going to come out of him next, from where he was before.
