Vance flips the script on reporter over Susie Wiles comments

At the beginning of this week, the big story was the article in Vanity Fair that had some pretty damning quotes about Trump officials by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

I think Attorney General Pam Bondi took the worst of it, but even she supported Wiles in response to the article, which the White House claimed was taken out of context and a hit job. Among those cited in Wiles’ comments was JD Vance. When a reporter tried to poke him on it, Vance wound up with the better of it.

Giving Them the Rope

The big question for me is why Wiles would even give this publication access, knowing its track record with Trump.

That is the same question some Trump-friendly media were asking as well.

For instance, Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway posted, “Genuinely sick to death of people on the right who seek the approval of left-wing media. Or even play with them for a minute. I can’t take it. It’s the saddest fetish.”

California Post opinion editor Joel Pollack was also critical, adding, "I don't know why Republicans continue to give privileged access to mainstream media or center-left publications determined to destroy them. Journalists are not your friends, especially from Democrat agenda-driven outlets like the @nytimes and @VanityFair."

Defending Wiles

When the interview was posted, Wiles defended herself, stating, “Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded, "This was unfortunately another attempt at fake news by a reporter who was acting disingenuously and really did take the chief’s words out of context. But I think most importantly, the bias of omission was ever present throughout this story. The reporter omitted all of the positive things that Susie and our team said about the president and the inner workings of the White House."

Trump also chimed in after she accused him of having an “alcoholic’s personality,” stating, “No, she meant that I’m -- you see, I don’t drink alcohol. So everybody knows that -- but I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic. I have said that many times about myself, I do. It’s a very possessive personality.

"I’ve said that many times about myself. I’m fortunate I’m not a drinker. If I did, I could very well, because I’ve said that -- what’s the word? Not possessive -- possessive and addictive type personality. Oh, I’ve said it many times, many times before." The word you are looking for Mr. President is obsessive, but we get your point.

Vance Strikes Back

Wiles called Vance a “conspiracy theorist” in the piece, and he did not mind at all. When a reporter from the Washington Post asked Vance about the comment, he responded, “Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true. And by the way, Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time.

“For example, I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it was stupid to mask three-year-olds at the height of the COVID pandemic, that we should actually let them develop some language skills. I believed in this crazy conspiracy theory that the media and the government were covering up the fact that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job.

“And I believed in the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was trying to throw his political opponents in jail rather than win an argument against his political opponents. So, at least on some of these conspiracy theories, it turns out that a conspiracy theory is just something that was true six months before the media admitted it.”

Vance is very good at flipping the script in these instances, and he did a wonderful job there. So much so, in fact, that for the last two days, this story has pretty much been off the radar. I think this is pretty much over except for the comments about Pam Bondi. I still believe her time is limited and she will be gone before the end of January.