Don Jr. explained why Trump endorsed J.D. Vance and it had a lot to do with a debate between Mandel and Gibbons last month.
According to Daily Mail, Don Jr. says Trump was disgusted after Mandel and Gibbons almost came to blows in that viral debate moment from last month:
Former President Donald Trump made his decision to endorse J.D. Vance in the contentious race for the Ohio Senate nomination after expressing his disgust at two other candidates who almost came to blows during a debate, his son Don Jr. said on Wednesday.
Trump unveiled his endorsement of the Hillbilly Elegy author on Friday, triggering a cascade of donations and momentum for Vance, who had been trailing in polls.
It also brings some big name boosters, like his son Don Jr, who appeared with him at a town hall event in Independence, Ohio, on Wednesday.
‘You know, he makes up his own decisions, as you’ve seen over the years. He is a sort of a professional contrarian and I think that’s served him very well,’ Don Jr told reporters after the event.
‘On the policies, this was a no brainer.’
But he said a widely ridiculed debate clash between Mandel’s leading opponents was key.
‘I go, you saw those things, he goes, ‘Yeah, that was that was pretty ugly.’
Video of the debate clash between Mike Gibbons, 69, a businessman, and Josh Mandel, 44, a veteran, went viral after they almost came to blows.
Daily Mail reports that Vance wasn’t expecting the endorsement was surprised to learn he’d gotten it:
On Wednesday Vance said he had been taken by surprise when Trump called him to say he was getting the endorsement.
‘I was having a cookies and cream milkshake with my kid on Friday,’ he said, when the former president telephoned.
They also report that Vance had big backers pushing Trump to endorse him, including his own son and Tucker Carlson:
A source familiar with Trump’s decision said Vance had powerful backers. Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, Sen. Josh Hawley and Donald Trump Jr. all lobbied the president to plump for Vance.
And Trump ultimately decided that Vance, a 37-year-old Marine veteran, had the best chance of winning and will serve as a ‘devastating rebuke of the ‘failures of Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats’.
I think a fair amount of people were unhappy with the endorsement. I just hope, should Vance win, that he ends up being a good Senator and not part of the milktoast brigade. Because that’s what I’m worried about.
UPDATE: Tucker Carlson, Sen. Josh Hawley and Donald Trump Jr. weren’t the only ones pushing Trump to endorse Vance. So was Peter Thiel, according to Politico:
THE ART OF THE THIEL — Tech mogul PETER THIEL gave J.D. VANCE’s Ohio Senate campaign a fresh infusion of cash, pouring in $3.5 million to Protect Ohio Values, the super PAC backing Vance, our colleague Alex Isenstadt reports, “part of a broader tranche of money that has come in to support the Senate candidate after last week’s [DONALD] TRUMP endorsement.”
— On Trump’s Vance endorsement: “Vance suddenly received a jolt of momentum thanks to a somewhat surprising Good Friday endorsement from Trump. … Thiel lobbied Trump directly for the nod of approval, I am told. The two have spoken several times in recent weeks, including at an in-person meeting a month or two ago. … I’ve been curious for months why Thiel hadn’t put more money into the Vance super PAC — Thiel committed $10 million in March 2021, and then didn’t make any more donations for at least a full year, according to updated campaign-finance reports made public last week. … And so at the end of last month, the super PAC had only $300,000 left in its coffers for the final five weeks of the primary race. Despite some recent entreaties from the outside group, there had been no follow-up check. As a result, the super PAC has been off the air in the closing weeks of the race. That was until the Trump endorsement crossed the wire.”
I don’t know about you but that’s worrisome to me. I’ve never been a fan of Peter Thiel and I loathed seeing him at Trump’s RNC back in 2016, if you recall. If he’s backing Vance this hard then if I were in Ohio I might be looking for another candidate.
Back in July of last year Mark Levin endorsed Josh Mandel and that’s a far better endorsement in my opinion.