With Sen. J. D. Vance's inflammatory comments about "childless cat ladies" still an unrelenting hot topic on cable news and social media, conservative columnist Noah Rothman took Donald Trump's campaign braintrust to the woodshed for letting the controversy continue to dominate the news cycle since the GOP convention two weeks ago.
According to the National Review columnist, the ex-president's third run for the Oval Office is supposed to be a much more "disciplined" affair. But, he said, the campaign is blowing it by either not getting the Ohio Republican under control or indulging in a horrible misreading over what the voting public finds acceptable.
In his column, Rothman suggested that once the controversy overwhelmed the campaign and drowned out the top of the ticket, Trump's campaign inner circle should rein Vance in and put out the fire.
Instead, he wrote, they allowed the Ohio Republican to go on Megyn Kelly's podcast and double down — with disastrous results.
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There are ways to defuse these remarks, but not many," Rothman wrote before lamenting that Vance was "let off the leash" and jokingly told the host, "Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I’ve got nothing against cats."
Vance went on, “People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance, and the substance of what I said, Megyn — I’m sorry, it is true.”
"Whatever you think of the merits of Vance’s comments, it’s unclear how they advance the Trump camp’s prime directive: winning in November," Rothman complained before pointing out Democrats were "thrilled" at getting more cable TV fodder to bring up.
"This is all off-message — at least insofar as the campaign’s message is defined by the candidate at the top of the ticket," the columnist warned before adding, "There is time between now and Election Day for Vance to soften his image among persuadable voters who don’t spend their days consuming hyperbole and bombast that populates the darkest corners of the internet.
"Vance has yet to show interest in that project, much less the acumen to pull it off. More ominous, the campaign to which he is attached seems unwilling or unable to rein him in."
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