Vice President J.D. Vance was asked about the bombshell revelations that Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle pressed a donor for $100,000 to pay off her credit card, in return for access to a Trump administration official.
The vice president spent more than a minute saying that he had nothing to say about the corruption. He tried to frame his cowardly complicity as conscientiousness.
“Well, so with, with that hypothetical,” Vance began with nervous laughter. “Obviously I don't love that, but I, you know, I don't know exactly who you're talking about. I don't know the full details.”
Oh, come on. There’s no way Vance doesn’t know “exactly” who the reporter was talking about. Especially since he also acknowledged he only has some of the details. But if he truly didn’t know, why didn’t he ask?
The nervous blather continued. “What I find with these stories is that you never want to comment in a purely abstract way because a lot of times the details really matter and the details and the context inform the reality of the situation,” Vance said.
Then Vance once again made it clear he did indeed know whom the reporter was asking about. “So of course I don't like anybody selling access to another government official, certainly a high-level government official,” Vance went on.
The reporter did not say anything about a “high-level government official.”
Vance went on to reveal he did indeed know whom the reporter asked about, though he clearly did not want to mention Guilfoyle’s name or position. “I assume you're talking about a specific case and I can't say with confidence that the case you're talking about is actually reflective of the way you're describing it,” Vance said.
Then he tried to put on the charm. “No insult to you, by the way, but context really matters on this stuff. So, I'd like to get the full story before offering a real opinion. A good lesson for a politician is never speak about something you don't have the full facts on, and I just don't have the full facts on that one.”
Yet Vance never said he wants to look into the details, much less ascertain the “full facts.”
In other words, Vance hopes to sweep Guilfoyle’s stunning corruption under the rug.
