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Inside the relationship of JD Vance and Usha Chilukuri Vance, the newest GOP power couple who met as Yale law students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Since law school, JD Vance's wife has been tight-lipped about her political beliefs.</li><li>Usha Vance was a registered Democrat until 2014 and worked at what some viewed as a progressive law firm.</li></ul>Usha Vance's classmates at Yale Law School didn't know much about her politics."She was more tight-lipped, at least in my experience, with her political views," said Marvin Lim, a Democrat in the Georgia House of Representatives who also graduated in 2013. He wasn't close with either of the Vances, but said that they "certainly communicated a great deal.""I don't remember ever having a political conversation with Usha," Elliot Forhan, a Democrat representative in Ohio who took a small class with Usha but wasn't close friends with her, said. "She just didn't really show her cards with respect to the political stuff."Usha Chilukuri met <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-vice-president-jd-vance-career-facts-2024-7">JD Vance</a> while at Yale Law School. The two were in the same small group of approximately 15 students who take all of their classes together, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/style/usha-jd-vance-ohio.html">New York Times </a>reported. They got married in 2014, one year after graduating, and Lim said that their affection for each other was obvious. Less obvious, however, is Usha Vance's political orientation and relationship to the newfound national spotlight.Usha Vance grew up in a suburb of San Diego, raised by a mechanical engineer and a biologist. One of her family friends, Vikram Rao, told The Times that she was a natural and kind leader, selecting what games they played and setting the rules by age five.After getting her undergraduate degree from Yale, she studied copyright law at Cambridge. One of her friends there, Gabriel Winant, said that her social circle was left of center and even dotted with the occasional leftist, The Times reported.While her political views weren't recognizable to casual peers at <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-roommate-says-published-donald-trump-america-hitler-message-2024-7">Yale Law School</a>, her leadership was evident. Both Forhan and Lim said that she was not particularly loud in class, but did not fade into the background, either. Her drive didn't seem to extend to politics."She didn't express political ambitions, but she did have ambition," Lim told Business Insider, noting that she went on to have prestigious judicial clerkships after graduation. "We knew those were things she wanted to do, but not political ambitions."JD Vance's spokespeople did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.<h2 id="b1960cea-d38f-449a-a6ce-5bc66a72ceb5">From a "woke" law firm to conservative clerkships, Vance's political orientations remained murky after law school.</h2>After graduating from law school, Vance <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-wife-usha-deep-scotus-ties-roberts-kavanaugh-2024-7">clerked for a pre-SCOTUS Brett Kavanaugh</a> from 2014-2015 and Chief Justice John Roberts from 2017-2018. In addition, she worked at the law firm Munger, Tolles &amp; Olson, but resigned on Monday when her husband became the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-trump-selected-jd-dance-running-mate-vice-president-2024-7">GOP nominee for vice president</a>. The law firm has since removed her biography, and with it all of her past cases, though the website used to describe her as "a skilled litigator specializing in higher education, local government, and technology sectors."The magazine The American Lawyer described Munger, Tolles &amp; Olson as "cool, woke" in 2019, with a "radically progressive" policy on gender and racial diversity in hiring, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/who-is-jd-vance-wife-usha-vance-former-scotus-clerk">Vanity Fair</a> reported. Despite his wife's workplace environment, JD Vance championed the "Dismantle DEI Act" in June, 2024, calling the DEI agenda "destructive." In 2022, two colleagues at the firm described Usha Vance as liberal or moderate to The Times.To make her political affiliations even murkier, Vance was a registered Democrat until 2014, The Times reported. Yet she shifted to the right alongside her husband — in 2021, Federal Election Commission records reveal that she donated to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/abe-hamadeh-blake-masters-primary-arizona-trump-2024-6">Blake Masters</a>, a conservative Senate candidate in Arizona.<h2 id="67fe0e06-0b6b-4054-ad51-ef9e9c6ba073">Vance hasn't always seemed eager to be center stage.</h2>When JD Vance was himself running for Senate, Usha Vance appeared in his very <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=437081075041425">first campaign ad</a>, sitting in front of a bookshelf and talking about <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-family-policies-birth-rates-childcare-tax-credits-2024-7">their three children</a>. In an interview with Newsmax during the campaign, she said that her husband has not changed in the many years of their relationship.After her initial appearance, Vance largely faded out of her husband's campaign, but became more active as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-18-month-senate-career-record-vice-president-2024-7">voting day neared</a>. In a recent interview on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6355707051112">Fox &amp; Friends</a>, Usha Vance seemed ambivalent about taking on a public political role. During the conversation in June, she didn't wholly embrace the possibility of becoming the Second Lady."I don't know that anyone is ever ready for that kind of scrutiny," she said. "I'm not raring to change anything about our lives are right now, but I believe in JD and I really love him, so we'll just sort of see what happens."She declined to specify what issues she would tackle should she end up in the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-first-interview-donald-trump-vice-president-2024-7">White House</a>, saying that "we might be getting a little ahead of ourselves."While Usha Vance's political orientations and interest in life as a national figure remain foggy, her devotion to her husband has seemed strong since her days at Yale Law School."In terms of political beliefs, she held that close to her chest, but in terms of being supportive of JD, that does not surprise me," Lim said. Usha Vance is scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention tonight, just before her husband. As he has moved into the spotlight, it seems that she is starting to, quite literally, as well.

What we know about Usha Vance's politics

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Former President Donald Trump named Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate on Monday. </li><li>But Trump isn't the first person to have spotted Vance's potential.</li></ul>Sen. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-vice-president-jd-vance-career-facts-2024-7">JD Vance</a> of Ohio has come a long way since graduating from Yale Law School in 2013.The former venture capitalist-turned-politician's career trajectory got a big boost on Monday when former President <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-luck-classified-documents-assassination-debate-2024-7">Donald Trump</a> named him <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-trump-selected-jd-dance-running-mate-vice-president-2024-7">running mate</a>."As Vice President, JD will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our troops, and will do everything he can to help me make America great again," Trump said in a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112792060910716829">Truth Social post</a>.Vance does have benefactors, like tech billionaire <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-peter-thiel-svb-facebook-trump-biography-2023-3">Peter Thiel</a>. But before Thiel, Vance caught a big break when he was still in law school.The Marine veteran enrolled at Yale Law School in 2010 after graduating from Ohio State University.In his 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," Vance likened his year at the Ivy League institution to attending a kind of "nerd Hollywood." Besides earning his law degree, Yale would also be where the seeds of his political career would be sown.It was at Yale where Vance gained a mentor in the form of his contract law professor, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amy-chua-tiger-mom-yale-law-ban-suspension-2021-5">Amy Chua</a>, 61.Chua, who earned her bachelor's and law degree from Harvard, pursued a career in corporate law before leaving for academia. She first taught at Duke Law School before joining Yale in 2001.Chua, who gained notoriety for her 2011 memoir "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," encouraged Vance to write "Hillbilly Elegy.""I always thought JD was destined for great things, and that going the conventional route would actually slow him down," Chua said of Vance in a 2017 interview with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/06/hillbilly-elegy-mentor/529443/">The Atlantic</a>.Representatives for Vance and Chua did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.<h2 id="573cf4bc-a62a-47aa-9e82-6608a431b0af">Vance's bestselling memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" wouldn't have existed without Chua's help</h2><div type="image" title="A copy of JD Vance's memoir &quot;Hillbilly Elegy.&quot;" height="3000" width="2000" msid="111788656" hostid="261"></div>Besides reading Vance's drafts, Chua introduced him to her own literary agent, Tina Bennett. In the "Acknowledgments" section of "Hillbilly Elegy," Vance thanked both Bennett and Chua for their support."Besides Tina, the person who deserves the most credit for this book's existence is Amy Chua, my Yale contracts professor, who convinced me that both my life and the conclusions I drew from it were worth putting down on paper," Vance wrote."She has the wisdom of a respected academic and the confident delivery of a Tiger Mother, and there were many times that I needed (and benefited) from both," he continued.Chua was also a huge cheerleader for Vance's book, which she helped to promote."When the book first came out, she probably emailed every single television producer and personality in the United States of America," Vance told The Atlantic in 2017."It's true, I emailed everybody. There were these creepy emails to people like Tom Brokaw, with lots of smiley faces and exclamation points," Chua said in the same interview.The efforts ended up paying off, with "Hillbilly Elegy" becoming a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/books/review-in-hillbilly-elegy-a-compassionate-analysis-of-the-poor-who-love-trump.html">bestseller</a> in 2016. The book has sold at least 1.6 million copies to date, according to market research company Circana, the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/jd-vance-hillbilly-elegy-trump-vp-candidate-1aab89b90ce7e8534556716930b23a1c">AP</a> reports.Vance's public profile was boosted even further after Trump's victory in 2016's presidential election.Some <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-kentucky-poverty-jd-vance-ohio-52901ab3819b5da35dda7b7921f6841a">news </a><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.vogue.com/article/hillbilly-elegy-author-jd-vance-on-trump">outlets</a> even started calling Vance the "Trump whisperer" because of the book's focus on the poverty and social decay that was afflicting America's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/midwest-america-cities-downtown-crisis-office-apocalypse-urban-doom-loop-2023-6">Rust Belt states</a>.<h2 id="7e85bd84-dcfc-4f51-9870-8afcdb898d4e">Vance also got some relationship advice from Chua</h2><div type="image" title="JD Vance (right) with his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance (left) at the 2024 Republican National Convention." height="3036" width="4554" msid="111788654" hostid="261"></div>In his memoir, Vance said he'd asked Chua to recommend him for a federal judge clerkship. Chua agreed, though she ultimately tried to dissuade him from proceeding with his application."I think you're doing this for the credential, which is fine, but the credential doesn't actually serve your career goals," Chua told Vance, who was already in a relationship with his law school classmate Usha Chilukuri, per Vance's memoir."This clerkship is the type of thing that destroys relationships. If you want my advice, I think you should prioritize Usha and figure out a career move that actually suits you," Chua said.Vance ended up following Chua's advice. He married Chilukuri in 2014, a year after graduating from Yale."Amy's advice stopped me from making a life-altering decision. It prevented me from moving a thousand miles away from the person I eventually married," Vance wrote in his memoir."Most important, it allowed me to accept my place at this unfamiliar institution — it was okay to chart my own path and okay to put a girl above some shortsighted ambition. My professor gave me permission to be me," he added.That said, a lot has happened after Vance left Yale to start his career.Vance, who told a former Yale classmate in 2016 that he thought Trump could become "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-once-thought-trump-could-become-americas-hitler-2022-4">America's Hitler,</a>" has since metamorphosed into a devout supporter of the former president.In 2022, Vance was elected as Ohio's junior senator after securing <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-vance-ohio-senate-endorsement-dismissed-phone-calls-republican-resistance-2022-4">Trump's endorsement</a>.It is not clear how Chua feels about Vance's abrupt turn toward Trump and the politics now he represents. The celebrity professor <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/yale-professors-reportedly-told-students-kavanaugh-hires-attractive-clerks-2018-9">came under fire</a> in 2018 after she <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/kavanaugh-is-a-mentor-to-women-1531435729">endorsed</a> Brett Kavanaugh when Trump nominated him to the Supreme Court.Chua, who continues to teach at Yale, declined to comment on her one-time protégé's embrace of Trumpism in an interview with the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.ft.com/content/6628517c-56db-4fa3-a414-bf6b9e349373">Financial Times' Edward Luce</a> in 2021."I never turn on my students," she said.

Meet the woman who helped boost JD Vance from Ohio obscurity to 'Hillbilly Elegy' superstardom

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will debate Ohio Sen. JD Vance on October 1.</li><li>Walz has discussed his culinary skills during the 2024 campaign.</li></ul>As <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-walz-net-worth-salary-2024-8">Gov. Tim Walz</a> and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/threads-blocks-jd-vance-leaked-links-2024-9">Sen. JD Vance</a> attempt to woo American voters this election season, they've deployed a classic strategy: <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-politicians-use-food-to-get-voters-history-photos">relatable foods</a>.Vance has shared his love for food on his social media accounts, posting photos from local Ohio restaurants and county fairs. In an August interview with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/kamala-harris-jd-vance-cooking-skills-1fdc20bb">The Wall Street Journal</a>, his wife, Usha Vance, praised his culinary prowess, saying he is a savant at making biscuits, chocolate mousse, and vegetarian-based Indian meals.<div type="image" title="JD Vance, Usha Vance, and their children visit a restaurant in Minnesota in July." height="3640" width="5500" msid="113783971" hostid="261" sizebytes="1823302"></div>However, Vance was trolled by social media users after an awkward visit to a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-donut-shop-video-comment-georgia-2024-8">doughnut shop in Georgia</a> the same month.Walz has also presented himself as something of a foodie on social media, sharing posts showing off sandwiches and telling his followers about his love for corn dogs. He's even won the Minnesota congressional delegation's hotdish competition thrice since 2013.<div type="image" title="Minnesota congressional delegation members, including Gov. Tim Walz, pose for a group selfie during the eighth annual Minnesota Congressional Delegation Hotdish Competition in April 2018." height="3573" width="5474" msid="113783975" hostid="261" sizebytes="1558018"></div>Walz faced blowback in August after the Harris campaign published a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkwZ_A49hb8">YouTube video</a> of the Minnesota governor telling the vice president that he eats "white guy tacos" and is "not much of a spice guy." <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/tim-walzs-white-guy-tacos-quip-gets-maga-all-hot-and-bothered">The Daily Beast</a> reported that some conservative figures derided the comments by suggesting Walz was playing into inaccurate racial stereotypes, while others pointed toward his similar-sounding <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/GovTimWalz/status/1481058440847970305?lang=en">Turkey Taco Tot Hotdish</a> recipe as proof he used seasoning.A recipe Walz had previously shared on X for his <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/GovTimWalz/status/1822010315938394427">Turkey Trot Tater-Tot Hotdish</a> then went viral, racking up 1.5 million views.Walz and Vance will go head-to-head at the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vance-walz-vice-presidential-debate-preview-2024-9">vice presidential debate</a> in New York City on October 1. Ahead of the event, I made Walz's viral hotdish, a tasty meal that uses unpretentious ingredients and is simple to recreate.Representatives for Vance and Walz did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.<h2 id="216e2d86-a02c-48c0-9aae-4687ae601bd5">Here's how to make Tim Walz's Turkey Trot Tater-Tot Hotdish</h2><div type="image" title="Ingredients for Tim Walz's Turkey Trot Tater-Tot Hotdish." height="3024" width="4032" msid="113783964" hostid="261" sizebytes="913244"></div><h3 id="b192cca8-8050-44d2-9de6-e70f61f01267">Ingredients</h3><ul><li>1 lb of fresh green beans, diced</li><li>4 slices of bacon</li><li>1 clove of garlic, finely chopped</li><li>6 tablespoons butter</li><li>5-6 tablespoons flour</li><li>2 1/2 cups whole milk</li><li>1/2 cup half-and-half</li><li>2 teaspoon salt</li><li>3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese</li><li>1 lb ground turkey</li><li>1/2 teaspoon sage</li><li>1 teaspoon pepper</li><li>1 egg</li><li>1 tablespoon olive oil</li><li>1/2 cup green onions</li><li>1/4 cup chopped onions</li><li>1 1/2 cup chopped baby bella mushrooms</li><li>1 package of tater tots</li></ul><h3 id="36ce9090-d3a0-4db4-846c-a8108e5676a9">Instructions</h3><ol><li>Preheat oven to 375°F.</li><li>Put ground turkey into a medium bowl and mix in garlic, sage, green onions, egg, pepper, and 1 teaspoon salt.<div type="image" title="Tim Walz's Turkey Trot Tater-Tot Hotdish recipe." height="2730" width="3008" msid="113783973" hostid="261" sizebytes="378550"></div></li><li>Heat olive oil in a 10-inch skillet, cook the seasoned turkey mixture at 165°F until well done, then place cooked turkey in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.</li><li>Blanch the green beans in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then plunge them into ice water. Once cool, drain completely and gently mix them into a baking dish.</li><li>Fry the bacon until crispy, then chop it into 1/4-inch pieces before adding it to the baking dish.<div type="image" title="Tim Walz's Turkey Trot Tater Tot hotdish recipe." height="3147" width="3024" msid="113783966" hostid="261" sizebytes="797938"></div></li><li>Heat 2 tablespoons of butter. Once the butter foam subsides, add mushrooms to the melted butter.</li><li>Gently stir butter and mushrooms for 4-5 minutes or about 2 minutes after the browning point. Remove from heat and add to the baking dish.</li><li>In a saucepan, melt the remaining butter over medium heat and sprinkle flour into the butter. Let cook for 2 minutes, then slowly whisk in milk and half and half. Cook for 2 more minutes, then add diced onions, salt, and pepper. After a minute, stir in 2 1/2 cups of cheese until melted.<div type="image" title="Tim Walz's Turkey Trot Tater-Tot Hotdish cheese sauce." height="2858" width="3024" msid="113783968" hostid="261" sizebytes="495094"></div></li><li>Pour the cheese mixture over the ingredients in the baking dish.</li><li>Scatter tater tots and remaining cheese over top of the baking dish.</li><li>Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.</li></ol><h2 id="3b6538e3-45c7-4e9f-bb88-8b6d5d3ee266">Walz's recipe has a lot of prep, but the payoff is delicious</h2>I've recreated several recipes at Business Insider — including <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taste-test-homemade-one-ingredient-butter-recipe-2022-10">homemade butter</a>. Still, my favorites have always been simple, no-fuss meals that deliver on taste and don't take half a day to make.On that front, Walz's hotdish recipe is a winner.The process took around 55 minutes in addition to the 45-minute baking time, so the recipe took almost 2 hours to complete.People who want to try it at home should know that most of the recipe's labor is prepping the ingredients. You'll need to dice green beans, cut bacon, mince garlic, cook ground turkey, chop onions, and cut up mushrooms.<div type="image" title="Tim Walz's Turkey Trot Tater Tot Hotdish" height="3024" width="4032" msid="113783978" hostid="261" sizebytes="804498"></div>Once prepped, the recipe is straightforward. You dump everything into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and bake it in an oven. The ground meat acts as the hotdish's base, covered in layers of green beans, bacon, and mushrooms.When I first read the recipe, I assumed it would be fairly basic, but I was pleasantly surprised by some of the choices Walz made with the hotdish. I loved that he used a <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/kitchen/how-to-make-a-roux">cheddar cheese sauce</a> for one of the layers because it helped combine all the ingredients.I also loved that he used butter instead of oil throughout the recipe. Admittedly, it's not healthy, but it added a rich flavor and reminded me of good ol' <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/foods-a-southerner-misses-after-moving-new-york-city-2022-8">Southern cuisine</a>.Taste-wise, I thought the hotdish had good seasoning evenly proportioned in each bite. The tater tots were crispy after baking in the oven, adding a necessary crunch to an otherwise soft entreé.The only thing I'd change is adding a few drops of hot sauce into the roux for an added kick, which may be too much for Walz himself. Overall, the recipe is solid. Based on my experience, it's a great weeknight meal for large families or people tuning in for debate night.

I made Tim Walz's Turkey Trot Tater-Tot Hotdish ahead of his debate with JD Vance. Here's how to prepare the easy meal.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Before JD Vance was a political figure, he was the author of the bestselling book "Hillbilly Elegy."</li><li>He's changed a lot in the eight years since the book published. But some things remain the same.</li></ul>When JD Vance re-introduced himself to the country and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-rnc-convention-speech-trump-election-2024-7">accepted the Republican Party's vice presidential nomination</a> on Wednesday night, the Ohio senator's speech made no direct mention of the best-selling autobiography that powered his rise to national fame in 2016 and has dominated Amazon's bestseller list since Tuesday.It's not hard to see why. To reread "Hillbilly Elegy" now, as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-convinced-himself-gay-hillbilly-elegy-trump-vp-2024-7">I did this week</a>, is to feel a sense of disorientation. JD Vance the author sounds a lot different than JD Vance the politician. His book describes a tumultuous upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, where he was raised by an extended family of "hillbillies" who had migrated to the region from rural Appalachia. It's a story about how he overcame a dysfunctional and broken home life and ascended into the ranks of America's elite. And Vance the author takes a relatively unforgiving view of the pathologies of his white working class family and neighbors, illustrating the "world of truly irrational behavior" that he argued was the biggest impediment to his community's economic mobility."It's about reacting to bad circumstances in the worst way possible," Vance wrote at the time. "It's about a culture that increasingly encourages social decay instead of counteracting it."Vance's first act as a national figure was to be a kind of "hillbilly" whisperer for bewildered liberals in the wake of Donald Trump's 2016 election. A "Never Trumper" who described Trump as "cultural heroin," Vance could explain his community in a way that reaffirmed many of his elite audience's pre-conceived notions. Personally, I first read "Hillbilly Elegy" in college, in an earnest if somewhat contrived attempt to better understand communities unlike mine. The copy that I borrowed this week, signed by the future senator himself in 2017, belongs to a friend who now works in Democratic politics.Much of Vance's former persona obviously conflicts with the senator who I've closely covered as a Capitol Hill reporter over the course of his <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-18-month-senate-career-record-vice-president-2024-7">mere 18-month tenure</a>. Today, he's one of the country's most skilled purveyors of Trumpian identity politics, someone who's openly skeptical of liberal democracy and, as he <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chuck-schumer-nicotine-zyn-republican-right-wing-2024-1">once told me</a> himself, "plugged into a lot of weird right-wing subcultures." In his book, he decries the "learned helplessness" of his community. On Wednesday night, he described Middletown as "a place that had been cast aside and forgotten by America's ruling class in Washington."Yet for all of the unflattering cultural diagnoses that the author of "Hillbilly Elegy" seems to have cast aside, the book remains an important window into the Ohio senator's backstory and personal psychology, and it contains important clues about the man who could soon be a heartbeat away from the presidency, and the Republican Party's standard bearer in a matter of four years. In fact, there's a certain continuity between the Vance who grew up in an environment beset by disorder and occasional violence and the politician who <a target="_blank" href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets">says</a> that the right is "going to have to get pretty wild, and pretty far out there" to counteract what he sees as the decline of American empire."For those of us lucky enough to live the American Dream, the demons of the life we left behind continue to haunt us," he wrote.<h2 id="670b24e8-c115-476b-93ad-4c54388ffef2">'Hillbilly justice'</h2>While Vance didn't mention the book itself, his Wednesday night speech at the Republican National Convention was peppered with references to the book's main characters. Most prominent was his grandmother, his "Mamaw," who he describes as "a woman of very deep Christian faith" who "also loved the F word." On stage, he recounted a story that also appears in "Hillbilly Elegy," where Mamaw bluntly threatens violence against one of Vance's friends."She once told me, when she found out that I was spending too much time with a local kid who was known for dealing drugs, that if I ever hung out with that kid again, she would run him over with her car," said Vance. "And she said 'JD, no one will ever find out about it.'"The crowd erupted responded with nearly 20 seconds of chants of "Mamaw! Mamaw!"<div type="image" title="JD Vance speaks at the RNC" height="1500" width="2000" msid="111844621" hostid="261" sizebytes="96594"></div>Violence was a ubiquitous presence in Vance's youth. At times, his Mamaw encouraged him to practice it himself, including against a school bully. "Sometimes, honey, you have to fight, even when you're not defending yourself," she tells him. "Sometimes it's just the right thing to do." Violence was a source of disorder when his mother threatened to crash a car with both of them inside of it. But it was also a guarantor of stability when his Mamaw responded to the incident by taking unofficial custody of Vance, a move that would prove pivotal to his development."Mamaw told me that if Mom had a problem with the arrangement, she could talk to the barrel of Mamaw's gun," Vance wrote. "This was hillbilly justice, and it didn't fail me."In a way, Vance has returned to the logic of "hillbilly justice" as a political figure, arguing that sometimes the established rules of America's constitutional system are insufficient to meet the moment. His most notable encroachment into this terrain is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/03/15/mr-maga-goes-to-washington-00147054">his argument</a> that Trump should openly defy the Supreme Court if it declares that he cannot fire vast swaths of the federal bureaucracy upon taking elected office. It's a logic he's ascribed to the political left in reference to the 2018 confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the tactics of the Black Lives Matter movement. "There's no law, there's just power. And the goal here is to get back in power," he <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/opinion/jd-vance-interview.html">recently told</a> The New York Times's Ross Douthat.There's also the simple fact that Vance, even today, is a bit of a shape-shifter. When he's in campaign mode, he frequently refers to the mainstream press as "vultures." His 2022 Senate bid was rife with instances of casualty cruelty and a lack of empathy, whether it was his <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-candidate-jd-vance-i-dont-care-what-happens-ukraine-2022-2">declaration</a> that he doesn't "really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another" or <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/JDVance1/status/1414029247446982658">polling his X followers</a> on whether the "disgusting and violent" conditions of New York City are "like Walking Dead Season 1 or Season 4?"Yet he gets along just fine with the "vultures" inside the Capitol complex and on mainstream news shows. In our interactions, Vance has been unfailingly polite, slickly explaining away Trump's latest transgression or translating the id of the GOP base into talking points that make sense to reporters. There are hints of this in "Hillbilly Elegy" as well: He served as a public affairs Marine, where he was trained in the art of media relations, including "how stay on message."Vance presents his political ideology today as being left-leaning on economics and hard-right on culture. It's not far from the worldview held by his Mamaw, which he describes as an oscillation between "a radical conservative or a European-style social Democrat.""I initially assumed that Mamaw was an unreformed simpleton and that as soon as she opened her mouth about policy ad politics, I might as well close my ear," he wrote. "Yet I quickly realized that in Mamaw's contradictions lay great wisdom.""I began to see the world as Mamaw did," he continued. "I was scared, confused, angry, and heartbroken. I'd blame large businesses for closing up shop and moving overseas, and then I'd wonder if I might have done the same thing."<h2 id="2f9aedfe-d7bd-49e6-b071-de2ecabcb4a6">An 'outsider in Middletown' no more</h2>Those who focus on Vance's transformation, particularly the "Never Trumpers" who were once his friends, have often assumed that the views he held in 2016 represented the real JD Vance, and that what's taken place in the eight years since then is merely a calculated repositioning.Yet there are signs in "Hillbilly Elegy" that the conclusions reached by the author were unsatisfying, and that he had made an unstable compromise with the elite milieu he now inhabited. Something would eventually have to give.The last 60 or so pages of the book, covering his acceptance and adjustment to Yale Law School and the rat-race of elite meritocracy, feel disjointed from the rest of the story. He suddenly feels an immense optimism about his future, which he says made him feel like an "outsider in Middletown." His life as an aspiring lawyer comes with frequent hiccups and second-guesses, resulting in occasional outbursts that strain his relationship with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/usha-vance-politics-yale-jd-wife-vice-president-2024-7">his future wife, Usha</a>. He labels himself a "cultural alien" who's been uprooted by the forces of social mobility. He laments the "discomfort" that people like him "feel at leaving behind much of their identity." He remarks, in the closing pages of his book, that he's "uneasy" with his new life.<div type="image" title="Vance's mother beside Speaker Mike Johnson at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday." height="1500" width="2000" msid="111844619" hostid="261" sizebytes="90482"></div>"Hillbilly Elegy" ultimately arrives at a bit of a dead end. Vance offers only vague gestures at potential policy solutions to his community's woes, such as broadening how state laws define family units to account for the role that grandparents and extended family members play in the rearing of children like him. He ultimately declares that "there is no government that can fix these problems for us" and that "we hillbillies must wake the hell up." It's a little bit phoned in.Vance has since rejected that worldview, embracing an ideology that could prove to be a dead end as well. But Trumpian nationalism feels like a tighter fit for Vance than the warmed-over, libertarian-lite conservative ideology that he'd embraced by 2016.He no longer has to scold his family for viewing themselves as the victims: He now declares that they are.His skepticism of addiction as a disease, which comes through when he describes his mother's initial foray into sobriety, is now beside the point: Vance has identified a clear enemy in Chinese-manufactured fentanyl and the Mexican drug cartels that peddle it.If he was once "worried about racial prejudice in my own family and friends," he need not be any more: The last bill he introduced before being selected as Trump's running mate was a bill to "prevent racism in the federal government" by eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs.Though he remains an elite by any definition — a wealthy former venture capitalist, a US Senator, and now the vice presidential nominee for a major party — Vance has found his way back home to the identity he knows best.

I reread JD Vance's 'Hillbilly Elegy.' He hasn't transformed as much as you think.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Sen. JD Vance of Ohio recounted how intrusive his vice presidential vetting could be.</li><li>Vance said a lawyer asked him if he had any "secret family."</li></ul>Sen. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-lowest-vice-president-approval-rating-republican-convention-2024-7">JD Vance</a> of Ohio said that a lawyer presumably sent by the Trump campaign asked him if he had any "secret family" during the vice presidential vetting process in an interview that took place with his wife, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/usha-vance-politics-yale-jd-wife-vice-president-2024-7">Usha Vance</a>, sitting near him."At one point, the lawyer said, 'Well, I'm going to ask some uncomfortable questions, '" Vance recounted on the<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-re1pBdMD8I"> Full Send Podcast</a> in an episode published on Friday. I was like, ''OK, have at it.'"The lawyer, Vance said, then asked, "Do you have any secret family?"Vance, who described the detailed examination of his life as "bizarre" and "intrusive," said the question took him aback. He quickly denied having any such family after it became clear what the lawyer meant."I'm like, 'Are you serious? Do I have any secret family? Like, what do you mean?'"The lawyer, whom Vance did not name, said that some public figures have children or spouses who are not publicly known."He said, 'Well, sometimes people will have like another spouse, or they will have like other kids in a place like Alaska,'" Vance recounted.Vance said he responded, "Dude, I've never even been to Alaska."The whole line of questioning was particularly odd, Vance added, since his wife was sitting right next to him."'Oh, by the way, if I did, I'm not going to admit it in front of my wife,'" Vance said, laughing.The Ohio senator said if someone had hidden such a secret for so long, they would probably not openly reveal it."It's one of those questions where if you've gotten to that point in your life and you're such a dishonest person that you have a secret family in Alaska, I think that most people would just, I assume, hide it at that point," he said.While little is often made public about vice presidential vetting, politicians who have gone through it have often described it as cumbersome and intrusive. Would-be vice presidential nominees are asked to turn over copies of every public statement they have made along with bank records. Vance said he was also asked if any family members would publicly criticize him.The reason campaigns go to such lengths to vet potential running mates is that they want to be prepared for the media scrutiny that will come. Traditionally, presidential nominees have been running for the White House for a year or more and are more well known at the national level. In contrast, vice presidential nominees are usually not as well known, and their selection occurs with only a few months left in the campaign. If he's elected, Vance, who has spent roughly <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-18-month-senate-career-record-vice-president-2024-7">18 months in the Senate</a>, would be one of the youngest vice presidents in history.There have also been examples of politicians who tried to hide children from the public eye. The most recent example is former Heisman Trophy winner <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/herschel-walker-more-secret-kids-georgia-senate-gop-midterms-2022-6">Herschel Walker</a>, whose 2022 Georgia Senate campaign was rocked by allegations that he tried to hide three children. Walker, a staunch Trump ally, denied that he had secret kids, but the scandal was one of many that helped doom his campaign to oust incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat.According to a 2011 Washington Post <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/eight-politicians-who-kept-offspring-secret/2011/05/17/AF0qIu5G_gallery.html">article</a>, at least eight other politicians have also tried to keep children they had with other women out of the spotlight. Another example is former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee. After years of denials, Edwards admitted in 2010 that he fathered a child with a campaign videographer during their affair.A Vance spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

JD Vance says he was asked in front of his wife if he had 'any secret family' during vice presidential vetting

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Sen. JD Vance's 2024 campaign has been dogged by viral jokes that he once had sex with a couch.</li><li>To be clear, he did not write about having intercourse with a couch in "Hillbilly Elegy."</li></ul>Sen. JD Vance of Ohio has had a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-midwest-presidential-election-gop-trump-2024-7">rough start to his 2024 run</a>.For one, a joke that Vance may once have had intercourse with a couch has been going viral on social media platforms from X to TikTok.It all started on July 15 when an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-couch-sex-joke-author-speaks-2024-7">X user, who later spoke to Business Insider,</a> posted a joke about Vance and a couch.To be clear, the pages of Vance's bestselling memoir "<a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-hillbilly-elegy-transformation-trump-vice-president-2024-7">Hillbilly Elegy</a>" don't describe such a sex act. The Associated Press even tried to debunk the claim — but ended up taking the article down, saying the fact-check didn't go through its "standard editing process."So, one might wager that the last word that Vance might want to say out loud, let alone at a rally, would be "couch."Not so. At a Tuesday event in Nevada, the senator talked about his wife, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-wife-usha-deep-scotus-ties-roberts-kavanaugh-2024-7?utm_campaign=business-sf&amp;utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawEWg89leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHV_g6k3BNhtqk2meGlQqz2mGD2BFLds3DeSzIrK_TGdyipKdrzeHgwnRIA_aem_ROJhrE0o56bsbCDRlKJwoA">Usha Vance</a>."I've been the beneficiary, I have to say, of a number of strong women in my life, especially my beautiful wife, who you guys saw earlier," Vance said. "I would call her up here to speak, but then I think I'd have to sleep on the couch tonight, so I'll leave her alone."To be sure, the couch joke isn't the only thing plaguing Vance.In the weeks since he was announced as former President Donald Trump's running mate at the Republican National Convention, he's had to contend with a slew of disparaging remarks he's made about people without children resurfacing in new reports.These comments have ranged from his branding of Vice President Kamala Harris as one of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/doug-emhoff-jd-vance-kamala-harris-childless-cat-lady-response-2024-7">"childless cat ladies"</a> running the US, to his argument in a 2021 fundraising email that Democratic leaders are <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-vice-president-democratic-leaders-childless-sociopaths-2021-email-2024-7">"childless sociopaths."</a>Trump <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-donald-trump-could-replace-jd-vance-vice-president-poll-2024-7">could replace Vance on the ticket,</a> but he'll have to move fast if he plans to do that.Representatives for Vance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

The last thing JD Vance probably wants to be associated with right now is a couch. But for some reason, he's still talking about it.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Melania Trump attended the fourth night of the Republican National Convention.</li><li>The former first lady wore a Christian Dior skirt suit in a classic Republican red.</li></ul>After skipping the first three days of the 2024 <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/republican-national-convention-rnc-biggest-moments-speeches-photos-2024-7">Republican National Convention</a>, Melania Trump arrived on night four in a rare campaign appearance.The former first lady entered Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee to enthusiastic applause, wearing a Christian Dior skirt suit in the classic Republican red also worn by <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-jr-kimberly-guilfoyle-timeline-2021-2">Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle</a>, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-wife-usha-vance-relationship-trump-politics-2024-7">JD Vance's wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance</a>.Melania Trump previously wore the red blazer in 2017 while visiting French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, in Paris, but paired it with a different skirt for the convention.She waved at the crowd before taking her spot in the VIP box next to Vance.<div type="image" title="Melania Trump in the VIP box at the Republican National Convention." height="683" width="1024" msid="111851288" hostid="261"></div>Since Donald Trump announced his reelection run in November 2022, Melania Trump has largely remained absent from the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/melania-trump-campaign-return-absence-2024-4">campaign trail</a>. She has made a few rare public appearances, attending <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/melania-trump-attends-rosalynn-carter-funeral-former-first-ladies-2023-11">Rosalynn Carter's funeral</a> in November 2023 and speaking at a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/melania-trump-immigrant-first-lady-speech-national-archives-2023-12">naturalization ceremony</a> at the National Archives in December 2023.After an assassination attempt nearly took her husband's life on Saturday, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/melania-trump-rally-shooter-monster-statement-2024-7">Melania Trump released a statement</a> calling the shooter a "monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine.""When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life, and Barron's life, were on the brink of devastating change," she wrote. On Thursday night, she was not accompanied by their son, Barron.<div type="image" title="Melania Trump at the RNC, wearing a red skirt suit." height="1728" width="2592" msid="111851289" hostid="261"></div>She did not speak at the convention, but Donald Trump thanked her in his speech for her "beautiful" letter "calling for national unity.""It really took the Republican Party by surprise, I will tell you," he said.<div type="image" title="Donald Trump kisses Melania Trump after speaking at the RNC." height="727" width="1024" msid="111852466" hostid="261"></div>Melania Trump joined him onstage after his address, which was the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-rnc-speech-assassination-attempt-takeaways-2024-7">longest convention acceptance speech</a> in modern history.

Photos show Melania Trump's rare public appearance on the last day of the Republican National Convention

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Trump officially accepted the GOP's presidential nomination for the 3rd time on Thursday.</li><li>His first speech since the assassination attempt, it was the longest acceptance speech in history.</li></ul>On Thursday night, former President Donald Trump officially accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination for the third time.The speech, delivered at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, lasted roughly one hour, 32 minutes, apparently the longest in American history.It was the former president's first public address since a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-was-thomas-matthew-crooks-the-trump-rally-shooter-2024-7">gunman attempted to assassinate him</a> at a Pennsylvania rally last Saturday. Following the incident, Trump said that he had <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-new-speech-rnc-assassination-attempt-2024-7">re-written his speech</a> and intended to focus on unity.It was also Trump's first speech since he named <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-hillbilly-elegy-transformation-trump-vice-president-2024-7">Sen. JD Vance of Ohio</a> as his running mate. And it came as the candidacy of his chief opponent, President Joe Biden, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chuck-schumer-hakeem-jeffries-democratic-leaders-biden-drop-out-2024-7">appeared to be on its last legs.</a>The speech was long, at times rambling, and touched on much of the same themes of his previous campaign speeches.Here are the 8 top takeaways from Trump's Thursday night address.<h2 id="43dcea3e-e5c3-4ccd-bac9-8ae27225ac26">1. Trump described the assassination attempt in painful detail</h2>Still sporting the large ear bandage that he's been wearing throughout the convention, Trump began his speech by addressing Saturday's assassination attempt."I will tell you exactly what happened," Trump said. "And you'll never hear it from me a second time, because it's actually too painful to tell."The audience fell dead silent as he described the attempt on his life in detail, describing the "loud whizzing sound" of the bullet grazing his ear."My hand was covered with blood," Trump said, describing what happened after he brought his hand to his ear. "Just absolutely blood all over the place."He went further into detail, saying the crowd was unmoving because they saw the blood and believed he might be dead."There's an interesting statistic: The ears are the bloodiest part. If something happens with the ears, they bleed more than any other part of the body, for whatever reason," Trump said. "So we learned something."<h2 id="b7dd0cb7-f388-4e72-b2d4-e1757628daf0">2. He recognized Corey Comperatore, the man killed at the rally</h2>On stage with Trump the whole time was the fire gear belonging to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/victim-trump-rally-shooting-corey-comperatore-shielded-family-from-gunfire-2024-7">Corey Comperatore</a>, the former firefighter chief who was killed by the assassin's bullet at the Pennsylvania rally.<div type="image" title="Trump embraces fire gear belonging to Corey Comperatore, the man killed at the Pennsylvania rally." height="1500" width="2000" msid="111852463" hostid="261" sizebytes="183904"></div>"But Cory — unfortunately we have to use the past tense — he was incredible," Trump said. The former president added that he had <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/corey-comperatores-wife-said-trump-hasnt-called-report-2024-7">called</a> Comperatore's wife Helen earlier on Thursday.At one point, Trump walked away from the microphone and kissed Comperatore's fire gear, which included a propped-up firefighter jacker and a helmet.<h2 id="225743fe-d26c-4961-95a9-9acf1899bbab">3. He also used the assassination attempt to his advantage</h2>At the end of the day, Trump is still Trump.As he wound down his discussion of the Pennsylvania rally, Trump turned toward the myriad legal cases he's faced in the last several years."We must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement, which is what's been happening in our country lately at a level that nobody has ever seen before," Trump said. "In that spirit, the Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy."He went on to tout Judge Aileen Cannon's dismissal of the classified documents case against him, which is likely to be appealed."If Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these partisan witch hunts, which I have been going through for approximately eight years," Trump said.<h2 id="05659068-0e25-42dd-9581-949c7184fd13">4. Trump said that JD Vance, his new VP pick, is 'going to be doing this for a long time'</h2>Earlier this week, Trump selected Vance — one of the former president's staunchest loyalists in the Senate — to be his running mate.In his first public comments after that selection, Trump said he was "thrilled to have a new friend and partner fighting by my side."He also mentioned <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/usha-vance-politics-yale-jd-wife-vice-president-2024-7">Vance's wife, Usha,</a> and focused heavily on the fact that they attended Yale Law School."It was an honor to select him. Great, great student at Yale. His wife was a great student at Yale. They met at Yale. These are two smart people," Trump said. "So JD, you're going to be doing this for a long time. Enjoy the ride."Vance, who turns 40 next month, is one of the youngest vice presidential nominees in American history. If Trump is elected, he'll be just a heartbeat away from the presidency, and he's well-positioned to be the GOP's standard bearer in 2028.<h2 id="58c9c5b9-3971-41cc-ab79-126d8d2d3421">5. Despite his 'unity' promises, the speech wasn't that unifying</h2>Trump promised a unity-focused speech.Though his tone was notably more subdued than prior public appears, he made plenty of incendiary comments about his political rivals, declaring at one point that Democrats are "destroying our country." And he continued to lie about the results of the 2020 election."We don't have fierce people," Trump said when discussing foreign wars. "We have people that are a lot less than fierce, except when it comes to cheating on elections and a couple of other things. Then they're fierce."<div type="image" title="Trump addressing the RNC on Thursday." height="1500" width="2000" msid="111852459" hostid="261" sizebytes="182336"></div>He also went directly after Biden."If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States — think of it, the 10 worst, added them up — they will not have done the damage that Biden has done," Trump said. "Only gonna use the term once. Biden, I'm not going to use the name anymore. Just one time."<h2 id="4fc79c1b-9c2d-4998-b949-739aed7a3ea7">6. Trump called for the firing of UAW President Shawn Fain, underscoring the GOP's struggle to win over organized labor</h2>Trump's speech contained numerous appeals toward union members, arguing that "unions are suffering" as the result of illegal immigration.At one point, he took a direct swipe at Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers, who has been harshly critical of Trump and endorsed Biden for president in January.As he called for the elimination of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-is-probably-going-to-ease-strict-ev-requirements-2024-2">Biden's electrical vehicle requirements</a>, arguing that the policy was driving manufacturing overseas, he said that the union "ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen, and the leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately."Electric vehicle policies have been at the heart of the GOP's attempts to win over auto workers, including <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vance-hawley-republicans-uaw-strikes-shawn-fain-labor-2023-9">when the UAW went on strike last fall.</a> While Fain and the UAW have raised concerns about electric vehicles, they have not wholly rejected Biden's policies on the issues."The whole problem that we have is a guy like Shawn Fain blasting Donald Trump," Vance, now Trump's VP pick, told Business Insider in September. "At the very least, just shut your mouth, and take the support from wherever you can get it."As Trump's speech continued, the UAW fired back, calling him a "scab and a billionaire."<h2 id="18f17fb0-fe30-49fc-ac43-6a3e577d260f">7. Trump showed the chart he displayed on the day he was shot — arguing it may have saved his life</h2>A major reason why Trump survived the assassination attempt last Saturday is because his head was turned to the side: He was pointed toward a chart produced by the Border Patrol that depicting illegal immigration in recent years.Displaying it again roughly an hour into his speech, Trump described it as "the chart that saved my life.""Last time I put up that chart, I never really got to look at it," Trump said. "But without that chart, I would not be here today."<h2 id="d86ffbc8-62a0-4f7f-b0cf-94d8995a857d">8. It was the longest presidential nomination acceptance speech in recorded history</h2>At 92 minutes, Trump's speech on Thursday night appeared to be the longest ever delivered by a major party's presidential nominee.According to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/presidential-documents-archive-guidebook/party-platforms-and-nominating-conventions-2">The American Presidency Project</a> at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Trump exceeded a record he set himself in 2016, when he delivered a nomination speech lasting nearly one hour and 15 minutes.Trump's 2020 speech was similarly lengthy, lasting roughly one hour and 10 minutes.By contrast, Biden's 2020 acceptance speech lasted less than 25 minutes.

8 takeaways from Trump's RNC speech — the first since his attempted assassination

<ul class="summary-list"><li>GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham campaigned in Ohio for the Senate candidate JD Vance.</li><li>During a speech at a Republican Party dinner in Lima, Ohio, Graham riled up the crowd.</li></ul>LIMA, Ohio — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was met with roaring laughter from a crowd of Republican voters Tuesday evening when he suggested that if Republican Rep. Jim Jordan ascended to chair of the House Judiciary Committee, it would result in a raft of suicides.Graham, campaigning in Ohio for the GOP Senate candidate JD Vance, addressed the room at a dinner hosted by the local Republican Party in Lima, a western Ohio city that Jordan has long represented in Congress. Also in attendance were Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, Ohio GOP Chair Bob Paduchik, and a handful of other top Republican officials in the state.Vance, a former venture capitalist and the author of "Hillbilly Elegy," is facing a <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2022/senate/oh/ohio_senate_vance_vs_ryan-7624.html">tougher-than-expected</a> race against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan and has recently been campaigning with national Republican figures, including former President Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas."You got something really special here. This guy is going to change the Republican Party, change the Senate, all for the better," Graham said near the beginning of his address, referring to Vance. "But here's some words that really rattle the Democratic Party. What's the worst thing the Democratic Party wants to hear? Chairman Jim Jordan."Jordan, a leader of the party's right flank and the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, has <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/cuomo-show/rep-jim-jordan-vows-investigations-if-gop-wins-house/">pledged to conduct investigations</a> into the FBI and the Justice Department if the GOP retakes the House. <div type="image" title="Graham speaks at a Republican dinner in Lima, Ohio as Jordan looks on." height="1500" width="2000" msid="95108409" hostid="261"></div>"There are going to be people jumping off bridges in San Francisco by the thousands," Graham said, bursting into laughter along with the crowd. "You know, New York City, they may literally shut down."An average of 30 people <a href="https://www.insider.com/anti-suicide-nets-san-franciscos-golden-gate-bridge-nearly-complete-2022-9">die by suicide every year at the Golden Gate Bridge</a>. More than 1,800 people in total have plunged to their deaths from the famous bridge — the largest number of jumping suicides for any bridge in the country, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-30/golden-gate-bridge-suicide-prevention-rescue-net-san-francisco#:~:text=Over%20the%20years%2C%20families%20of,stopped%20and%2025%20people%20jumped.">according to the Los Angeles Times</a>. Officials recently began constructing a steel net underneath the bridge to prevent deaths.Graham has made a version of this joke at least once before, when he denied rumors that he might be gay in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/magazine/04graham-t.html">2009 interview with The New York Times</a>."I know it's really going to upset a lot of gay men — I'm sure hundreds of 'em are going to be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge — but I ain't available," Graham said in the interview. "I ain't gay. Sorry."Jordan, a staunch ally of Trump, helped found the conservative House Freedom Caucus and previously served as chair of the House Republican Study Committee. He's promised the judiciary committee will "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/20/jim-jordan-ramps-up-investigation-into-fbi-over-domestic-terrorism/">aggressively</a>" investigate the Department of Justice and other government entities and officials if the GOP retakes control of the House. At the Lima event, Graham went on to joke about Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler's weight. The current chair of the judiciary committee has been open in the past about his <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/11/18/cnna.nadler/">struggles with weight loss</a>."I can't wait until he gets the gavel. The best trade in the history of politics is Jerry Nadler for Jim Jordan," Graham said. "You're saving about 200 pounds."<div type="image" title="Attendees listen as Republican Senate candidate JD Vance speaks at the Republican dinner in Lima, Ohio." height="1500" width="2000" msid="95108411" hostid="261"></div>Graham also underscored the broader stakes of the 2022 midterm elections, saying that Republicans would be able to investigate Democrats on a variety of issues if they regained power. "The bottom line is we'll have oversight. We'll ask questions you've been dying for somebody to ask, and we'll see what kind of answers we get," he said. "We'll get to the bottom a lot of this crap. You can only do that if you're in charge."At the outset of the dinner, Vance praised Graham, saying he'd followed his career for a long time."I've watched him on TV. I've watch him on Fox News, like a lot of you," Vance said.Vance said Graham especially impressed him with an impassioned defense of the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. The candidate said that his wife, Usha, had once worked for Kavanaugh when he was a federal judge."I've never seen Washington do anything like they did to Brett Kavanaugh," Vance said. "And his most energetic, most passionate, and, I think, the most effective defender was a great senator from South Carolina: Lindsey Graham."<div type="image" title="Republican Senate candidate JD Vance speaks at a Republican dinner in Lima, Ohio." height="1500" width="2000" msid="95108412" hostid="261"></div>Just before the event, Vance and Graham took a handful of questions from the media.Insider asked the two men — who are both prominent examples of Republicans who strongly condemned Trump only to later become his loyal cheerleaders — about their support for the former president."I don't know that we've talked about it," Vance said, gesturing toward Graham. "My argument is: When a guy does a good job, you ought to change your mind, because when the facts change, that's what thinking people do.""Primaries are contested," said Graham, who also sought the Republican nomination for president in 2016."You know, all the opponents of Joe Biden got on board because he beat them," he added. "When Trump beat me, I accepted my defeat, and I thought he was a good president on the things that I care about. So there you go."Correction: October 27, 2022 — An earlier version of this story misnamed the Ohio GOP chair. His first name is Bob, not Mike.

Lindsey Graham says there are 'going to be people jumping off bridges in San Francisco by the thousands' if Jim Jordan becomes chair of the House Judiciary Committee

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