Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart sneaker
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Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's
Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Friday, August two.
Speaker 1: Israel has declared it's eliminated a top Hamas commander. Mohammadif,
Speaker 1: an alleged planner of the October seven massacre of civilians
Speaker 1: in Israel, died in a July airstrike part of Israel's
Speaker 1: ferocious siege of Gaza. Deif is the third high ranking
Speaker 1: Israeli target to die in forty eight hours after assassinations
Speaker 1: in Lebanon and Iran. Former Chief of Army Peter Lay
Speaker 1: is warning Australia is now a strategic liability to the
Speaker 1: United States. Lay says Australia's military is stretched too thin
Speaker 1: and unprepared to fight at short notice. That's an exclusive
Speaker 1: live for our subscribers right now at the Australian dot
Speaker 1: com dot au. Jdevance, the man who wants to be
Speaker 1: America's next Vice president, turns forty today. So how did
Speaker 1: a man who was once a very outspoken critic of
Speaker 1: Donald Trump become Trump's running mate, and who is the
Speaker 1: real jd Vance that's today on the front. Let's go
Speaker 1: back for a moment to the twenty sixteen election campaign.
Speaker 1: Republican candidate Donald Trump is considered an outside chance, even
Speaker 1: a bit of a joke. But there's a movement on
Speaker 1: a group of people who are angry, extremely vocal, and
Speaker 1: very pro Trump. Hillary Clinton called them a basket of deplorables.
Speaker 2: Right the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, islamophobic, you name it.
Speaker 1: They're mostly just working class white Americans. Jd Vance, a
Speaker 1: little known author, thinks he might have some answers about
Speaker 1: why they love Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: Fundamentally, what's going on and what Donald Trump has done
Speaker 3: is changed the focus of the white working class from
Speaker 3: a sort of engaged in constructive politics to a politics
Speaker 3: appointing the finger.
Speaker 1: That's Vans, who just published an autobiography about growing up
Speaker 1: Paul in the Midwest. Talking to journalist Charlie Rose.
Speaker 3: I'm a never Trump guy. I never liked him. The
Speaker 3: problem is if you take that attitude of sort of
Speaker 3: gloating over Trump's defeat, then you're playing into the very
Speaker 3: thing that gave rise to Trump in the first place.
Speaker 3: Which is a feeling that the elites think that they're
Speaker 3: smarter than you.
Speaker 1: And now former President Donald Trump announcing he has chosen Ohio.
Speaker 4: US Senator JD.
Speaker 1: Vance as is running me on his the never Trump guy, Well,
Speaker 1: he's changed his tune.
Speaker 5: For the last eight years, President Trump has given everything
Speaker 5: he has to fight for the people of our country.
Speaker 5: He didn't need politics, but the country needed him now.
Speaker 5: Prior running for president, he was one of the most
Speaker 5: successful businessmen in the world. He had everything anyone could
Speaker 5: ever want in a life. And yet instead of choosing
Speaker 5: the easy path, he chose to endure abuse, slander and persecution.
Speaker 5: And he did it because he loves this country.
Speaker 1: So who is the real jed Vance? Nick Jensen is
Speaker 1: the opinion editor at The Australian. Nick. First of all, JD.
Speaker 1: Van turns forty today. He's a millennial. So how much
Speaker 1: does that matter when we think about his political significance.
Speaker 6: I think it's extremely important because in so many ways,
Speaker 6: the way in which JD. Vance has discussed is through
Speaker 6: the prism of Trump and him being a kind of
Speaker 6: maga air if you like. But I think he represents
Speaker 6: so much more. I think the millennial aspect really can't
Speaker 6: be underestimated. I mean, if you think about some of
Speaker 6: the things he stands for, so just to run through
Speaker 6: a couple of them, you know, he's skeptical about stock markets,
Speaker 6: he's skeptical about big tech companies. He's keen on tariffs,
Speaker 6: he's keen on minimum wages, even labor unions. Not only
Speaker 6: is it unlike Trump one, but it's actually quite unlike
Speaker 6: the Republican Party of recent years. It's about labor and
Speaker 6: not capital. And I think a lot of these issues
Speaker 6: are things that millennials on the left and right can
Speaker 6: find some.
Speaker 1: Appealing hillbilly ellogy. Really for many people who after the
Speaker 1: election who were wondering how Trump rose, the book was
Speaker 1: kind of like a manual, wasn't it too?
Speaker 3: This is why.
Speaker 6: So it's in the first instance, a remarkable story, his
Speaker 6: story of childhood trauma. But it's exactly that. It's a
Speaker 6: guide book, isn't it about how you can kind of
Speaker 6: improve your lives? And it's also a guidebook or a
Speaker 6: kind of history of the complexities of this working class
Speaker 6: rage that has been there amongst the kinds of people
Speaker 6: he's grown up with that has raised him. That you know,
Speaker 6: they've been sold a pup. As far as they're concerned,
Speaker 6: the American dream is broken. It doesn't work with them.
Speaker 6: Their jobs have gone, wages stagnated, and the kinds of
Speaker 6: russ Belt ruins in which they live just nothing works anymore.
Speaker 3: So I didn't write this book because I've accomplished something extraordinary.
Speaker 3: I wrote this book because I've achieved something quite ordinary,
Speaker 3: which doesn't happen to most kids who grow up like me.
Speaker 1: This is Jdva. It's narrating part of his book Hill
Speaker 1: Billy Elegy.
Speaker 3: The statistics tell you that kids like me face a
Speaker 3: grim future. That if they're lucky, they'll manage to avoid welfare,
Speaker 3: and if they're unlucky, they'll die of a heroin overdose.
Speaker 3: Whatever talents I have, I almost squandered until a handful
Speaker 3: of loving people rescued me. That is the real story
Speaker 3: of my life, and that is why I wrote this book.
Speaker 1: He has said since accepting the vice presidential nomination that
Speaker 1: Trump's brilliance as president changed his mind, and it's okay
Speaker 1: for people to change their minds. Of course, that's what
Speaker 1: happened to him, so he hasn't really repudiated his previous
Speaker 1: views about life or about America has he it's more
Speaker 1: his views about Trump.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, I think the vision that jd. Vance has just
Speaker 6: adds a new layer to TRUMPSM. He's modernizing it. So
Speaker 6: we already know that the kind of core tenets of
Speaker 6: TRUMPSM is part of the JD. Vance story. In fact,
Speaker 6: as we're saying, it's probably built out of it as
Speaker 6: a kind of core text or guidebook, as you say,
Speaker 6: but there's new aspects to it, some of the things
Speaker 6: that I was just listing before about being skeptical about
Speaker 6: stock markets and labor over capital. I mean, this is
Speaker 6: a whole new intellectual aspect in politics that's happening on
Speaker 6: the right, and in fact they're calling it the new
Speaker 6: Right now. That of course predates Vance, but I don't
Speaker 6: think we've ever really seen someone who's so absolutely embodies
Speaker 6: this kind of new movement quite like him.
Speaker 1: Do you think he's charming.
Speaker 6: I think he's polished. I think he's sharp. I think
Speaker 6: he's very focused. I think he's aggressive. I think his
Speaker 6: story makes him compelling. I wouldn't describe him as charming
Speaker 6: or charismatic, to be honest.
Speaker 1: Coming up, the story of JD. Vance evolves as he
Speaker 1: becomes part of the Republican political machine, how does he
Speaker 1: handle his own history? And speaking of evolving stories, make
Speaker 1: sure you go to the Australian dot com dot au.
Speaker 1: Our subscribers get all the best news and analysis from
Speaker 1: here and around the world. Twenty four to seven. Now
Speaker 1: to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Trump's new running mate JD. Vance takes the stage. He
Speaker 1: talks about Donald Trump, about his history, about his vision
Speaker 1: for America, but the person who stole the show wasn't
Speaker 1: even there.
Speaker 3: To see it.
Speaker 5: I was lucky, despite the closing factories and the growing
Speaker 5: addiction in towns like mine, in my life, I had
Speaker 5: a guardian angel by my side. Was an old woman
Speaker 5: who could barely walk, but she was tough as nails.
Speaker 5: I called her Mamma, the name we Hillbillies gave to
Speaker 5: our grandmothers. And my Mamma died shortly before I left
Speaker 5: for Iraq in two thousand and five, and when we
Speaker 5: went through things, we found nineteen loaded handguns. They were
Speaker 5: stashed all over her house, under her bed, in her closet,
Speaker 5: in the silverware drawer, and we wondered what was going on,
Speaker 5: and it occurred to us that towards the end of
Speaker 5: her life, mamma couldn't get around so well. And so
Speaker 5: this frail old woman made sure that no matter where
Speaker 5: she was, she was with an arm's length of whatever
Speaker 5: she needed to protect her family. That's who we fight for.
Speaker 5: That's American spirit.
Speaker 1: This is the Jdvans of today, a man who's honed
Speaker 1: his personal story into a sharp political weapon.
Speaker 6: Why are you such a compelling figure? Is the narrative,
Speaker 6: which is obviously what runs like a you know, electricity
Speaker 6: through Hillbilly elegy is so powerful. I mean it's embedded
Speaker 6: in him. You saw it in the Republican National Convention speech.
Speaker 6: It's all there, and so it makes him such a
Speaker 6: powerful figure to draw on that. I think one of
Speaker 6: the moving moments in the Republican National Convention recently was
Speaker 6: when J. D. Evans's mother, Beverly, who we know led
Speaker 6: a life of extreme dysfunctional and abuse an addiction. She
Speaker 6: stood in the crowd and people applauded her.
Speaker 5: I'm proud to say that tonight my mom is here,
Speaker 5: ten years, clean and sober.
Speaker 3: I love your.
Speaker 5: Mom, and you know, Mom, I was thinking it'll be
Speaker 5: ten years. Officially, in January of twenty twenty five, and
Speaker 5: if President Trump's okay with it, let's have the same
Speaker 5: in the White House.
Speaker 6: And she's part of the kind of reform, the personal
Speaker 6: reform that he's advocating. It's a pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1: Story, especially when American politicians have really hidden the dark
Speaker 1: things about their families forever.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, and we're talking about serious dysfunction. I mean, for
Speaker 6: those who haven't read He'll Bill the Ellergy or watched
Speaker 6: the film, I mean, we're talking about relatives setting each
Speaker 6: other on fire. We're talking about suicide attempts, we're talking about,
Speaker 6: you know, driving cars off the road. And it's a
Speaker 6: really intense story of childhood trauma kind of at the
Speaker 6: heart of it. They kind of a more intimate look
Speaker 6: at it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Jodie Vance at the center of it is
Speaker 1: an incredibly vulnerable little figure. You know, this little boy
Speaker 1: who just desperately wants his mother's love, has to deal
Speaker 1: with a string of kind of stepfather figures who come
Speaker 1: through the family, and ultimately relies on Mammal, his grandma,
Speaker 1: to be the force of stability in his life.
Speaker 5: Ma'am Moll was in so many ways a woman of contradiction.
Speaker 5: She loved the lord, ladies and gentlemen. She was a
Speaker 5: woman of very deep Christian fear, but she also loved
Speaker 5: the F word. Now. She once told me, when she
Speaker 5: found out that I was spending too much time with
Speaker 5: a local kid who was known for dealing drugs, that
Speaker 5: if I ever hung out with that kid again, she
Speaker 5: would run him over with her car. That's true, and
Speaker 5: she said, gd no one will ever find out about it.
Speaker 6: She's a remarkable character in the story. Isn't she the grandmother?
Speaker 6: I mean? But for her, I think she's probably the
Speaker 6: most decisive figure in the childhood, isn't she? Because she
Speaker 6: is the person that insists on the kind of inner
Speaker 6: dignity of people whose lives have gone wrong or not
Speaker 6: in the way they expected. And she really drives home
Speaker 6: to him that personal responsibility is really the only antidote
Speaker 6: for him to improve his life, to become somewhae and
Speaker 6: to move away from all the dysfunction and suffering.
Speaker 1: A former friend of his name Sophia Nelson. Sophia's a
Speaker 1: transgender woman and public defender who once had a close
Speaker 1: relationship with Jade Vance. She's leaked dozens of decade old
Speaker 1: emails that the pair of them exchanged and she talked
Speaker 1: about him on CNN.
Speaker 4: What I've seen as a chameleon, someone who is able
Speaker 4: to change their positions and their values depending on what
Speaker 4: will amass them political power and wealth.
Speaker 1: He reveals himself as someone is very thoughtful about the
Speaker 1: kinds of things that I think he would now say
Speaker 1: are left liberal elite obsessions. You know, he's been very
Speaker 1: thoughtful about the gender identity of this person who is
Speaker 1: friends with. He's completely accepting of her. He in fact
Speaker 1: apologizes for having described to in Hillbilly Ellogy as gay,
Speaker 1: which he realizes perhaps not the way she would choose
Speaker 1: to describe herself.
Speaker 4: So the JD. Evans that I was friends with for
Speaker 4: over a decade was compassionate and we've frequently disagreed, but
Speaker 4: he always approached conversations with respect and kindness. And what
Speaker 4: we've seen with Donald Trump is a callousness and a
Speaker 4: cruelty in the way he talks about people, a bullying right.
Speaker 4: He's a bully, and he calls people names. And when
Speaker 4: Jad decided to run for the Senate in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 4: he started adopting that similar persona so anathema to.
Speaker 1: Who he used to be the JD. Evans of today
Speaker 1: is bombastic. He isn't afraid to offend people all start thoughts.
Speaker 1: He is talking to Tucker Culson in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 5: We're effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via
Speaker 5: our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies
Speaker 5: who are miserable at their own lives and the choices
Speaker 5: that they've made, and so they want to make the
Speaker 5: rest of the country miserable too.
Speaker 1: He hasn't apologized for those comments, by the way, but
Speaker 1: he did recently make vi clarification.
Speaker 5: I've got nothing against kats. I've got nothing against dogs,
Speaker 5: and I've got one dog at home and I love them.
Speaker 3: The substance of what I said, I'm sorry, it's true.
Speaker 1: That brings us to the big question about JD. Vance.
Speaker 1: Was he telling the truth about himself back then and
Speaker 1: now he's pretending to be someone else, or was he
Speaker 1: pretending to be someone else back then and now we
Speaker 1: see the real JD. Evans.
Speaker 6: I mean, there's people on both sides that are very
Speaker 6: clear on what they think about that I don't know.
Speaker 6: I mean, clearly, political opportunism and changing one's character and
Speaker 6: even values is always going to be a thing in
Speaker 6: politics quite whether he's changed them to such an extent
Speaker 6: in order to be Trump's running mate, and you know,
Speaker 6: it's difficult to say. I think one thing that is revealing, though,
Speaker 6: is that when he defeated Tim Ryan, a Democrat and
Speaker 6: longtime Ohio representative for the seat high Io, Trump endorsed
Speaker 6: Vance in that election, you know, helping him win during
Speaker 6: a crowded election cycle. Now it's quite clear without Trump's support,
Speaker 6: there's no way Jdvans would have been in this position.
Speaker 1: If Trump loses this election, do you think that will
Speaker 1: be the end of Jodey Vance's career or can he
Speaker 1: execute another one?
Speaker 6: I don't know, but I think one thing is for sure.
Speaker 6: You mentioned the Republican establishment. I think if jd Vance
Speaker 6: goes on to become vice president and who knows, maybe
Speaker 6: even president, it's possible it will forever change the right
Speaker 6: in the US. So in some ways jd Vance is
Speaker 6: kind of more consequential than Trump because of some of
Speaker 6: those add ons, because of that new intellectual background, because
Speaker 6: of the millennial aspect. I think jd Vance is here
Speaker 6: to stay. And also happy birthday.
Speaker 1: Nicholas Jensen is the Australian's opinion editor. If you'd like
Speaker 1: to read some more of our wildly varying analysis and
Speaker 1: opinion about the US election and more, head to the
Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au. Thanks for joining us on
Speaker 1: the front. Our team is Joshua Burton, Stephanie Coombs Leat
Speaker 1: sammaglou Jasper League, Tiffany Dimak, Kristin Amiot and me Claire
Speaker 1: Harvey