It’s just a year into President Donald Trump’s second term, but the left already seems to have their sights set on one of the presumed frontrunners for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination: Vice President J.D. Vance.
Former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki recently sat down with Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan on the I’ve Had It podcast, where she likened conservative media to “the Kremlin press corp,” accused Karoline Leavitt of “diminishing” her former job, and trashed the Vances – not just J.D. but his wife, Usha Vance, too.
The Comments
Psaski’s rant was set off by Welch, who offered a rambling theory about how “oligarchs” like Peter Thiel are trying “to concentrate the power in the executive” because “biology is going to catch up with Trump” and “one of these guys can win a general election.“
“The cult will completely fall apart,” she claimed. “So, they have to consolidate in the executive, go full tilt authoritarian, so that Lil Smokey can come in and execute this crazy plan that these weirdos Peter Thiel and this guy named Curtis Yarvin have that they have decided we no longer should have a democracy.”
For the uninitiated, Welch was kind enough to clarify that “Lil Smokey” is the pet name she and Sullivan have for Vance. It is short for… “smokey-eyed sociopath.”
Even with that inane set-up, Psaki still managed to offer some of the craziest commentary of the day. “I think the little Manchurian Candidate, J.D. Vance, wants to be president more than anything else,” Psaki began before getting sidetracked. “I always wonder what’s going on in the mind of his wife. Like, are you okay? Please blink four times. Come over here. We’ll save you.”
After the brief side, she got back on track. “And that he’s willing to do anything to get there… I mean, he’s scarier in certain ways,” Psaki said. “And he’s young, and ambitious, and agile in the sense that he is a chameleon who makes himself into whatever he thinks the audience wants to hear from him.”
On second thought, maybe Vance isn’t so scary after all because he is apparently lacking the single most important trait to be a successful “cult” leader. “Now, what’s also true, though, is J.D. Vance… I don’t know that he can take the whole movement with him,” Psaki added. “He’s got no rizz. And he just is a little odd. Trump’s odd in a different way. So, I’m skeptical of that.”
Ultimately, Psaki landed on a slightly different version of Welch’s “oligarch consolidation of power” theory. “I mean, everything going on right now – and I think we have to be very clear eyed about this – is about trying to manipulate the public around elections,” she concluded.
Megyn’s Take
Megyn called Welch and Sullivan “two Trump-hating blonde women whose only badge of honor is their TDS,” and she relished in the thought that “some portion of the left is being misled by these three losers” – Psaki included – on the state of the GOP.
“This is wonderful for Team Sanity,” Megyn said on Thursday’s show. “J.D. Vance 100 percent can do it… And sorry to break it to you ladies, he’s going to do it.”
But she saved her harshest criticism for Psaki. “Why is a 46-year-old woman… using the term ‘rizz,'” Megyn wondered. “That has already been rejected by my 12 year old. Get with the program. You only sound old when you try to sound like a prepubescent teenage boy or girl… She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
She took particular issue with her mention of the second lady. “The nerve of her to describe Usha as some sort of a hostage,” Megyn said. “First of all, you’re a white woman and you should not be talking about a brown woman this way. Your party sets these rules, and you have to live by them… So, you are not allowed to say that Usha Vance is in a hostage situation just because she’s married to the current vice president, whom she happens to adore.”
“You’ve never spent two minutes with Usha Vance. Those of us who have know one of the first things you notice about her is how deeply in love she is with her husband,” Megyn continued. “Why don’t you read Hillbilly Elegy? Why don’t you listen to two minutes of what J.D. Vance has said in his public interviews. These two have a classic, wonderful, moving, deep American love story. And in many ways, Usha saved J.D.”
As for the Manchurian Candidate reference, Megyn said the analogy makes no sense. “What does that mean? ‘Manchurian Candidate’ is somebody who gets sneaked into the presidential role and is controlled by a foreign country. What foreign country is J.D. Vance controlled by,” she asked. “J.D. Vance is actually very focused on the United States of America. He’s the one, more than Trump, who doesn’t want us to get involved in these international conflicts and create situations where we might have no choice but to put American boots on the ground.”
“So, who is controlling him? You failed to say,” Megyn added. “You just pass gratuitous insults off as somehow sophisticated political analysis, and the two morons across from you had no idea what you were saying, so they let it slide.”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,178 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.