All posts tagged "usha vance"

'Couldn't script this': CNN panel stresses irony of Trump's love for 'Les Miz'

CNN's Inside Politics panel couldn't help but point out the irony of President Donald Trump declaring his love for the Broadway show "Les Miserables" as U.S. Marines arrived in Los Angeles at his direction to keep American citizens in line.

Host Dana Bash invoked lyrics from the musical to set up the discussion.

"President Trump 'dreamed a dream' of a new Kennedy Center. He replaced its entire board and named himself chairman, and tonight returns for opening night of the Broadway classic 'Les Miz.' It's a story, of course, of uprising — a rebellion by the poor. He'll look down from the presidential balcony. He'll 'hear the people sing.' But will there be empty seats at empty tables?"

Bash said that at least 10 of the actors opted not to perform for President Trump during Wednesday night's show. She then read from an article by panelist Jeff Mason pointing out Trump's lack of awareness of the optics.

"Trump's appearance at 'Les Miserables' — a show about citizens rising up against their government — comes just days after he sent U.S. Marines and the National Guard to quell protests against his administration's immigration raids in Los Angeles," Bash read.

"You actually couldn't script this any better," Mason said. "I mean, the underscore of of power, politics, culture, division that will be in that room tonight will be both on the stage and in the audience. There are maybe about 200 people there who are donors coming to a fundraiser beforehand. But the rest of the roughly 2,300-seat theater was sold to the public and to subscribers."

Mason recounted how Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife were booed when they attended a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra.

"There are likely to be some kind of reaction to President Trump tonight because of everything that has been going on," Mason said.

Watch the clip below via CNN or click the link.

Veterans slam J.D. Vance for disregarding a mess hall rule 'Marines learn on day 1'

Some fellow veterans criticized Vice President JD Vance's visit to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, VA, this week, particularly when Vance made his way to the mess hall to have lunch.

The Vice President sported a green military jacket and a bright red hat with the words, "Once a Marine, Always a Marine" emblazoned on it.

On X, formerly Twitter, journalist and former Marine @RonFilipkowski wrote, "Marines learn on Day 1 to never wear their cover inside and damn sure never to eat with it on. Maybe Corporal Correspondent went to a different boot camp than I did."

"This boy was a Marine? Why the hell is he still wearing his cover in the cookhouse?" posted "former British soldier and Ukrainian Marine" @olddog100ua. "He is just an absolute f--- up."

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"As a Marine, you’d think JD Vance would know he needs to take his hat off indoors. This add more skepticism to his bull---- origin story," posted screenwriter @Jbug33.

According to CNN, Vance enlisted in the military after high school, spent four years in the Marines, and served a tour in Iraq in 2005 as a combat correspondent. He came under fire during the 2024 presidential campaign for claiming he "served in a combat zone," and accusing Democratic V.P. candidate Tim Walz of "stolen valor" for his own military claims.

The New Republic reported at the time that Vance's military service "wasn't exactly the boots-on-the-ground experience that he's now framing it as," adding that Vance wrote in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, that he was "lucky to escape any real fighting."

Friday, Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance landed in Greenland where they toured the U.S. Space Force outpost at Pituffik, on the northwest coast.

The trip, originally scheduled to last the weekend, was downgraded to a one-day trip after the island’s government categorized the visit as unwanted and "highly aggressive." President Donald Trump has been fixated on acquiring the Danish territory and has refused ruling out using the U.S. military to take it.

Dem reacts to DOGE worker's 'explicit racism' — and Vance's 'attack'

Ro Khanna (D-CA), who represents Silicon Valley in Congress, unleashed on Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency employee caught up in a racism scandal that also drew in Vice President J.D. Vance.

Khanna appeared on CNN Tuesday with Boris Sanchez who made a point of asking about the racist comments that targeted people of Indian descent.

"I want to pivot and ask you about something else that Musk tweeted that was actually echoed by Vice President Vance," Sanchez began. "The Wall Street Journal found a social media account tied to a DOGE associate that had posted numerous racist remarks, among them one that I think may hit close to home for you. He wrote, quote, 'Normalize Indian hate.' You're, of course, the son of Indian immigrants. The staffer resigned and then was rehired, with Musk and Vance arguing that he should be forgiven for those posts. Do you forgive him, congressman?"

ALSO READ: Elon Musk's DOGE boys think this is a video game as Trump plots his 2nd coup

Khanna answered, "Well, as you know, I had an exchange back and forth with the vice president on this. It's sad because I was born in Philadelphia. I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the '70s and '80s, and I never experienced that kind of explicit racism."

Khanna posted on X last week addressing Vance, writing, "Are you going to tell him to apologize for saying 'Normalize Indian hate' before this rehire? Just asking for the sake of both of our kids."

Vance's wife Usha and their children are of Indian descent.

Khanna continued, "What I said to the vice president is, 'Okay, he's a 24-, 25-year-old kid. He's put, 'normalize Indian hate.' He's put that he wants to repeal the Civil Rights Act, that Dr. King fought for, on social media. If you're going to rehire him, ask him to retract those statements and apologize.' I didn't think that was asking too much. I was willing to extend grace to give this young man a second chance. But the vice president sort of unloaded at me, attacked me, said that I 'disgust' him, and he still has not answered whether this person has been rehired and whether he's going to retract those deeply offensive statements."

Watch the clip below via CNN.

Usha Vance once 'appalled' and 'deeply disturbed' by Trump — but now promotes him

Usha Chilukuri Vance, Sen. JD Vance's (R-Ohio) wife, hasn't been known for being publicly outspoken about politics.

But according to The Washington Post, the Indian-American attorney had a lot to say privately about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. And now that her husband is Donald Trump's presidential running mate, she is helping promote someone she once condemned.

Post reporters Peter Jamison, Beth Reinhard, Hannah Natanson and Nicole Markus explain, "Vance told friends she was outraged by Trump's incitement of the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol and lamented the social breakdown that fueled his political support, according to one friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations."

Usha Chilukuri Vance's "view at the time," the journalists note, "contrasts with the later pronouncements of her husband and Trump's newly minted running mate, JD Vance, who has downplayed the storming of the Capitol and called participants who were jailed 'political prisoners.'"

The friend told the Post, "Usha found the incursion on the Capitol and Trump's role in it to be deeply disturbing. She was generally appalled by Trump, from the moment of his first election."

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The friend added that "it was surreal to see" Usha Chilukuri Vance "sitting next to" Trump during the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

"That sensation is widely shared among her friends, former co-workers and fellow alumni, more than two dozen of whom spoke to The Washington Post for this story," Jamison, Reinhard, Natanson and Markus report. "Some watched in disbelief on July 17 when Usha Vance, 38, addressed an overwhelmingly white crowd on the convention floor that tittered uneasily as she joked about her husband learning to cook Indian food and audibly gasped when she mentioned her vegetarian diet."

Read the full Washington Post article at this link (subscription required).

'Deeply disturbing': J.D. Vance's wife 'expressed revulsion' with Trump over Jan. 6 riot

In interviews with friends and colleagues of Usha Vance, wife of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) who has assumed the role as Donald Trump's running mate in the 2024 presidential election, many expressed surprise that she is going along with the campaign considering her past comments about the former president.

According to a report from the Washington Post, attorney Usha Chilukuri Vance has a reputation for being close-mouthed about her political leanings but did "express revulsion" and misgivings about Trump during the coup attempt by his followers which he encouraged after he lost to President Joe Biden.

As the Post's Peter Jamison, Beth Reinhard, Hannah Natanson and Nicole Markus are reporting, "Usha Vance rarely — if ever — volunteered her opinions on the nation’s bitterly partisan politics to friends and colleagues," but did make an exception when supporters of the former president stormed the Capitol and sent lawmakers fleeing in 2021.

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According to one friend, "Usha found the incursion on the Capitol and Trump’s role in it to be deeply disturbing," before adding, "She was generally appalled by Trump, from the moment of his first election.”

Referring to Usha Vance sitting in the presidential box at the recently concluded Republican National Convention, that same friend pointed out, "It was surreal to see her sitting next to him last night.”

The report notes, "Though she worked for prominent conservative judges and voted in the 2022 Republican primary in Ohio when her husband was on the ballot, she has registered to vote as a Democrat at least twice, records show: as a teenager in San Diego in 2004 and as a law student in New Haven, Conn., in 2010. In the fall of 2014 she registered to vote in D.C. without a party affiliation, according to elections officials."

The Post is also reporting that in 2016 when her husband wrote on Facebook that Trump was “cultural heroin. He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they’ll realize it,” Usha Vance approvingly linked to it and commented on his "firm stand against Trump.”

According to Chad Callaghan, an Los Angeles-based writer who was friends with her in college, "Am I surprised to see Usha speaking onstage at a major political convention? No. She’s brilliant. Am I surprised to see her there to support a man who seems to be building political power by punching down at trans folks and immigrants? Yeah, that part caught me off guard.”

The Post report did note, "In her speech introducing J.D., which lasted less than five minutes, Usha Vance herself offered no clues to how she was processing the moment. At a convention suffused with fervor for its presidential nominee, she did not once mention Trump."

You can read more here.