Vice President-elect JD Vance tweeted — and then deleted — a message with so many spectacular self-owns that it is worth taking a moment to dissect what he did.
On Tuesday, Vance posted a message on X, formerly known as Twitter, defending his recent absences from the Senate. He’s still an Ohio Republican senator, but he and a handful of other Republican senators haven’t been showing up for Senate votes in the lame duck. Their absences are frustrating some in their party as Democrats are confirming lots of President Joe Biden’s judges without much resistance from Republicans.
Vance was specifically called out by Grace Chong, chief financial officer and chief operating officer for “Bannon’s War Room,” the podcast hosted by Steve Bannon, a close ally to President-elect Donald Trump. She tagged Vance and Senator Marco Rubio in a Tuesday post saying, “You guys better show up and do your fricken job!!” She has since deleted her post.
Enter Vance with his tweet. The vice president-elect lashed out at Chong, calling her “a mouth breathing imbecile,” and said even if he had shown up to vote against the particular nominee Chong was referring to, appeals court nominee Embry Kidd, Republicans still wouldn’t have had enough votes to block him.
Besides, Vance said, he was busy with something much more important than casting Senate votes: helping Trump interview potential new FBI directors.
“When this 11th Circuit vote happened, I was meeting with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including for FBI director,” Vance wrote.
“I think it’s more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45,” he continued. “But that’s just me.”
But Vance inadvertently just revealed that Trump is interviewing people to replace Christopher Wray, the current FBI director. Wray’s term isn’t up until 2027, and even though Trump is the one who appointed him in 2017, the two have clashed over the years.
It’s only been speculation until now that Trump may replace him. Vance just confirmed that Trump’s team is already taking steps to do it.
Oops.
Here’s a screenshot of Vance’s since-deleted post.
A Trump transition team spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment as to whether Trump is preparing to remove Wray from his post before his term is up.
An FBI spokesperson declined comment.
Beyond that slip-up, the Ohio senator got yelled at, indirectly, by Trump for not showing up to Senate votes, which he had just suggested weren’t that important.
The president-elect ranted Tuesday about the need for all Republican senators to show up to work to help slow or stop Democrats from getting so many of Biden’s judges confirmed.
“The Democrats are trying to stack the Courts with Radical Left Judges on their way out the door,” Trump wrote on social media. “Republican Senators need to Show Up and Hold the Line — No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!”
Vance was suddenly back in the Senate on Tuesday afternoon, voting against one of Biden’s nominees to an Oregon federal court. And his tweet was deleted.
Chong still remembers what he called her, though. She’s mocking him for it on her X page.
Her biography now reads, “‘mouth breathing imbecile’ CFO/COO.”