MAGA Turns on Conservative Columnist for Vance Jab

A conservative columnist at Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is facing backlash after criticizing the vice president.

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Kimberley A. Strassel’s explosive July 16 column, titled “President Vance Goes AWOL,” accused JD Vance of abandoning Republicans at a critical juncture to promote his recently published memoir.

The reliably right-wing columnist’s take did not sit well with MAGA supporters, who hurled insults at Strassel on social media in the days that followed. Some took particular issue with what they described as Strassel’s insensitivity to the birth of Vance’s fourth child on Sunday morning. Others pointed out that prominent Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, have not been seen publicly in weeks.

“The Legacy Media and the Left loved to jump up and down about parental leave. Except in this case,” wrote podcast host Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s advisor Stephen Miller. What she failed to mention, however, is that the column was written days before Vance’s son was born.

“I’m sorry, but pulling this obvious little stunt against J.D. Vance, whose wife just gave birth, when Mitch McConnell hasn’t been seen in weeks is absolutely absurd,” rightwing journalist Sean Davis wrote on X on Monday. “What are we even doing here.”

Another conservative influencer, John Konrad, also piled on.

“Wait, hold the phone, the media is giving [Vance] hell for attending the birth of his child after praising [Pete Buttigieg] for disappearing for months to adopt a child?” he wrote, referring to Buttigieg’s two months of paternal leave while serving as secretary of transportation under former President Joe Biden.

“Am I the only person getting whiplash from all the reversals?”

Another X user, who identified as “Cookin Mama,” called the column a “hit piece” and slammed it as “shameful.”

“The man had to be with his wife, who had a baby! Give me a break!” they wrote.

Strassel, 53, hit back at the accusations on Monday morning.

“Nice try. When Vance chose to blow off the GOP to go on Rogan—and when this was written—his wife was still expecting,” she wrote on X. “And as problematic as McConnell’s absence is, there is a gulf between having to be admitted to the hospital for a health issue, and choosing to fly to Texas for a taping.”

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A spokesperson for the vice president told the Daily Beast that Strassel’s narrative is “bulls–t.”

“This is factually inaccurate. Vice President Vance has been to the Capitol over two dozen times over the course of his tenure as Vice President, including as recently as Wednesday, which the Wall Street Journal and this rag outlet fail to acknowledge in order to fulfill their bulls–t fake narrative,“ a spokesperson said on Friday.

Vance’s media blitz to promote his second book, Communion, about his conversion to Catholicism, kicked off with an appearance on The View on June 16. On June 19, NBC News reported that Vance “had this week circled on his calendar for months.”

It came at a time when the now-defunct negotiations to end the war in Iran were in full swing. A framework deal was struck just as the book tour was about to begin. Sources close to the vice president told NBC News that he “treated the confluence of the Iran deal and his book release as a happy coincidence.”

Strassel wasn’t buying it. “Lawmakers can count on a few fingers the times former Sen. Vance has set foot in the Capitol,” she wrote, touching on Vance’s role as president of the Senate.

She added: “As they twist in the legislative winds, they glimpse him mainly on his TV and podcast book tour—Real Time With Bill Maher, CBS News Sunday Morning, Fox News, even ABC’s The View. Or he’s in Switzerland leading fruitless Iran negotiations. The anger has only grown over Mr. Vance’s decision to position himself as scolder of the body over which he constitutionally presides, rather than showing up for the work.”