Dem
50
GOP
50
Just in time for the vice-presidential debate (Coincidence? We aren't sure what we think.) the Trump campaign's J.D. Vance dossier has finally leaked. Take a look at these eight headlines, drawn from media outlets across the political spectrum:
First, you will note that the biggest outlets—The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN—seem to have ignored the news about the dossier entirely. We are not sure what their motivation is; they were more than happy to run stories based on purloined Hillary Clinton information. If the problem here was potential legal exposure, given the source of the documents (Iran), well, that's no longer an issue. Now the source is an American citizen who put the dossier on his website. They should be able to write away. We suppose it's possible they are nervous about the document being real. If so, well, we examined it closely, and it looks very real to us. Further, the fact that dozens of outlets did go forward with the story AND the Elon Musk tried to bury it, tells us that many other people agree with our assessment.
As to the outlets that DID carry the news, an enormous percentage (not all, but most) took the "Musk censorship" angle. Huh? Musk's suspension of the leaker's Twitter account is bigger news than the actual dossier? That we do not get at all, and we can't even come up with much of a theory. Maybe anti-Musk headlines attract clicks and eyeballs? That's about all we've got.
Whatever is going on with the media coverage, the bottom line is that journalist Ken Klippenstein decided that the public should be able to see the dossier that the Trump campaign put together while vetting J.D. Vance as a possible running mate. If you wish to see it, it's linked on Kleppenstein's website; there's a download button around halfway down the page. The document is a PDF, and is a little over 6 MB, because it is close to 300 pages.
There is nothing that is terribly shocking in the document. In a confirmation of Donald Trump's priorities, the great bulk of the dossier is dedicated to all the nasty things that Vance has said about Trump. And, wow, there are a lot of them. Clearly, Vance did not like Trump (probably still doesn't, in his heart of hearts). Still, in contrast to 2016 or even 2020, saying mean things about The Donald was not disqualifying.
Beyond that, the document includes a few standard warnings. It notes that Vance's positions on the issues are... inconsistent, shall we say, and that he's prone to falsehoods. It points out that he has some potentially concerning associations, in terms of his legal career and his business interests (most obviously, he worked for a law firm that has some major clients in China). The document does not mention Project 2025 by name, but does note that Vance associates with some very fringy right-wing types, like Alex Jones. And in case you are wondering, the word "weird" appears four times. Ironically, they are all in Vance quotes about Trump/Trumpers. The word "couch" does not appear at all.
So, this is not nearly as big a story as it could have been, especially since Vance has created plenty of scandals of his own volition since the dossier was compiled. That said, it's always interesting to get a peek at the campaign sausage being made, especially when it's being made by such weird people (Vance's words, not ours). (Z)