By Stephen Macaulay

Reality is hard. Fiction is easy.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast.” — JD Vance to Dana Bash, 9/15/24

So there you have it.

He makes stuff up.

Oh, he claims he’s doing it on behalf of the Americans who are suffering.

But are they really?

Or is he making that up, as well?

Bash called him on the lack of substantive evidence regarding the consumption of pets in Springfield, Ohio.

She cited authorities who said it was bunk.

He claimed he’d gotten some phone calls.

But when asked to provide proof, he pushed back and went back to decrying “illegal aliens,” even though Bash pointed out some of them are in the US legally under what is known as “Temporary Protected Status.”

Vance referred to it as “a magic amnesty wand” wielded by Kamala Harris.

One could imagine that Vance might know that TPS is part of the Immigration Act of 1990 — passed by Congress. 

What’s more, Harris has nothing to do with deciding who gets it.

The Department of Homeland Security makes the determination whether a country receives a TPS designation for a number of factors, including on-going armed conflicts, environmental disaster, or extraordinary and temporary conditions in the country.

The countries with the TPS designation are: Afghanistan, Burma, Cameroon, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen.

You may recognize some of them from the “shit-hole countries” then-President Trump described in 2018.

Of course, it is easier for Vance to make things up than actually do the work of understanding laws.

If he isn’t creating his own version of reality, then he’s saying things that he later claims are “jokes.” And he won’t take back his jokes. Is this because he is a frustrated comedian? Does he actually think anyone finds them funny?

Vance and his ticket-mate have demonstrated, time and time again, not only their unwillingness to take responsibility for the things they say, but apparently revel in their ability to flat out lie.

Yes, the sort of people that we want to be role models for our children.

Read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentaries at Substack on The Hustings.