'Revealing': Analyst says J.D. Vance's new 'admission' will 'undermine' Trump's legal case
The Vice President might have made things more difficult for Donald Trump's administration in a major legal case.
J.D. Vance's social media activity may be complicating the President's arguments in the case involving a Maryland man, Kilmar Ábrego García, who was purportedly sent to El Salvador in error. That's according to the New Republic's Greg Sargent's new analysis.
In a new weekend piece entitled, "JD Vance Accidentally Wrecks Trump’s Vile Scam on Abrego Garcia Case," Sargent writes, "Implicit in the vice president's latest malevolent tweets is an admission that President Trump and his administration have so far refused to make."
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According to Sargent, "JD Vance has been tweeting relentlessly in defense of his master’s decision to leave Kilmar Abrego Garcia rotting in an El Salvadoran prison—despite judicial rulings declaring the move illegal."
"In these tweets, Vance works himself up into a frenzy of self-regard and high dudgeon, sneering at 'the left' for not engaging his arguments. Yet he blithely ignores actual efforts at engagement with him, and the arguments he does make are embarrassingly weak. The disconnect is cringeworthy," he wrote. "Case in point: Vance’s latest tweet on this saga."
Sargent is referring to Vance saying, "Call me crazy but if you got two hearings and a valid deportation order then you shouldn’t be in the United States," on social media.
The reporter added, "I wouldn’t call this 'crazy,' but I would call it 'smug,' 'dumb,' 'repugnant,' and even 'revealing.' Vance’s suggestion that Abrego Garcia is subject to a 'valid deportation order' actually undermines President Donald Trump’s fraudulent case that he has no duty to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. It forcefully demonstrates why the administration is obliged to bring him back and give him due process—which officials refuse to do."
In explaining the "why," Sargent notes, "The status that Vance refers to here is 'withholding of removal,' which a judge granted to the Salvadoran Abrego Garcia in 2019."
"This prohibited his deportation to El Salvador, but it didn’t preclude removal to a third country. This status is a bit murky: In essence, the government is recognizing that he is living and working here lawfully as long as it isn’t moving to deport him elsewhere," he then adds.
The reporter further says, "Here’s what this means: If the Trump administration wanted to remove Abrego Garcia, it could always have tried to recontest his 'withholding of removal' status and send him to El Salvador that way. Alternatively, it could have moved to deport him to a different country. Even now, the government has the option of returning him and pursuing one of those lawful channels."
Finally, Sargent states that, "When Vance claims that Abrego Garcia is validly subject to deportation, he’s effectively admitting that the administration does have those alternative options."
"Remember, the Supreme Court declared Abrego Garcia’s current removal 'illegal.' Trump has the option of moving to deport him in a way that is not illegal," he wrote Saturday. "Why not bring him back and do this the lawful way? The question remains unanswered."