JD Vance deleted his social media meltdown calling a Donald Trump ally a “mouth breathing imbecile” Tuesday, after she scolded him for not showing up to his job—and defied the president-elect in the process.
As the Senate Democrats race to approve President Joe Biden’s remaining judicial nominees, before they lose the majority at the beginning of next year, Republicans have become anxious that more Republican senators aren’t showing up to vote against the president’s picks.
Grace Chong, COO and CFO of Steve Bannon’s War Room, a far-right media company, posted on X Tuesday morning urging Vance and Senator Marco Rubio to “show up and do your one freakin job!!”
Shortly after that, Trump made a similar post on Truth Social. “The Democrats are trying to stack the Courts with Radical Left Judges on their way out the door. Republican Senators need to Show Up and Hold the Line—No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day,” Trump wrote.
Vance couldn’t take the heat.
“Grace Chong is a mouth breathing imbecile who attacks those of us in the fight rather than make herself useful,” Vance fumed in a post on X, less than 30 minutes after Trump’s post on Truth Social. “If I had shown up to the vote in question, the nominee would have succeeded 49-46 rather than 49-45. If every Republican had showed up, Fetterman would have come in and the Democrats still would have gotten their nominee across.
“I tend to 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 wrote, also casually burying the news that the Trump administration will try to kick out Christopher Wray long before his term is up.
Within an hour, both Chong and Vance had deleted their posts—but it was too late. The vice president-elect had already demonstrated that while he may understand how math works, he doesn’t have the slightest idea how to lead his party. By Vance’s own logic, it makes no difference whether any of his Republican colleagues do their jobs and show up to vote either. It’s also entirely likely that Vance had the unhappy realization that his childish temper tantrum had undermined Trump’s explicit demands.