CNN’s Dana Bash Warns JD Vance Implying James Talarico Is Gay Can Sway Texas Voters

CNN anchor Dana Bash warned on Wednesday that Vice President JD Vance’s jabs at James Talarico, Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, could be effective.

“And one of the counterarguments that we are hearing from Republicans is a little bit offbeat but pretty consistent. And the vice president of the United States gave an example last night,” Bash began, playing a clip of Vance from the day before:

Now before we get started, I love you too, sir, in a totally platonic way, to be clear. I’m the Vice President, not James Talarico. You’ve got to wonder what the internet search history of a man like that looks like. Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t want to find out. Neither do I.

“This has been kind of the narrative that they’ve been pushing for a while: that he’s beta, he’s not married, he’s, you know, raising questions that are unsubstantiated on the, certainly on the sexuality, and I would argue may be irrelevant,” Bash responded, adding:

But this is a state in which, you heard from that former judge talking to Jeff Zeleny, the DNA for the last several decades has been so GOP that if you hear even something that could raise alarm bells in your mind from somebody like the vice president of the United States, you’re thinking about voting for Talarico, maybe you won’t.

“Yeah, and we’ve seen, you know, the president and his allies call James Talarico a vegan, even though he’s not a vegan. There was an ad–” noted CNN reporter Aaron Blake.

“Such a sick burn,” interjected Bash.

“Yeah. There was an ad from a pro-Paxton super PAC that had James Talarico kind of a cutout in a dress. It’s very unsubtle what they’re trying to do here. The thing I thought about when I saw that, though, is, you know, there are a lot of very powerful gay people who serve in the Trump administration, in the White House. The Treasury secretary, for one. And I do wonder, you know, this is not subtle, what they’re doing here. They are trying to turn this into a negative, and you have to wonder how some of those people feel about that,” Blake concluded.

“Can I just add, it’s pretty pathetic if on October 14th that’s the best thing you have going for you. And I would just add to that, millions of people are voting now. They’re sending in ballots, they’re early voting in some states. There doesn’t seem to be an October surprise,” added veteran CNN correspondent Jamie Gangel.

“Ahhhh, you just woke up the surprise gods. If there’s a surprise, then it’s just, it’s, it’s more news that we cover,” joked Bash in reply.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!