Normality

J. D. Vance, Senator and running mate to Donald Trump, is having his life flash before everyone's eyes as Democrats and their allies seek to use his selection for potential Vice President to cast Mr Trump as Someone You Don't Want in the White House. Which means that every dumb thing he's said, or says. is being trotted out. Along with a few things he didn't actually say. Or at least, not in as many words.

The ellipsis ("...") in that screenshot is doing a lot of work, and not all it it above board, because generally, they're used for a couple of things. While they can indicate a pause or period of silence, a common usage in media of various sorts, when enclosed in brackets, like this [...], they indicate that part of the text has been deliberately omitted. And sometimes, that context is important.

Because not all of Senator Vance's critics are on the Left. White supremacist, and acquaintance of Kanye West, Nick Fuentes is also a critic, mainly because Mrs. Vance is Indian, rather than European. His complaint? “Who is this guy, really? Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity?”

This creates something of a quandary for the Senator. His remarks on the childless, for all that they've stirred up a teapot tempest, are basically meaningless. Giving parents greater rights than non-parents would involve an Amendment to the Constitution, and no rational person expects that to happen in the foreseeable future. And not even the highly conservative Roberts court is likely to be on board with something that directly contravenes the Equal Protection doctrine, regardless of the advantage it would create for Republican candidates for office. But this is likely going to be a close election. Trump/Vance can't afford to alienate any potential Republican voters. Not even the White Identity crowd.

And so the Senator chose his words carefully.

Look, I love my wife so much. I love her because she’s who she is. Obviously, she’s not a white person, and we’ve been accused — attacked — by some white supremacists over that. But I just — I love Usha. She’s such a good mom, she’s such a brilliant lawyer and I’m so proud of her.

Cutting out the center of this changes the tenor of his statement, and creates the "weirdness" that Mr. Shroff is responding so, even though it's of his own creation. But such is campaign season.