Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance wants to appeal to voters in the same way as presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski and Psaki argued Vance is being inauthentic by allegedly pretending to be a supporter of former President Donald Trump and appeal to his base, citing past comments he made about the former president. Psaki also said Vance wishes he could appeal to rural, centrist voters and be known in the same way as Walz.

“I think as soon as we saw [Vance] speak at the convention, which fell completely flat, it was clear that he was not the sparkler that maybe people in the Trump campaign thought he was,” Psaki said on “Morning Joe.” “And [former Democratic Missouri Sen.] Claire McCaskill said this thing the other day that I’m just going to steal and credit her for that I think really defines it, Tim Walz is who J.D. Vance wants to be, which is probably why Tim Walz is driving Donald Trump so crazy. He is legit, authentically a midwestern regular guy you can talk to in a hardware store. That’s not who J.D. Vance actually is even if that is who he presents himself as on paper.”

Jen Psaki tells “Morning Joe” that JD Vance wants to be Tim Walz pic.twitter.com/n1rmCjowsU

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 8, 2024

Brzezinski then cited Vance’s past criticisms of Trump, particularly during the 2016 election. Vance reportedly pondered whether Trump is “America’s Hitler” in a private Facebook message to a friend in 2016 and referred to himself as a “Never Trump guy” during an interview with Charlie Rose in that same year, according to Politico.

Vance said he regrets his past criticisms of Trump and has since referred to him as a great president, Politico reported.

“He was an anti-Trumper of the best order and so, I’m not sure how he figures out who he is at this very late date. It’s a struggle,” Brzezinkski said.

“Yeah, look, I think in politics, as we all know we’ve all been around it a long time, voters, the American public, can sniff inauthenticity,” Psaki said. “This guy is not authentic. He’s not who he is, he doesn’t like Trump, he’s not presenting himself as who he was for many decades before he had this kind of about-face in order to try to connect with the MAGA world. People sniff that, they recognize it, voters are not dumb, they’re smart. And that’s a route problem for J.D. Vance is that he’s just not authentically who he presents himself to be at all.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ headquarters posted footage of Walz stating he wants to ban weapons he “carried in war” following the Parkland school shooting in 2018. CNN correspondent Tom Foreman delivered a fact-check on Wednesday noting there is “no evidence” to suggest Walz’s statement is true.

“There is no evidence that at any time Governor Walz was in a position of being shot at, and some of his language could easily be seen to suggest that he was,” Foreman said on Wednesday.

Vance, who served in the Marine Corps. as a combat correspondent, said Wednesday that Walz’s remark indicates that he lied about his military service and called his exit from the National Guard “shameful.”

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