Greg Sargent: JD Vance Accidentally Wrecks Trump's Vile Scam on Abrego Garcia Case

[Dennis Donovan]

Greg Sargent - (archived: https://archive.ph/tH3rU ) JD Vance Accidentally Wrecks Trump’s Vile Scam on Abrego Garcia Case

Implicit in the vice president's latest malevolent tweets is an admission that President Trump and his administration have so far refused to make.

Greg Sargent
April 19, 2025

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.

Case in point: Vance’s latest tweet on this saga.



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.

Here’s why. 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.

/snip

[Dave Bowman]

1. Damn I hate that little weasel with a passion.

He's such a pathetic boot licker, barf.

[Kid Berwyn]

4. A nice visualization from TMW...

Going by history, Thiel’s happy rodent may soon get a big promotion.

[Dave Bowman]

7. As always Tom Tomorrow sure gets what's going on.

Lol, bearded guy. 😄

[tulipsandroses]

2. So from now on, any decision from the SC or any court that we do not like, will be disregarded. Good to know.

When do you start calling the SC "activist judges" ?

Which the majority are, - but you have no problem when they rule in your favor.

[Ocelot II]

3. Vance is proving to be a really nasty piece of work.

In the end, what makes Vance’s stance so reprehensible is that he knows the administration has the option of returning Abrego Garcia and moving to deport him through lawful channels, as Vance’s own tweet demonstrates. But he’s defending the decision to leave him in a foreign prison instead, perhaps for life.

Does Vance really think that outcome would be a more proportional punishment for his transgression of entering the country illegally at the age of 16, as Abrego Garcia did, than removing him more conventionally would be? If so, Vance is morally deranged. If not, he’s knowingly defending the indefensible. If voters can be made to see that this is the true nature of the choice Vance and Trump are making, they’d surely recoil.

It's become pretty clear that Vance is morally deranged; his attitude is consistently sneering and superior as he attempts to defend the indefensible. As much as I hope for a positive answer to the daily "Is He Dead Yet" OP, the idea of this vicious, soulless douche as president is horrifying. OTOH, we already have a vicious, soulless douche as president. The difference might be that Trump has a cult of personality that might not be interested in transferring its allegiance to someone so smug, so utterly lacking in charisma, and completely unable to even pretend to engage with the cult. Everybody knows he's a fake hillbilly, even the real hillbillies. If Satan calls Trump home I foresee a huge power struggle in the GOP in which Vance is completely gelded and unable even to violate the upholstery.

[snowybirdie]

5. Democrats have to regain the House

in 2026. Trump is getting older and more frail. Vance is VP. Best case scenario is Felon has to leave presidency for whatever reason, and Vance advances to presidency, is impeached and removed from Office. Speaker of the House is a Democrat.

[Solly Mack]

6. ...

[Dave Bowman]

8. "Call me crazy..." With pleasure, bearded numbskull.