This woman has seen the videos of young girls being r*ped and s*xually assaulted.
This woman has seen the faces of the victims,
And their abusers.
This woman has read thousands of documents identifying the victims and abusers by name.
Yet she’s done nothing.
This is the face of a soulless fucking ghoul.
Hi, Senator Vance. This is Arlington National Cemetery. My dad is interred here. He earned that privilege in 1944-45.
In France.
In Belgium.
In Germany.
He fought in hand-to-hand combat. He had to shoot members of the Hitler Youth, who were so radicalized they were fighting for a failed state. Do you have any idea what dropping a 13-year-old does to a man's soul? Even if that 13-year-old is trying to kill you.
He was among one of the first US troops to liberate one of Buchenwald's satellite camps.
He earned his spot.
As a veteran who bravely fought as a REMF in Public Relations behind a camera, I'm sure you can appreciate that.
My grandparents told me that my father was never the same when he came back home. They didn't call it PTSD back then. He followed the instructions of the Veterans Administration. Smoke up - it's good for you. Dad tried to drown the memories of Buchenwald and the Ardennes with scotch. He put the fun in dysfunctional.
My dad only told me his war stories once. Otherwise, he never talked about his experiences. I was 13. It was summer. My mom was away on a business trip. Dad got very drunk, and over the span of 3 to 4 hours, he told me everything. And he never spoke of it again.
In 1998, I made peace with my father. Ironically, in a dark Washington, D.C. cigar bar with the longest list of single malt scotch on the East Coast, I gave my dad a Hoyo de Monterrey cigar from a case I had purchased in Germany.
Unlike the fake childhood trauma you wrote about in Hillbilly Elegy, dad knew that I was beyond reached by his drinking. I won't get into the details. Yet, here we are, in a dark bar in Washington, D.C., with the longest list of single malt scotch on the East Coast. Was setting up dad for failure? No.
I told him to order whatever he wanted. He ordered a flight of scotch, aged from 8 years to 25 years. I helped him prepare his Cubano cigar, and he took a long drag, and I lit mine. I was never a scotch drinker, I can't remember what I ordered.
Senator Vance, after the cigars were lit, I don't think my dad and I said 50 words between us. We smoked our cigars, and he sipped his scotch. He told me he had never had a cigar in his life, and this was an amazing smoke. He called the scotch the finest he had in his life. And he told me he was proud of me. In Washington, D.C., for a meeting with a lobbying firm.
My dad passed in 1999, but I do know he wouldn't support Donald Trump. How do I know that? In 1972, Dad worked on the McGovern campaign. One of my earliest memories as a child was of my father cheering when Nixon announced his resignation in 1975. I didn't understand who Nixon was or why my dad just cheered and jumped up off the floor where he liked to watch TV. I knew it was important.
My father fought literal Nazis; you, sir, literally embrace them. My father told me to his dying day that Patton was right, and the U.S. should have fought the Soviets right there and then, as the Russians can never be trusted. You, sir, literally spread Russian propaganda and are a member of the Congressional Fifth Column. Donald Trump collaborates with autocrat Vladimir Putin. My father liberated concentration camps. You, sir, with Donald Trump, call for them to be built.
You know nothing about sacrifice and are working to tear down the legacy given to you.