Trump says running mates have ‘virtually no impact’ in apparent JD Vance snub

Donald Trump has said that vice-presidential picks have “virtually no impact” on elections when asked about JD Vance’s fitness for office, in an apparent attempt to downplay his running mate’s role on the Republican ticket.

Trump made the comments during a combative interview at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Chicago. Asked by the Fox News journalist Harris Faulkner whether Vance would be ready to take over “on day one, if he has to be”, Trump avoided answering directly and instead downplayed the significance of the Vance’s role.

“I’ve always had great respect for him … but I will say this, and I think this is well documented historically, the vice-president, in terms of the election, does not have any impact. I mean, virtually no impact,” Trump said.

“You’re voting for the president, and you can have a vice-president who’s outstanding in every way,” Trump added. “And I think JD is, I think that all of them would have been, but … but you’re not voting that way. You’re voting for the president. You’re voting for me.”

Related: Black journalists respond to ‘disastrous’ Trump panel at annual convention

Trump’s appearance was widely panned as a “disaster”, during which he repeatedly sparred with Rachel Scott, an ABC correspondent and one of three moderators on the panel, who pressed the former president on his past criticism of Black people and Black journalists, his attack on Black prosecutors, and a dinner he held at Mar-a-Lago with a white supremacist. Throughout the roughly 35-minute discussion Trump also repeated disinformation about immigration and abortion and falsely questioned Kamala Harris’s racial identity, saying “she happened to turn Black”.

The comments come amid a bumpy few days for the Republican pair. The former president has been forced to try to soften Vance’s controversial comments describing Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices they’ve made”. The resurfaced 2021 views have prompted a widespread backlash, though some Harris supporters embraced the term in a zoom call this week.

Vance, the populist Ohio senator who once described himself as a “never-Trump guy”, was also heard in newly released audio this week admitting to Republican donors that Kamala Harris is a threat and Biden’s dropout from the race was a “sucker punch”, in an apparent blow to the campaign.

Trump was forced to defend the “cat lady” comments once again during his NABJ appearance, when Scott asked: “Did you know he had these views about people who do not have children before you picked him to be your running mate, and do you agree with them?”

“No,” Trump said, before giving a rambling rebuttal. “I know this – he is very family-oriented and thinks family is a great thing. That doesn’t mean he thinks if you don’t have a family it’s not … I know people with families, I know people with great families, I know people who have very troubled families, and I also know people with no families. They didn’t meet the right person. Things happen.”

Vance, for his part, praised Trump’s interview performance in a tweet that lashed out at Harris, who did not attend the conference, citing scheduling issues.

Michael Tyler, the communications director for Harris’s campaign, said in a statement that “the hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power”.

“Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency – while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in,” Tyler said. “Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us.”