Discussion on J.D. Vance and Elections

You were, uh, an early supporter of J.D. Vance.

You worked with him. You basically saw something

in him that other people didn't see then.

Can you describe

what it was and why you supported him?

Uh, I, I always, I, I'm always hesitant to

overrate, you know, overrate my, my role in these things.

I,

um,

I probably always have a very soft spot for smart people, so I thought he was

thoughtful,

open-minded, um,

charismatic, and, uh,

you know, he was, he was working for, uh, one of the venture funds I had

helped start called Mithril, and then wanted to write this book on the

side, and I,

I encouraged him to do that. It became this bestseller in 2016.

Uh, and I helped him out financially when he ran for Senate in

20-2022. Uh, but I think, uh, I,

I'm always hesitant to answer this question because I think it just detracts

from

his, from his achievement in, in many ways.

Now, um, the Republicans will

make a decision sooner or later. The names about, uh,

the potential candidates that I heard most often are, uh, J.D.

Vance, uh, and Marco Rubio.

Um, who do you think would be the better

candidate in order to increase the likelihood that the Republicans

would win the next election?

Um,

well, I, I am, I am still, I'm still a Vance partisan.

Uh, I, I worry that it will be very hard for

either

candidate to win, and so, um, I don't know.

My, my pessimistic thought is that that's the wrong question.

So the right question would be-

And the, the right... Is, who's gonna be the Democratic-

If, if the Democrats-

Who's, who's, you know, who's gonna be the Democratic candidate?

That's, that's the right question.

And would it be a center, uh, left, a centrist candidate

of the Democrats who would provide them with the better

chances, or would it be, uh, a DSA candidate?

Um, well, the--

obviously, in a close election, a center-left candidate is

probably better. Um, if it's not a close election,

it probably doesn't matter,

and, um, and I think there's a decent chance

that, um, it will not even be close.

If the Republicans get wiped out in the midterms

this fall, then, uh, the Democrats will think

that they will win no matter

what in 2028, and therefore, um, there probably will

not be, you know, as, as strong a firewall against a Demo-

They won't pull out all the stops to prevent a Democratic socialist from

winning.

So I th- I think the Democrats will do well enough

in the midterms in, uh,

in, you know, a month and a half that, um,

they will be indifferent to a center-left versus

far left presidential candidate, and then it's a completely

open field, completely open question.