J.D. Vance's Tarmac Moment Was Inspired By Another Media Moment That Changed the Game Completely

Let's talk about the moment the engines of the media complex ship were suddenly thrown into reverse

J.D Vance approaches the press at VP Harris’ jet in WI (left); Andrew Breitbart hijacks Congressman Anthony Weiner’s 2011 NYC press conference (right)

J.D. Vance has been on the campaign trail enthusiastically fulfilling his mandate of being a junior Donald Trump. Vance has always been hard on the mainstream press and is well known as both a straight shooter and a politician not interested in diplomacy.

Kamala Harris has been unsurprisingly silent since she finally managed to metaphorically push Grandpa Joe’s wheelchair off the cliff. She is not ready for prime time, never has been, and listening to her talk for more than 30 seconds (even with the extensive media training she’s clearly received recently) is a challenge, to be kind about it. The media, having let out their collective breath about Biden’s future, is more than happy to oblige. They just want to get their girl over the finish line, and media interviews are not helpful in that respect. They know they need to keep her as blank-slate as possible so low-information voters can project all their hopes and desires onto her. When she opens her mouth it often has the effect of someone throwing a wet blanket over your space heater in the middle of January - it’s smoky and stinky and kills your warm buzz.

So Vance, who is basically an avatar for how average Americans view the mainstream media, decided to help out the press that seems to be struggling mightily with figuring out how to interview the very influential politicians they travel with.

On Wednesday Vance’s jet had the good fortune of landing on the same Wisconsin tarmac around the same time as Vice President Kamala Harris. Thinking quickly, Vance decided to take advantage of the situation and have a little fun. He strolled over to the VP’s plane as it idled, telling reporters he thought he’d ask her some questions himself since the press didn’t seem very interested in hearing from her, chiding that he wanted to get a look at the plane that would “hopefully be my plane in a few months.” He also took a shot at the press for not even pretending to do their jobs.

It was a hastily planned surgical strike, one that served its purpose. It got Vance some free press and it was yet another opportunity to shame the mainstream press corp for the sycophantic laziness.

The “conservative contrarian” class - those are what I call conservative talking heads who spend a lot of time posting in opposition to those other “low-class” conservatives; that’s how you know they’re the good conservatives - scolded Vance, calling it a petty move.

But I’m old enough to remember another prickly press poker who did something similar over a decade ago and changed the course of American politics forever. One could even say he directly inspired Vance’s little parlor trick on Wednesday.

I’m talking about, of course, Andrew Breitbart, the father of conservative online media. He’s the reason I do what I do and chances are anyone you love in this business who is over the age of 35 was directly influenced by him and would say so gladly.

Breitbart gave us the Big sites - Big Government, Big Hollywood, etc. - that we now know simply as Breitbart News. But before there was Breitbart News, there was just Breitbart, a one-man media wrecking ball who famously declared war on the malicious mainstream press for what they’ve done to American political discourse.

You see, over a decade ago, Clinton acolyte Anthony Weiner was at the starting line to begin a planned, meteoric rise to political power. Weiner, a New York congressman, was becoming a very popular “man-of-the-people” Democrat broker. He had his eyes on the mayor’s office of New York City and he was married to the right-hand-woman of the most powerful couple in the America (maybe the world). The press loved him, the urban public adored him, but Breitbart knew the Congressman was not what he was portraying to the public. He also knew the media was giving Weiner a free pass because the media, by that point, had been completely captured by progressive ideology.

When it was discovered Weiner had sent salacious, sexually aggressive and inappropriate text messages to young women, one of whom would turn out to be a minor, Breitbart wasted no time in seizing the opportunity.

He had been talking about Weiner’s nasty skeletons for months. Instead of digging into the Congressman’s record, the mainstream press launched a brutal digital assault on Breitbart, comparing him to a domestic terrorist. There was no way he was going to let this opportunity for schadenfreude to slip through his fingers.

The press, unable to hide from the enormity of this particular story, gathered at an impromptu gaggle called by Weiner’s office. He would finally speak, they would finally have to cover him. Breitbart grabbed his work and ran over to the presser. He would insist on being heard and doing the job the mainstream media just wouldn’t do, and he would do it with proof in hand.

But Weiner was late, and as the press corp continued to wait anxiously, Breitbart decided to take matters into his own hands. If Weiner wouldn’t show up for the press, he’d do it for him.

Andrew Breitbart hijacked the Antony Weiner press conference and it was glorious. He used his time and a captive press to show his evidence, talk about his website’s investigations of the Congressman and just cause a general panic among the media stenographers. They had nowhere to go. They would be forced to see the truth with their cameras rolling.

Breitbart friend and former editor Larry O’Connor tells the whole story on his podcast and wrote an article commemorating the moment at Townhall. It’s worth the read for the fun inside baseball.

Watch Breitbart’s hijacking attempt here.

That was the moment the huge container ship that is American media began to turn. It’s still making the turn. It’s a huge complex, it will take a long time to change course, but this is the moment the engines reversed. This is the moment both average Americans and professional talking heads realized they didn’t have to just accept whatever garbage the press was feeding them. They didn’t have to be polite and they didn’t have to pretend they believed the lies.

This is when the right started to get salty.

When I saw Vance sidle up to Kamala’s jet, the first thing I thought about was Andrew Breitbart and this moment at the Weiner press conference. I thought, “Wow! How very Breitbartian of him.”

I know this type of forwardness makes some conservatives nervous, but Andrew Breitbart was right…this is war and war is ugly. The press and their allies in the Democrat party have clearly chosen their campaign strategy and it’s not much different from 2020 - Basement Dwellers Unite! The press is not going to pursue the Democrat candidates, so Vance and Trump must do it themselves.

Vance saw an opportunity to create some press and force the media to cover the issue of Kamala’s vanishing campaign. He made a decision in the moment, took a risk and I believe the reward was worth it. That’s the kind of guy I want in the White House.

To echo Vance’s sentiments - I surely do hope that’s his plane one day.

Those of us who knew and were inspired by Andrew Breitbart often wonder what he would be thinking and doing in the insane news cycle of today. Whatever he would have done, we can be sure he would have been tickled by Vance’s ode to the moment the media wars began in earnest.

We miss you, Andrew. Here’s hoping your legacy of happy warriors can pull out a victory this November. Thanks for the great memories.