President Donald Trump named Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) Monday as his running mate, emphasizing that as "Vice President, J.D. will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN."

Vance noted in response, "What an honor it is to run alongside President Donald J. Trump. He delivered peace and prosperity once, and with your help, he'll do it again. Onward to victory!"

Tucker Carlson, who joined Trump and Vance at the Republican National Convention following the announcement, made clear earlier in the day precisely why Vance was the right pick.

Addressing a crowd Monday at the Heritage Foundation's Policy Fest, Carlson prefaced with a condemnation of the political class and the type of people he regards as its predominant constituents.

"I spent the whole day dealing with politics — this day, starting at 5 a.m. — and I ... forgot how repulsive a process it is, and how feline and ruthless the players are. It was a reminder why I don't like politicians," said Carlson, who later suggested that "deception is at the core, actually, of who they are."

'Every bad person I've ever met in a lifetime in Washington was aligned against JD Vance.'

Carlson suggested that whereas those he regularly speaks to on both sides of the spectrum are invested in their causes and mean what they say, politicians alternatively tend to be opportunists who traffic in empty rhetoric in pursuit of power. According to Carlson, the efforts by various personalities to lock down one job in particular — that of Trump's running mate — helped illustrate this point.

"There's this job. One person makes the decision, and whoever gets the job immediately has a lot of power. And it really is like waving a flank steak over an alligator," said Carlson.

While disgusted by the process and some of the prospects vying for the steak in question, Carlson intimated that Vance stood apart from the others.

"Now JD Vance is the VP pick, and I think every person who pays close attention has gotta be thrilled by that," continued Carlson. "And if you don't know much about JD Vance, I'm not even going to make a case for JD Vance. I'm going to tell you what I just saw, which is that every bad person I've ever met in a lifetime in Washington was aligned against JD Vance."

While various deep-pocketed Republican donors were actively demeaning the Appalachian populist, Rupert Murdoch reportedly launched a massive lobbying campaign to dissuade Trump from picking Vance. A source in the Trump camp apparently told NOTUS that Murdoch had been calling Trump multiple times a day to instead choose North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for his running mate — the would-be VP pick Republican strategist Karl Rove also tried to boost over Vance.

Murdoch's personal campaign against Vance spread to two of his publications, namely the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, which both ran multiple editorials hammering Vance.

As the desperation grew and the choice neared, the campaign against Vance among establishmentarians became increasingly desperate and aggressive.

Blaze News previously reported that former Obama adviser and Democratic strategist David Axelrod said Vance should be disqualified for suggesting that Biden's inflammatory rhetoric set the stage for the attempted assassination on Trump.

Vance wrote shortly after Trump was nearly murdered by a would-be assassin, "The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

Axelrod wrote, "If @JDVance1 is on the short list for VP, this Tweet, sent an hour after the assassination attempt in PA, ought to disqualify him in the eyes of the Trump campaign. Wrong vibe in that moment."

"Trump probably doesn't want a shoot-from-the-hip VP," added Axelrod.

Adam Kinzinger, a former member of the House Jan. 6 committee, joined the Democratic strategist in suggesting Vance's remark was disqualifying.

Failed Republican presidential candidate Joe Walsh responded to Vance on X, writing, "What a sick, disgusting tweet. Donald Trump IS an authoritarian fascist. The Biden campaign is correct to say that. And to connect the millions of Americans who believe that to this shooting is utterly irresponsible. You’ll make a perfect Trump VP. Shame on you."

Trump's decision to ignore such statements and to ultimately pick Vance enraged Bill Kristol and his fellow travelers.

"Having turned the Republican Party into the Trump Party, [Trump is] now turning a Trumpist party into a Trumpist movement. Indeed, the selection of Vance marks the completion of the transformation of a conservative political party into an authoritarian movement," wrote Kristol. "Vance has been more consistently and fervently America First in foreign policy than Trump. He's more committed to ethno-nationalism and anti-'elite' populism than Trump. He's been more committed to destroying any non-political civil service than Trump. He's more contemptuous of the norms, institutions, and mores of liberal democracy than Trump."

Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney also melted down over Vance's selection, writing, "JD Vance has pledged he would do what Mike Pence wouldn't — overturn an election and illegally seize power. He says the president can ignore the rulings of our courts. He would capitulate to Russia and sacrifice the freedom of our allies in Ukraine. The Trump GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln, Reagan or the Constitution."

Carlson emphasized that the nature and disposition of Vance's detractors spoke volumes about the former Marine.

'They thought he would be harder to manipulate and slightly less enthusiastic about killing people.'

"It's not like I think ... God's always on my side. Sometimes I'm not on God's side," said Carlson. "But I definitely know who's representing the other side."

"It's a lot easier to tell who the people who are only in it because they like, I don't know, killing other people in pointless wars," continued Carlson. "I know who those people are, and their odor is so powerful that I can smell one when he walks in the room. And every single one of those people, in a line that would extend from Milwaukee to Chicago, was lined up last week to knife JD Vance."

According to Carlson, this enmity toward Vance was not because of who he is as a person, noting he is a nice guy and one of the few in Washington with a happy marriage. Instead, the attacks were launched because "they thought he would be harder to manipulate and slightly less enthusiastic about killing people. That's it — that he would be an impediment to their exercising power and, boy, they went after him in a way I've just kind of never seen."

Carlson went on to note that the attacks on Vance and the assassination attempt on Saturday have underscored for him that the battles underway are not simply political but spiritual.

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