Politics
Daily Beast’s JD Vance Hit Piece Gets Shot Down Immediately
Left-leaning news outlet The Daily Beast penned a hit piece about Vice President JD Vance and his meeting with newly installed Pope Leo XIV, claiming that he was both “spurned” and “snubbed” during the encounter. However, as it turns out, this wasn’t the truth.
In fact, according to LibsofTikTok, who shared photographs of Vance and Pope Leo, the two men exchanged handshakes and gifts during the meeting, which can hardly be labeled as being snubbed.
The Daily Beast claims that Pope Leo XIV only gave the vice president a quick handshake in passing, while going on to hold important meetings with other important world leaders. According to their report, this occurred during a 17-second exchange after mass.
“Leo met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Peruvian President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra on Sunday after celebrating his inaugural Mass, which included world leaders from Canada, Italy, Germany, and other European Union officials in the audience,” the report said.
The article then alleges the “snub” came “after the pope subtly criticized Vance and the Trump administration during his sermon, which has expelled and terrorized migrants and laid claim to foreign land and resources, including Greenland.”
“In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalizes the poorest,” Leo stated in his homily on Sunday.
However, another piece from American Magazine stated that Vance had a private audience with Pope Leo on the morning of May 19, which was confirmed via a communique from the Vatican to the press. As the meeting kicked off, Vance handed the pope a letter from President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump that contained an invitation to come to the U.S.
They met in the private library of the Apostolic Palace, where popes normally receive heads of state or government and other distinguished guests. A spokesperson for the vice president told reporters that after the private one-on-one encounter between the pope and the vice president, the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, joined them. They were later joined by their spouses and the larger U.S. delegation.
A photo showed Mr. Vance sitting across the desk from the pope in the private library, with Mr. Rubio at his side. Both Mr. Vance and Mr. Rubio are Catholics. The papal audience came as no surprise; it is a tradition that the pope always receives the president or vice president of his own country in a private audience whenever they request it, as we have seen during the recent pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis.
The report notes that the pope first greeted his vice president and his wife the day before in St. Peter’s Basilica following the Mass for the Inauguration of the Roman Pontiff. It also explains the short greeting by saying, “Some media had reported that encounter as a snub to the vice president because it was brief, but it was in fact just normal protocol as the pope briefly met the members of the official state delegations from 156 countries immediately after the Mass, and this whole procedure took almost 90 minutes.”
The meeting on Monday was longer and much more in-depth, the article said, noting that Vance arrived at the Vatican at 7:56 a.m. for the meeting with the first American-born pope. And since both men speak English, they were alone in the room without any interpreters.
“According to the Associated Press, Mr. Vance gave Pope Leo a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump inviting him to visit the United States. In video footage of the meeting from Vatican Media, the pope can be heard saying “at some point.” Mr. Vance also gave the pope copies of St. Augustine’s The City of God and On Christian Doctrine, according to the vice president’s office,” American Magazine said.
When the meeting drew to a close, Vance surprised the pope, who was born in Chicago, with a Bears football jersey that said, “Pope Leo XIV” on the back.
The whole meeting was 45 minutes long.
