Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear calls Vance 'phony' as he reportedly makes Kamala Harris' VP shortlist

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear formally endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Monday, confirming on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he spoke with Harris over the phone as he's reportedly on a short list of potential running mates.

"The vice president reached out to me yesterday, just a couple of hours after the president put out the news," Beshear said.

Beshear said Harris asked for his endorsement, to which he agreed and said he would do everything he could to help her get elected if she gets the nomination.

"As a prosecutor, as an attorney general like I used to be, she prosecuted rapists, domestic abusers, stood for victims and put away those abusers," he said. "Now look at the other side, where JD Vance calls pregnancy arising from rape inconvenient — no, it's just plain wrong. I believe that the vice president will win this election, she will move us in that direction, and that's why I'm very excited to provide my full endorsement to her."

Beshear continued to call out Vance on "Morning Joe" and during interviews with CNN and the Associated Press.

"Senator Vance tries to portray himself from Kentucky, I said it earlier, he ain't from here. He claims that eastern Kentuckians are lazy, and that is offensive to me and certainly has to be offensive to those in eastern Kentucky," Beshear said. "These are the proud coal miners who powered this country into the Industrial Revolution, created the strongest middle class the world has ever seen, powered us through two world wars.

"They should be celebrated and thanked and not attacked and looked down upon, and you don't just get to come to eastern Kentucky a couple times in the summer and then maybe for weddings and a funeral and cast judgment on us. It's offensive."

Beshear was referencing a passage in Vance's book "Hillbilly Elegy," where he talks about his time spent in the hills of eastern Kentucky when he was younger. Vance's memoir details the social isolation, poverty and addiction that afflict poor white communities. However, Vance has received criticism for describing some in Appalachia, by writing, "You can walk through a town where 30 percent of the young men work fewer than twenty hours a week and find not a single person aware of his own laziness."

During a Sept. 13, 2016 interview with CSPAN, Vance defended his memoir and that passage by saying in part, "The juxtaposition is really tough, right, because you see these people who are working really hard and trying to get ahead and on the other hand you see the people who aren't working hard, who aren't trying to get ahead. And both of those people exist and if you live in a community like mine, you can't really miss them. You see both sides of that coin."

Beshear said someone who looks down on the people in his own community "should not be vice president."

"This guy who visits every now and then is going to call us lazy, that's offensive to me, and it's my job to stand up to fellow Kentuckians," he said.

He also called Vance "a phony" and "fake."

"JD Vance is a phony, he's fake," Beshear said during an appearance on CNN. "I mean, he first says that Donald Trump is like Hitler, and now he's acting like he's Lincoln. The problem with JD Vance is he has no conviction, but I guess his running mate has 34."

Some political analysts like Stephen Voss from the University of Kentucky see these responses as Beshear's audition.

"Once Beshear started a national PAC, he basically sent the signal that he was looking for a different job," Voss said. "It's clear Andy Beshear was nurturing some level of ambition to keep moving up the political career ladder, the VP slot, the running mate slot on the Democratic ticket is in some ways a better fit for Andy Beshear, as a small governor than the other names being batted around."

Beshear started the federal Political Action Committee "In This Together" on Jan. 7, 2024. The PAC is focused on electing Democrats in swing states and GOP strongholds.

He now joins a reported shortlist of candidates who could be Harris' running mate this November. They include Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Arizona U.S. Senator Mark Kelly.

RELATED | Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on shortlist for Democratic VP nominee

All four candidates endorsed Harris within the last 24 hours and three of them represent battleground states. Beshear won elections in 2019 and 2023 in a Republican stronghold with supermajorities in both chambers of state government.

"As a VP pick, would have to carry the ticket's message to areas where perhaps the party doesn't always win, Beshear has shown he's affected that delivering a Democratic message on Republican turf," Voss said. "Clearly Beshear would give good balance to a Harris-led presidential ticket, but so would the other names being batted around."

Beshear is term limited to 2027 where he's said before he intends to finish out his term. However, on Monday, he indicated he's open to the possibility of being Harris' running mate.

"Let me first say I love my job, I love serving the people of Kentucky, the only way I would consider something other than this current job is if I could further help my people and to help this country," said Beshear.