This may come as a great shock, but J D Vance wants to be president. He really, really wants to be president. He really really really really really wants to be president. He wants to be president so badly that he’d drag his utensils over a field of broken glass and have tea with a whole army of transgender athletes, “woke” professors and childless cat ladies if it would get him into the captain’s chair. And according to polls and prediction markets at this point, he’s actually favored to succeed.

If that happens, it will be largely because of the media giving him a pass as they did with his predecessor. When the latter announced his candidacy for president, the media decided it would be really cute to humor him, to treat him like a serious person and a real candidate. And once he actually got into office, the media launched into a new pastime of sanewashing every loony non sequitur he uttered — and they’ve been at it ever since. If they want to prevent the same kind of travesty with J D, there are some actual questions they can and should ask him, as soon as possible. Here are just a few representative examples.

1. Your boss has declared that Representative Ilhan Omar should resign because she supposedly was born with a different name. What is your position on that, James Donald Bowman? How do you suppose Sen. Raphael Cruz would feel about it? Or former president Leslie King?

2. Concerning the civil unrest in France, you commented: “Western liberals imported the third world into France and other countries in the name of diversity and compassion. They ignored fundamental questions of assimilation and compatibility.” What evidence do you have that immigration policies are to blame? What problem do you have exactly with diversity and compassion? Are you of the opinion that “third world” cultures are incompatible with western cultures? How does your wife feel about this?

3. You have asserted that because of immigration, the U.S. has become “dirtier and poorer and less safe and less prosperous”. What figures can you cite to support those allegations?

4. On the campaign trail, you deliberately spread a vicious and dopey lie about immigrants — and you later acknowledged that you had lied, so that “American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people”. What suffering exactly do you believe immigrants have afflicted upon Americans? What concerns do you have about the suffering that Americans have inflicted upon immigrants? What else have you been committed to lying about, and why?

5. You have stated that “the reason why housing exploded in the United States of America is in part because we allowed 20 million illegal aliens into our country to buy homes that ought, by right, go to American citizens,” Yet you’ve also acknowledged that these “illegals” are in fact very “low wage” workers. How then did these desperate and destitute refugees manage to buy so many homes when nobody else can?

6. You have expressed admiration for the late Charlie Kirk. How do you feel about his declarations that he would be automatically distrustful of a black pilot, and that black females don’t have sufficient “brain processing power” to succeed without taking a “white person’s slot”?

7. Addressing a crowd of Charlie’s disciples, you said, “If you miss Charlie Kirk, do you promise to fight what he died for? Do you promise to take the country back from the people who took his life?” What exactly do you believe he “died for”? Why do you think so? Do you have information indicating that “people” other than the gunman were responsible for his death? Since the GOP is in total control of the government, were you suggesting that they were behind the assassination — and that they should be voted out of power?

8. You have acknowledged being influenced by, and being friends with,alt-right influencer Curtis Yarvin, who has repeatedly praised Hitler. How do his values, and those of Hitler, fit into your ideology and agenda?

9. In a relatively short political career, you have made nearly 200 appearances on Fox “News”, the only network ever to pay three quarters of a billion dollars for deliberately spreading disinformation. What are your reasons for gravitating toward this outlet?

10. You were a guest of honor at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a melting pot of white nationalists, fringe conspiracy theorists, election deniers, anti-science ideologues, toxic propagandists, and assorted crackpots. How do you justify your association with this organization? How can you expect people to take you seriously if you take CPAC seriously?

11. In your interview at that conference, you smeared former president Biden no fewer than ten times. This is entirely in line with literally all other political figures of the far right, who use their positions of power to attack Biden at every opportunity — and create an opportunity if there isn’t one. It’s painfully obvious that this is all at the behest of your boss, owing to his grudge against Biden for defeating him. This isn’t really a question. It’s just to let you know that we aren’t stupid.

12. One thing you said was that “the Biden administration did more to destroy free speech, not just in the United States, but also in Europe, than any administration in American history.” On what basis do you make that claim? Can you name even one thing the Biden administration did to “destroy free speech”?

13. You have stated that “if you look at the political violence in our country over the last couple of months, last couple of years, it is not a ‘both sides’ problem. It is primarily on one side of the political aisle.” Will you acknowledge the indisputable documentation that the “one side of the political aisle” is the same side that you’re on?

14. You have also said, “You don’t have shared values [with another nation] if you cancel elections because you don’t like the result, and that happened in Romania.” How familiar are you with the concept of irony?

15. In the past you characterized your future boss as “an idiot” and possibly “America’s Hitler”. Then when you were handed an opportunity to walk in his shadow, you did a total about-face, and have been lavishly praising him since then. When questioned about this, you simply said that “I was wrong” about him. It’s true that either you were abysmally wrong then, or are abysmally wrong now. Either way, you have misjudged his character by the greatest possible degree. Accordingly, how can you expect anyone to trust your judgment?

16. You have echoed your boss’s frequent assertion that he has been treated unfairly by the media. What study can you cite that corroborates this claim?

17. You attained your position because Mike Pence fell out of your boss’s favor when he refused to go along with the plot to overturn an election. How would you act in a similar situation?

18. Last, but certainly not least: putting aside all dissembling, spinning, evasion, and bullshitting, who won the 2020 presidential election?

Okay, so most of these questions are really more than one question. Even with the one that’s not really a question, there are really as many as 30 of them listed here. But let’s not scare the media away by suggesting a number that’s too dauntingly high. Let’s just challenge them to ask him something, anything, that’s not a softball.