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CNN's latest hit piece on JD Vance affords Harris a new talking point — but is undone by buried details
Keen observers have highlighted that buried within CNN's latest hit piece targeting Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) are the seeds of the intended narrative's undoing.
A quad of CNN writers penned a Tuesday piece over 2,200 words long titled "Workers allege 'nightmare' conditions at Kentucky startup JD Vance helped fund."
Their hit piece begins by highlighting Vance's alleged guiding principle for investing in a company: "A business should not only turn a profit, it should also help American communities." The rest of the article is formulated to suggest that Vance's principle(s) failed him when it came to investing in AppHarvest, an agricultural company that proved neither profitable nor helpful.
This carefully constructed and exploitable narrative is, however, undermined by admissions in the CNN article that other publications may seek to gloss over or omit.
For instance, the horror stories regarding working conditions at the company are undercut by officials' sources also cited in the piece. This incongruity alone should kneecap the intended narrative, but even more ruinous to the point CNN is trying to make is its own admission that the business hired migrant workers, faced lawsuits, and collapsed long after Vance had moved on.
The hit piece has, however, already served its purpose, furnishing leftist blogs and mainstream
publications with claims to decontextualize and distort at Vance's expense.
The New Republic, for instance, concluded: "With Vance touting his business record as the Republican vice presidential nominee, AppHarvest is another big strike against him and the campaign."
Kamala Harris rapid response director Ammar Moussa has also seized on the article, personally assigning blame to Vance.
"Wow. This is a devastating deep dive into some of JD Vance's business ventures. Not only did this company go bankrupt, he treated workers horribly, making them work in unbelievable circumstances,"
wrote Moussa.
The Harris campaign has proven itself willing to rewrite
history and news headlines for political gain. Although this Orwellian reflex has diminished the need for abettors in the press, the liberal media appears keen to continue producing ammunition for Democrats' various character assassination attempts on President Donald Trump and his running mate.
CNN's latest offering hints at an attempt to try something new — to attack the Republican candidate's business acumen. After all,
recent accusations of weirdness have largely failed to stick, and, unlike that of Harris' running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D), Vance's military record appears untouchable — although editors at Wikipedia certainly have tried.
The company
In the wake of the success of his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," Vance was reportedly hired by AOL co-founder Steve Chase in 2017 to help his seed fund Rise of the Rest invest in underserved markets. According to CNN, Vance met with Jonathan Webb, the founder of an Appalachian indoor-agriculture company called
AppHarvest.
Webb, who had a big idea — "to build an indoor vertical farming hub growing fruits and vegetables, one that was within a day’s drive of most of the US population, and where water and land were abundant" — was reportedly desperate for liquidity, having maxed out his savings and credit.
Vance cut a check to invest in the company as did a number of other early investors. While supposedly named to the board of directors that year, there are other indications he did not formally join until 2020.
During the time he was involved, Vance reportedly drove millions of dollars in capital to the company while helming his own venture capital firm Narya to ensure the success of the agri-business.
The company, which went on to draw investment from other big names, including
Martha Stewart and former Impossible Foods CFO David Lee, went public in February 2021 and at one time reportedly saw a total valuation of over $1 billion.
Vance left the company's board in April 2021. At the time he
noted on X:
My ability to be useful now that it's a public company is limited, I'm thinking about a political run, and whatever I do politically, I hate the insane reigning political orthodoxy ... so last month, I started talking with other members of the board about stepping down. The basic thinking was: I'm going to keep speaking my mind, and I’d rather do that unconstrained by the demands of a public board. And I thought the company would be better off too.
Despite its
promise, the company subsequently hit turbulence, was slapped with multiple lawsuits, and ultimately went belly up.
When AppHarvest, starting down over $341 million in debt, declared bankruptcy last year, its chief financial officer said in
court documents that the company was effectively tanked "due to lower than expected yield across all crops, higher than expected costs, and tightening of the equity markets and declining stock prices."
The accusations
CNN reduplicated the 2023
efforts of the leftist climate mag Grist in its hit piece, platforming allegations from a handful of former employees about supposedly demanding quotas and intolerable working conditions, mainly tied to issues with heat in the greenhouse.
Anthony Morgan, another former AppHarvest worker, said that conditions and benefits at the 60-acre greenhouse in Morehead, Kentucky, started off nicely, but deteriorated over time. Morgan alleged that the company progressively cut costs along with some benefits, and production quotas were raised, meaning more time in the hot greenhouse.
"It was a nightmare that should have never happened," said Morgan.
Months after Vance was no longer involved in the company, CNN indicated the company began relying upon migrant labor. These migrant workers were allegedly kept out of sight when politicians and other "bigwigs" toured the facilities.
In the wake of AppHarvest's legal difficulties and ultimate collapse, a number of former employees suggested to CNN that Vance and other board members "should have recognized and responded to warning signs that company officials were misleading the public and their own investors."
"Making the decision to go to work at AppHarvest, like many of us made, the livelihood just went right down the drain," Morgan said. "I blame all of the original investors."
Buried revelations
CNN's hit piece contains numerous narrative-killing admissions and statements.
For instance, while Vance reportedly remained invested in the company, CNN acknowledged that he "stepped down from AppHarvest's board and launched his political career in 2021."
CNN also indicated at the end of the article that "Vance was not named in any of the lawsuits" AppHarvest has been met with.
'This is a devastating deep dive into Kamala's desperation.'
Where complaints over intolerable working conditions and benefit cuts are concerned, the article says that state government inspectors visited AppHarvest facilities on at least three occasions but never issued citations. Furthermore, "Inspectors noted that they observed or heard about safety precautions
during their visits, such as mandatory heat breaks and drinks offered to
employees."
A Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet spokesman told CNN that inspections of AppHarvest facilities found no violations of "national guidelines recommended to protect employees from heat-related illnesses, including regular access to fresh drinking water, rest breaks and opportunities to escape high temperatures."
A member of AppHarvest's senior management team told CNN in a forwarded statement:
The allegations made against AppHarvest do not reflect matters discussed at board meetings during JD's tenure — for obvious reasons. AppHarvest implemented robust heat policies when temperatures rose in the summer, months after JD's departure, continued to cover 100% of employees' health insurance premiums until mid-2022, and maintained a workforce dedicated to Appalachia throughout its existence.
Critics have blasted CNN for the article and the Harris campaign for distorting the facts further.
Abigail Jackson, communications director for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.),
responded to Harris rapid response director Ammar Moussa's repost of the article, noting, "JD had nothing to do with it. JD was long gone from the company before any of these awful problems arose and CNN decided to bury that critical piece of info at the bottom of their article."
The MAGA War Room account
tweeted, "Wow. This is a devastating deep dive into Kamala's desperation. Article literally says none of this happened while JD was a part of the company. Fake news!"
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