Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance joins Glenn to discuss the state of the 2024 election: Do the Democrats really believe Americans are dumb enough to fall for their gaslighting about the economy? Why won't Democrats acknowledge the illegal immigration crisis? Why don't we have answers about the Trump assassination attempt after a full month? Sen. Vance demands that Kamala Harris, as Vice President, "empowers her government to do a real investigation, that just has not happened yet." Plus, Vance hints at which Trump administration role he would like to see RFK Jr. in, if he endorses Trump.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: When you -- when you see that they say that they have a bold vision for America, have you heard that vision yet?
J.D.: No, I really haven't, Glenn. Here's the weird thing about all this is, you have the entire Democratic campaign running on a kind of collective amnesia, where they say that Kamala Harris will do this thing on day one, or Kamala Harris has the vision to accomplish that thing. And then you realize, that Kamala Harris has been the vice president for three and a half years. And she has affirmatively made all of these problems worse, not better. From her time in office. Right?
So you can't say Kamala Harris will secure the border, because she opens it up. You can't say Kamala Harris is going to lower inflation because she casts the deciding vote on programs that increased inflation. So I think that this is just not something that the American people buy. And final observation, Glenn. And, again, I haven't seen the whole thing.
But there's a lot of talk about unity. And I remember the old editor's trope of show don't tell. So they're telling a lot about unity. But they're actually -- in the rest of their remarks, they're showing a very dark vision of half the country.
Where they basically say, if you vote for Donald Trump, because you want to change in this country's direction, you're a bad person.
And if you don't see that he's anti-immigrant. And anti-black. And anti-woman. Then you're a bad person.
You can't win an election, telling Americans, that they are bad people, because they want to pay lower costs for groceries and housing.
You win this election by persuading people, and I haven't seen a whole lot of that at the DNC.
GLENN: But I wonder -- I wonder though, with the power of the press in lockstep like they are -- I've never seen anything like this. I mean, for instance, it was the Democrats, that were -- are now saying, that Kamala will fix the economy.
But it's those same Democrats that were telling us, a month ago, that you're a conspiracy theorist. Or you just don't get it. If you think the economy is bad. Because the economy is fine!
So how -- how do you win, ask get your argument heard, when 80 percent of the news is bad! On you. Review and 88 percent on them, is great!
J.D.: You know, I think we just have to keep on telling our story and telling the truth, Glenn. And that's something we do through paid media, commercials, digital advertising, and so forth.
And it's something we do in the mainstream media, even though they're not fair. You know, I did five interviews last night with NBC, ABC, CNN, CBS, and so forth.
And I think that the one thing that really differentiates President Trump and me from our opponents is we're willing to take our message to hostile media. And say, yeah. They will be critical of what we say afterwards, but we're at least able to get the message out there because we're willing to engage.
Glenn, you read through a really important point here. Which is, if you're an American citizen, you paid attention to this election. You will be forgiven for having a headache from the ricocheting message of the Democratic Party.
A month ago, it was the Biden economy was great. Don't believe your lying eyes. Just vote for Joe Biden, and now it's, yes, the economy is terrible.
But Kamala Harris who has been vice president for three and a half years, is going to come in and take the whole thing. It just doesn't make sense.
GLENN: Right. Let me switch to -- I know you'll be in Georgia today. And you will be talking about crime. And the border.
But if you look at every single western country, especially England, Sweden, Germany, France. Every one of them have a problem with what they call refugees. I would call them illegal aliens.
And people are noticing, that they're destroying the culture, the finances. Crime is skyrocketing.
This isn't a Biden/Harris problem alone.
This seems to be happening in every Western country. Is this the result of a -- of a global Deep State?
J.D.: Well, I think it's certainly the result of a very suicidal set of ideas, which suggests that if you want to have any control on immigration in your own country. You are a bad person.
You are a racist, et cetera, et cetera.
And what this has led to, the European nation, that, of course, the United States, being unwilling to control our borders. When at least half of our political leadership just doesn't believe in it. And I think we just have to get back to some basic common sense here.
You don't hate anybody. But you don't necessarily want the entire world to become a part of your country. And you make us believe that a country can assimilate some her.
Some measure of immigration, but that doesn't mean that you can have everybody, right?
It's one thing for the United States to take in a few hundred thousand people. It's another thing to take in 3 million people. And it's another thing to take in 30 million people, which is probably the current best estimate of the number of illegal aliens we have.
It's just preposterous to me, that Democrats don't acknowledge this basic reality.
And, yes. You're right, whether it's in Europe or the United States, it's led to higher crime. It's led to a lot of innocent victims that don't need to have suffered what they've suffered.
And it's led, I think, to really a backlash from our -- against our leaders, and justifiably so.
GLENN: Let me take you to the Secret Service for a second. Yesterday, the New York Post reported, that he was using encrypted messaging.
And he accounts on various platforms, located in Belgium, New Zealand, and Germany.
Are you -- it's been a month.
Are you and -- and President Trump satisfied with the investigation and the way it's going?
And the information, that we have, and haven't gotten?
J.D.: No. Certainly not. And I will say this as somebody who newly has a Secret Service detail. And I think the guys that I have worked with. Are just the consummate professionals. They're great people. And they're doing a great job.
There clearly needs to be some better understanding of what broke about the leadership. And the wake of President Trump's assassination attempt.
This is frankly on Congress.
It's on Chuck Schumer's United States Senate. And it's on the Biden administration to get to the bottom of what mistakes were made. Right? Maybe the mistakes were not intentional. You never know, of course, until you do the actual investigation. But you have to have a real investigation. If I'm looking at this from the perspective of America's citizens, I would be demanding that Kamala Harris, who is the vice president of the United States, actually gets to the bottom of this, and empowers her government to do a real investigation, that just has not happened yet.
GLENN: You know, you would think that they would be -- that every politician would be interested in this, especially if you have Secret Service protection.
If it is just a flawed system and a series of just bad calls and mistakes, your life is at stake.
And you would think, that everyone would be interested, in making sure that, you know, no mistakes were made, again.
J.D.: That's exactly right.
Again, you don't know whether it was a couple of guys that screwed up.
Was it something more systematic? Was it something about the processes or the procedures?
These are the sorts of things, where we always believe in Democratic government, that sunshine is the best disinfectant. And so we really do have to have I think a more honest accounting of what went wrong.
Obviously, some of the leadership has faced some pressure. But that's not really what we're talking about.
We're talking about a real investigation. I know, you know, Ron Johnson, my colleague from Wisconsin, a great friend, has really looked into this aggressively. He's trying to get to the bottom of it, but when you're a minority senator, in a minority party, there's only so much you can do.
Frankly, if Chuck Schumer and Kamala Harris made this a priority, we would know everything we needed to know a month from now.
GLENN: It's interesting to me, that RFK is coming on probably tomorrow, and endorsing. And then you also have Elon Musk, saying that he would like a position, to be, you know, in charge of cutting.
Is there serious discussion about Elon Musk coming?
And are RFK, where do you think he would be best?
J.D.: Yeah. So try not to put the cart too much before the horse with Elon, of course. Because I think he's a genius. And I think he could help us a great deal, but we have to win the election first, of course, before we give Elon any positions or any titles here.
I think RFK really could do a lot for us on questions of -- you know, we had 8,000 veterans, I believe maybe more. That we kicked out of the military. Because they refused to take the vaccine. I would love for RFK to take a look at that. But I haven't talked to him. I don't know what he's interested in. I think the best signal that RFK can send is, look, the Kennedy Democratic Party has transformed into the open borders, high inflation Kamala Harris Democratic Party. And if you're like my grandparents -- I mean, I was raised by blue dog socially conservative Democrats, Glenn. If you're like my grandparents, the Kennedy Democrats are now going for Donald J. Trump and the Republicans. And I think that's a powerful message to send to the American people, that the old Democratic Party was a great thing and a great institution. We didn't have to agree with it all the time, but they were patriotic people. They are no longer welcome in this crazy new thing that Kamala Harris is in charge of.
GLENN: You know, I'm really appreciative that you came out, and said nice things about your particular opponent, who has been really raking you over the coals.
And everything else. And that we had an honest conversation about actual politics, and not nonsense. And I think the American people appreciate that.
J.D.: You know, I appreciate that, Glenn. I appreciate that, Glenn. I've tried to keep this focus on policy. Look, Tim Walz has some problems, clearly. He's lied about his service record. I think his integrity is very much in question here.
So there are certainly things that we -- we should focus on, in his record. Fundamentally, the problem is not Tim Walz. It's Kamala Harris.
And the lack of judgment she selected or she showed, in selecting guy who has been dishonest about his service record.
And I think that we have to keep the pressure on Kamala Harris, because the media has lied about her. We have to correct the record.
GLENN: Well, thank you very much. Stay safe, and stay on the right track. Thank you so much, J.D.
J.D.: Thanks, Glenn, see you.
