Tag: Brennan

The following is the full transcript of an interview with Vice President JD Vance on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Jan. 26, 2025.

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MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Vice President, if you’re ready, we’ll dive right in.

VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Ready to go.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, both defense secretaries from President Trump’s last term were confirmed overwhelmingly, 90 percent of the vote. Pete Hegseth, it was a tie, bipartisan opposition, smallest margin since the job was created. You had to break that tie. If the nominee can’t unite your party, how is he going to lead three million people?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Well, look, I think Pete is a disrupter, and a lot of people don’t like that disruption, but Margaret that disruption is incredibly necessary. If you think about all of those bipartisan, massive votes, we have to ask ourselves, what did they get us? They got us a country where we fought many wars over the last 40 years, but haven’t won a war about as long as I’ve been alive. They’ve got us a military with a major recruitment crisis, a procurement price crisis that’s totally dysfunctional, where we buy airplanes for billions and billions of dollars, terrible cost overruns, the delivery dates are always delayed. So we need a big change. Now, admittedly, there are people who don’t like that big change, but it is necessary, and it’s explicitly what Donald J. Trump ran on and I think part of the reason why the American people elected him their 47th president. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, the main objective is changing all of that? That it’s going to be Pete Hegseth alone?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: I’d say the main problem is- or excuse me, the main thing that we want Pete Hegseth to do is to fix the problems at the Department of Defense and unfortunately, there are many. We’ve gotten into way too many wars that we don’t have a plan for winning. We’ve gotten into way too many misadventures that we shouldn’t have got into in the very first place, and our procurement process, Margaret, is incredibly broken. We’re in an era–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Those are policy decisions.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –Well, of course, they’re policy decisions, but they’re also logistical and implementation decisions. If you look at where we are with the rise of artificial intelligence, with the rise of drone technology and drone warfare, we have to really, top to bottom, change the way that we fund the procurement of weapons, the way that we arm our troops. This is a major period of disruption, and we think Pete Hegseth is the guy to lead the job. Now there’s another element to this Margaret too, which is we believe that military morale, at least until the election of President Trump, was historically low. You had the Army missing recruitment goals by tens of thousands of soldiers, and already recruitment is starting to pick up because Pete Hegseth is fundamentally a war fighter’s leader at the Department of Defense. He is a guy who sees, not through the perspective of the generals or the bureaucrats, he looks at things through the perspective of the men and women that we send off to fight in our wars.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me ask you about other nominees. Both the Wall Street Journal and the National Review, conservative publications, as you know, have been critical of Tulsi Gabbard. The Review called her “an atrocious nominee who deserves to be defeated.” They compared her defense of Edward Snowden, the fugitive to- who stole U.S. secrets, to an attorney general who thinks the mob gets a bad rap. Her refusal to accept U.S. intelligence findings that Assad gassed his own people, they said was “like a nominee for OMB Director not being able to count.” Does any of this give you pause putting her in charge of the U.S. intelligence community? Yes or no?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: No, Margaret look, these are publications that attacked Donald J. Trump obsessively, but those publications don’t determine who the president is, the American people do– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –And ultimately supported him.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –and Donald J. Trump is the person who determines who his cabinet is, not these publications that I think, frankly, have lost relevance. Here’s– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: The Senate will–

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Here’s Tulsi Gabbard’s–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –ultimately decide. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Well, the Senate will provide advice and consent, as is its constitutional obligation, but I feel confident that Tulsi Gabbard will ultimately get through. Two things that are important to know about Tulsi. First of all, she is a career military servant who’s had a classification at the highest levels for nearly two decades. She has impeccable character, impeccable record of service, and she also is a person who I think is going to bring some trust back to the intelligence services. The bureaucrats at our intelligence services have gotten completely out of control. They’ve been part of the weaponization of our political system, the weaponization of our justice system. We need to have good intelligence services who keep us safe, but part of that is restoring trust in those services, and we think Tulsi is the right person to do it. That’s why the president– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: She doesn’t trust those intelligence services.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: She recognizes the bureaucrats have gotten out of control, and we need somebody there who’s going to rein them in and return those services to their core mission of identifying information that’s going to keep us safe.

MARGARET BRENNAN: A lot has happened in the past week. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Yes, it has. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You campaigned on lowering prices for consumers. We’ve seen all of these executive orders. Which one lowers prices?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Well, first of all, we have done a lot, and there have been a number of executive orders that have caused, already, jobs to start coming back into our country, which is a core part of lowering prices. More capital investment, more job creation in our economy, is one of the things that’s going to drive down prices for all consumers, but also raise wages so that people can afford to buy the things that they need. If you look at our slate of executive orders–

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, grocery prices aren’t going to come down?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: No, Margaret, prices are going to come down, but it’s going to take a little bit of time, right? The president has been president for all of five days. I think that in those five days, he’s accomplished more than Joe Biden did in four years. It’s been an incredible breakneck pace of activity. We’re going to work with Congress. We’re of course going to have more executive orders, and we’re going to try- the way that you- you lower prices is that you encourage more capital investment into our country, and you asked specifically what executive order is going to help lower prices. All of the stuff that we’ve done on energy, to explore more energy reserves, to develop more energy resources in the United States of America. One of the main drivers of increased prices under the Biden Administration is that we had a massive increase in energy prices. Donald Trump has already taken multiple executive actions that are going to lower energy prices, and I do believe that means consumers are going to see lower prices at the pump and at the grocery store, but it’s going to take a little bit of time. Rome wasn’t built in a day–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE –and while we’ve done a whole lot, we can’t undo all of the damage of Joe Biden’s presidency in four days–  

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, there were a lot of things that contributed to higher energy prices and there was record oil and gas production–  

(CROSSTALK)

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE:  –Yes, Joe Biden did many– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –But the price of eggs– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –many terrible things–   

MARGARET BRENNAN: — the things that people see–

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –to lead to an increase in prices. I agree, Margaret.  

(END CROSSTALK) 

MARGARET BRENNAN: No, but all the things you experience at the grocery store are what people touch and feel. That’s what- you were talking about bacon on the campaign trail. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Of course, of course.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Those things- when do consumers actually get to touch and feel a difference in their lives? 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Well, but Margaret, how does bacon get to the grocery store? It comes on trucks that are fueled by diesel fuel. If the diesel is way too expensive, the bacon is going to become more expensive. How do we grow the bacon? Our farmers need energy to produce it. So if we lower energy prices, we are going to see lower prices for consumers, and that is what we’re trying to fight for.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the flurry of executive orders, most of them weren’t about the economy. Many of them– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Many of them were, though, Margaret. We had- I think we’ve taken over– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –You had a promise of tariffs by February 1. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –We’ve taken over 200 executive actions, some executive orders, other executive actions. Again, this is in less than a week, and a lot of them were focused on the economy, bringing investment into our country and lowering energy prices. We’ve also focused on safety, restoring public safety, ending weaponization of the Department of Justice. We’ve done a lot, and I think the president is to be commended for actually coming in and doing something with this incredible mandate the American people gave him. He’s not sitting in the Oval Office doing nothing. He’s doing the American people’s business, and I think they’re going to see a lot of good effects from it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, a lot of these announcements have yet to take effect. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Sure. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: The president did say he wants to do something with an executive order in relation to federal emergency response. He said he may reform or eliminate FEMA instead of sending emergency responders, he may start to send a percentage of money to states to take care of themselves. But you know, FEMA has specialized expertise that some of these states just don’t have– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Oh, Margaret, I– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –and in their arsenal, and– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –I wish that they–  

MARGARET BRENNAN: — how will states who are- who are lower income states, the Mississippis, the Kentuckys, the Alabamas, be able to do this for themselves without federal help? 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Well, the president, to be clear, is not saying we’re going to leave anybody behind. He’s saying that in- the way that we administer these resources, some of which is coming from the federal level, some of which is coming from the state level, we’ve got to get the bureaucrats out of the way and get the aid to the people who need it most– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –But these are the first responders– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –Let’s be honest, Margaret. You talk about the expertise from FEMA. FEMA in North Carolina, in California, in Florida with some of the hurricanes, has often been a disaster. And it’s not because we don’t have good people at FEMA. It’s because bureaucratic red tape and garbage prevents the rapid deployment of resources to people who need it the most. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: But the states are now going to have to do this themselves? 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: The president is trying to encourage us to reform the way that we deliver emergency response in a way that gets resources to people who need it– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –So don’t take him literally, is what you’re saying?  

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: No- we should take the president at his word that FEMA needs desperate reform, because it does. Margaret, when I went to North Carolina as VP-elect, but before we were sworn in, people would talk about how FEMA would get resources, food, medicine, water, to a warehouse, but then would have no plan to get it from the warehouse to the people in the mountains who were literally starving and thirsting to death. We can do so much better, and under Donald Trump’s leadership, we will.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But they work with the state and local officials.

(CROSSTALK)

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: They often don’t work well enough–  

MARGARET BRENNAN: –So now– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –And again, that’s not because– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –that’s going to be on the state and local officials?– 

(END CROSSTALK)

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –They- no- the FEMA management officials, don’t work well enough with state and local officials to get resources to the people who need it. We should expect- and this is, I think, one of the fundamental premises of President Trump’s leadership. The American people should expect more of their government. When there’s a terrible disaster, they should expect food, medicine and water to get to the people who need it. When there’s a terrible fire in California, the fire hydrants ought to actually turn on. I am sick of the American people having such low expectations for their government. They should demand more of us, because it’s the greatest country in the world, and that’s what Donald Trump’s leadership promises to bring back.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So still count on the federal government, but watch that space. Let me ask you about another area that you campaigned on quite a lot, and there was a flurry of activity on. And that has to do with immigration. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Sure. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week condemned some of the executive orders signed by President Trump, specifically those allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enter churches and to enter schools. Do you personally support the idea of conducting a raid or enforcement action in a church service, at a school?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Well, let me, let me address this. Of course, if you have a person who is convicted of a violent crime, whether they’re an illegal immigrant or a non-illegal immigrant, you have to go and get that person to protect the public safety. That’s not unique to immigration. But let me just address the- this particular issue, Margaret. Because as a practicing Catholic, I was actually heartbroken by that statement. And I think that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line? We’re going to enforce immigration law. We’re going to protect the American people. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Donald Trump promised to do that. And I believe the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, if they’re worried about the humanitarian costs of immigration enforcement, let them talk about the children who have been sex trafficked because of the wide open border of Joe Biden–  

(CROSSTALK)

MARGARET BRENNAN: –So you- you personally support– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Let them talk about–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –them going into–

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –people like Laken Riley–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –schools and churches?   

(END CROSSTALK)

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –who are brutally murdered. I support us doing law enforcement against violent criminals, whether they’re illegal immigrants or anybody else, in a way that keeps us safe. Let me ask this question, Margaret– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: But, but the– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –let’s separate the immigration issue. If you had a violent murderer in a school, of course I want law enforcement– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Of course.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –to go and get that person out. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Of course. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: So then what’s the point of the question?  

MARGARET BRENNAN: You changed the regulation this week, that’s the point of the question. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Exactly, to– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Giving the authority to go into churches– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –Yes, exactly–  

MARGARET BRENNAN: –and go into schools–  

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: We empowered law enforcement to enforce the law everywhere, to protect Americans–  

MARGARET BRENNAN: –But that also has a knock on effect- a chilling effect, arguably, to people to not send their kids to school.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: I- I desperately hope it has a chilling effect– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –In the churches–

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –on illegal immigrants coming into our country. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You think the US Conference of Catholics Bishops is- are actively hiding criminals from law enforcement?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: I think the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has, frankly, not been a good partner in common sense immigration enforcement that the American people voted for, and I hope, again, as a devout Catholic, that they’ll do better.

MARGARET BRENNAN: There are five legal challenges already to one of the other immigration actions, the order on birthright citizenship. A federal judge, appointed by Ronald Reagan, who I think you’d agree, has some conservative credentials–

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –Sure– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –paused the order to end birthright citizenship, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.” How do you reconcile this challenge to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: So, I obviously disagree with that judge and these things- some of them will be litigated. That’s the nature of our constitutional system. But here’s the basic idea of President Trump’s view on this. If you are a lawful permanent resident or a legal immigrant who plans to stay, your children, of course, should become American citizens. But let’s say you’re the child of an ambassador, you don’t become– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –but that’s not part of it. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Well, that’s an important principle–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –there’s already a carveout having to do with kids of diplomats. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: But we’re saying that that carve out should apply to anybody who doesn’t plan to stay here. If you come here on vacation and you have a baby in an American hospital, that baby doesn’t become an American citizen. If you’re an illegal alien and you come here temporarily, hopefully, your child does not become an ille- American citizen by virtue of just having been born on American soil. It’s a very basic principle in American immigration law, that if you want to become an American citizen, and you’ve done it the right way, and the American people in their collective wisdom have welcomed you into our national community, then you become a citizen. But temporary residents, people who come in here, whether legally or illegally, and don’t plan to stay, their children shouldn’t become American citizens. I don’t know any country that does that, or why we would be different.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, this is a country founded by immigrants. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Well, this is a country founded by–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –This is a unique country. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: This is a very unique country, and it was founded by some immigrants and some settlers. But just because we were founded by immigrants, doesn’t mean that 240 years later that we have to have the dumbest immigration policy in the world. No country says that temporary visitors- their children will be given complete access to the benefits and blessings of American citizenship. America should actually look out for the interests of our citizens first, and that means, again, if you’re here permanently and lawfully, your kid becomes an American citizen. If you’re not here permanently, if you’re not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah–

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –and don’t plan to be, why would we make those people’s children American citizens permanently? 

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about refugee admissions, which were just suspended by the president. That has nothing to do with the U.S. border. Refugee screening takes 18 to 24 months to go through. They are heavily vetted. Left literally at the airport this week were thousands of Afghans who- some of whom had worked with the United States government and were promised to come here. When you talked to us in August, you said, “I don’t think we should abandon anybody who’s been properly vetted and helped us.” Do you stand by that?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE:  Well, Margaret, I don’t agree that all these immigrants, or all these refugees, have been properly vetted. In fact, we know that there are cases of people who allegedly were properly vetted and then were literally planning terrorist attacks in our country. That happened during the campaign if you may remember. So clearly, not all of these foreign nationals have been properly vetted–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –no, but there are 30,000 people in the pipeline- Afghan refugees. Do you stand by it–

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –but my primary concern as the vice president, Margaret, is to look after the American people–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –So, no.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: And now that we know that we have vetting problems with a lot of these refugee programs, we absolutely cannot unleash thousands of unvetted people into our country. It’s not good–

MARGARET BRENNAN: These people are vetted. These people are vetted–

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –Just like the guy who planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma a few months ago? He was allegedly properly vetted, and many people in the media and the Democratic Party said that he was properly vetted. Clearly he wasn’t. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah. The–

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: I don’t want my children to share a neighborhood with people who are not properly vetted, and because I don’t want it for my kids, I’m not going to force any other American citizens kids to do that either.

MARGARET BRENNAN: No. And that was a very particular case. It wasn’t clear if he was radicalized when he got here or while he was living here, but– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: I don’t really care, Margaret. I don’t want that person in my country, and I think most Americans agree with me.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Anyway. I need to move on to something, because I know we’re running out of time here. Two weeks ago, you were on Fox News, and you said, “if you protested peacefully on January 6 and had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned. If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.” Did you counsel the president against these blanket pardons for 1,500 people– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Well, Margaret, I noticed that–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –including those who committed violence?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Margaret, I noticed that you cut off the thing that I said immediately after that. The full quote is that, of course, there are gray areas. And here’s the nature of the gray area. Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice denied constitutional protections in the prosecutions. There were double standards in how sentences were applied to the J6 protesters versus other groups. What the president said consistently on the campaign–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Case by case basis.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –is that he was going to look at a case by case basis–

MARGARET BRENNAN: This is blanket.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –and that’s exactly what we did. We looked at 1,600 cases. And the thing that came out of it, Margaret, is that there was a massive denial of due process of liberty, and a lot of people were denied their constitutional rights. The president believes that. I believe that, and I think he made the right decision.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Daniel Rodriguez used an electro sho- shock weapon against a policeman who was dragged out of the defensive line by plunging it into the officer’s neck. He was in prison, sentenced to 12 years, 7 months. He got a pardon. Ronald McAbee hit a cop while wearing reinforced brass knuckle gloves, and he held one down on the ground as other rioters assailed the officer for over 20 seconds, causing a concussion. If you stand with law enforcement, how can you call these people unjustly imprisoned? 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Margaret, you’re separating- there’s an important issue here. There’s what the people actually did on January the 6th, and we’re not saying that everybody did everything perfectly. And then what did Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice do in unjustly prosecuting well over a thousand Americans in a way that was politically motivated–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Is violence like that against a police officer ever justified? 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Violence against a police officer is not justified. But that doesn’t mean that you should have Merrick Garland’s weaponized Department of Justice expose you to incredibly unfair process, to denial of constitutional rights, and frankly, to a double standard that was not applied to many people, including, of course, the Black Lives Ma- Matter rioters who killed over two dozen people and never had the weight of a weaponized Department of Justice come against them. The pardon power is not just for people who are angels or people who are perfect. And of course, we love our law enforcement and want people to be peaceful, with everybody, but especially with our good cops. That’s a separate issue from what Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice did. We rectified a wrong, and I stand by it. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m being told we’re out of time, but I want to quickly ask you–

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Sure, please.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –the richest men in the world were at that Capitol on Inauguration Day. Heads of Amazon, Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. In August you told us Google and Facebook are too big, “we ought to take the Teddy Roosevelt approach. Break ’em up. Don’t let them control what people are allowed to say.” They’ve now donated to the Trump inauguration. Are you still going to break up big tech?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: So, you know who else was at the inauguration was my mom, and a lot of people who just supported the president and fought every single day to get- get his election. And to make it–

(CROSSTALK)

MARGARET BRENNAN: They did $1 million each– 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –and to make it- and to make it possible– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –to the inauguration. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE:  –and there were a lot of people who didn’t give a million dollars to the inauguration who were on that–

MARGARET BRENNAN: They got pretty good seating.

(END CROSSTALK)

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: –who were on that stage, Margaret. They didn’t have as good of seating as my mom and a lot of other people who were there to support us. But look, we believe fundamentally that big tech does have too much power, and there are two ways they can go about this. They can either respect America’s- Americans’ constitutional rights, they can stop engaging in censorship, and if they don’t, you can be absolutely sure that Donald Trump’s leadership is not going to look too kindly on them.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So they’re still on notice. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: They’re very much on notice. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Vice President JD Vance, thank you–

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Thank you, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –for speaking to us after your first week on the job. 

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Good to see you.