GOP veep pick JD Vance on Sunday went head to head with CNN host Jake Tapper over former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and the fact that some former top aides have called him a “fascist.”
“State of the Union’s” Tapper came out of the gate grilling Vance on Trump’s remarks about an “enemy from within” and retired Gen. John Kelly’s suggestion that his onetime boss fits “into the general definition of fascist.”
Vance, 40, in turn belittled Trump turncoats such as Kelly and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as warmongers, which led to Tapper, 55, to drill down on the 45th president’s rhetoric about targeting election officials who cheat.
“You’re taking words out of context,” an exasperated Vance said at one point. “If you’d like to put up a clip and actually put him in context, I think the American people would realize that Donald Trump is a hell of a lot more reasonable than the people like Liz Cheney, who would like to lie us into war.”
“Now, Jake, we also should remember, I mean, step back a little bit. Ask yourself a basic question about network integrity. You guys talked about the Russia hoax nonstop.”
Tapper defended CNN, contending that the “FBI was investigating it, so, we covered them.”
Republicans have long fumed at coverage of allegations about Trump’s purported ties to Russia and accused the media of overplaying the issue and feeding public misconceptions.
“You took the words of unnamed FBI agents and put them on your network as if they were the gospel truth. You did it again and again,” Vance shot back.
“A viewer of your network would’ve believed that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin conspired in 2016. Now that was totally and preposterously false,” the veep hopeful said.
Tapper insisted that Vance’s characterization of the network’s coverage was “false” and reiterated his assertion that the cable news company was merely covering an FBI probe.
But Vance said, “You covered it in a way that gave credence to anonymous sources [and] accusations. You did it yourself. Your network did it, Jake.”
The pair then got back to their testy exchange about Trump’s rhetoric and the handful of former officials in his administration who have warned the public about him.
Kelly, who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff between 2017 and 2019, had told The New York Times that Trump “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”
The top former Trump aide also claimed to the Atlantic that Trump conveyed admiration for the loyalty that Adolf Hitler’s generals showed to him. Trump has denied that.
Kelly’s remarks also come after Trump’s nominated former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, described him as a “fascist to the core,” according to Watergate sleuth Bob Woodward’s recent book, “War.”
Vance ripped into Kelly, accusing him of harboring a “world view that’s so oppositional to peace.”
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Tapper responded, “So all those 10 people, including the former Vice President Mike Pence, all of these people are — have this horribly damaged worldview, and they’re all just going after Donald Trump because they want to send people into war?”
“That’s really your argument?” Tapper added in indignation.
“Absolutely,” Vance insisted. “All of the people, Jake, they came into office thinking that they could control Donald Trump, that when he said he wanted peace in the world.”
Trump, 78, has expressed regrets over some of his staffing selections, telling podcast king Joe Rogan that the biggest mistake I made” was “I picked some people that I shouldn’t have picked.”
The 45th president described some of his picks as “neocons, or bad people, or disloyal people.” During that same interview, he praised several hawkish Republicans in his orbit such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has shown fealty to him.
After Vance’s combative interview with CNN, the network put on Cheney to rebut him. CBS’ “Face the Nation” similarly aired an interview with Vance on Sunday followed by one with Cheney.
“What we just watched is what it looks like when someone has gotta go through unbelievable contortions to try to find a way to defend the person that JD Vance himself called America’s Hitler,” Cheney said, alluding to Vance’s description of Trump as “America’s Hitler” during the 2016 campaign cycle.
Vance has since attributed that past attack on his running mate to a warped understanding of Trump at the time that was skewed by the media.
The GOP vice presidential nominee also underscored during the interview with Tapper that he intends to be a veep for all Americans, not just conservatives.
“Of course, I’m running to be the vice president of all Americans. I’m running because I want people to be able to afford a good life in this country,” he said.
