JD Vance struggled to defend the Trump administration’s decisions when reporters asked him basic questions during a series of television appearances. One host was so frustrated with Vance’s word salad that he cut off the interview in the middle of one of the vice president’s sentences.
Vance has appeared on several Sunday morning shows. During an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC This weekthe host asked Vance about Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, who the FBI says accepted a $50,000 bag of cash from an undercover agent as part of a corruption investigation near the end of the Biden administration. Homan allegedly agreed to award government contracts related to immigration in exchange for this money.
“White House border czar Tom Homan was recorded on FBI surveillance tape in September 2024 accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money or did he give it back?” Stephanopoulos asked Vance.
Vance attempted to frame the story as a “ridiculous smear” and framed Homan as a target “because he does the job of enforcing the law.”
Homan has denied the allegations. “Look, I didn’t do anything criminal. I didn’t do anything illegal,” he said in an interview on Fox News, but he did not explicitly deny accepting the money. Trump’s DOJ also concluded that no foul play had occurred, but when Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Attorney General Pam Bondi about what happened to the cash, she refused to answer.
“He was recorded on audio in September 2024, an FBI surveillance tape, accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money?” Stephanopoulos pressed Vance.
“To accept $50,000 to do what, George? Vance said. “I’m not even sure I understand the question. Is it illegal to accept payment for services? The FBI has not prosecuted him. I have never seen any evidence that he is involved in any criminal acts.”
Vance then called the series of questions a “left-wing rabbit hole.” After this comment, Stephanopoulos quickly ended the interview.
“This isn’t some weird left-wing rabbit hole. I didn’t insinuate anything. I asked you if Tom Homan accepted $50,000, as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024, and you didn’t answer the question. Thank you for your time this morning.”
“No, George, I said I don’t –” Vance started to say, but the show was cut off by a commercial break.
Earlier in the interview, Stephanopoulos asked Vance if he agreed with President Donald Trump’s assertion that Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker “should be in jail” for “failing to protect” ICE agents in his state.
“I’ve seen the law. And when you have a group of people where the police are overriding security for ICE officials, I understood that, and I read it today in many newspapers, that it’s illegal,” Trump said.
“President Trump said he should be in jail. Do you think Governor Pritzker committed a crime?” Stephanopoulos asked Vance.
Vance tried to dodge the question by saying Pritzker “certainly failed to keep the people of Illinois safe.” (Meanwhile, violent crime in Chicago in recent months has reached its lowest level in four decades.)
“I asked you if you agreed with President Trump that Governor Pritzker committed a crime,” Stephanopoulos responded. But Vance continued to dodge the question.
“George, you’re going to keep asking that question. I’m going to keep telling you that Governor Pritzker hasn’t done his job,” Vance said. “He should face some consequences. Ultimately, I leave it to the courts to determine whether he violated a crime. But I certainly think he violated his basic oath of office. That seems pretty criminal to me. I would leave it to the judge and jury to decide whether he actually violated the crime.”
On NBC Meet the pressVance was asked about the recent layoffs of more than 1,000 federal employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including those leading the national measles response and workers who would respond to an Ebola outbreak. (Some of those layoffs will be reversed, the administration later announced, attributing the wrongful terminations to a coding error.)
“During the 2019 lockdown, under the first Trump administration, which lasted 35 days, no federal employees were laid off. Why are these layoffs necessary?” » host Kirsten Welker asked the vice president.
“We must furlough some federal employees in the midst of this shutdown to preserve the essential benefits the government provides to the American people,” Vance said.
Except generally during a shutdown, including during the last government shutdown under the first Trump administration, federal employees are furloughed, meaning their work and pay are temporarily halted until the shutdown ends. This is very different from layoffs.
Vance tried to say the layoffs were made “to preserve the essential benefits the government provides to the American people.” But how is this the case? If workers weren’t paid during the shutdown anyway, what immediate savings would layoffs provide?
Vance even tried to blame Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for the erroneous firings, although Schumer has no authority over federal worker layoffs. “The government shutdown inevitably leads to some chaos,” Vance said. “We’re looking at how to take money out of some areas and give it to other areas. This chaos is because Schumer and the far-left Democrats have shut down the government.”
According to a recent Ipsos poll, Americans overwhelmingly – and by a narrow margin – blame Congressional Republicans for the shutdown (67%), followed by Democrats (63%) and Trump (63%).
