Republican nominee JD Vance went toe-to-toe with CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Sunday over former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and the fact that some former top aides have called him a “fascist.”
State of the Union tapper came out of the gate blasting Vance over Trump’s comments about an “enemy from within” and retired general John Kelly’s suggestion that his former boss fits “the broad definition of a fascist “.
Vance, 40, in turn disparaged Trump’s outfits as Kelly and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as warmongers, prompting Tapper, 55, to play down the 45th president’s rhetoric about targeting of election officials who cheat.
“You’re taking words out of context,” an exasperated Vance said at one point. “If you want to put a clip and put it in context, I think the American people would understand that Donald Trump is a hell of a lot more reasonable than people like Liz Cheney, who would like to lie to us. war.”
“Now, Jake, we also have to remember to, I mean, back off a little bit. Ask yourself a basic question about network integrity. You guys talked about Russia cheating over and over.”
Tapper defended CNN, claiming that “the FBI was investigating it, so we covered for them.”
Republicans have long been angered by the coverage of Trump’s alleged ties to Russia and have accused the media of overstating the issue and fueling public misunderstandings.
“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 replied.
“A viewer of your network would have believed that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin conspired in 2016. Now that was completely and absurdly false,” the veep hopeful said.
Tapper insisted that Vance’s characterization of the network’s coverage was “false” and repeated his assertion that the cable news company was simply covering an FBI investigation.
But Vance said: “You covered it in a way that gave credence to anonymous sources [and] the charges. You did it yourself. Your network did it, Jake.”
The pair then returned to their testy exchange about Trump’s rhetoric and some former officials in his administration who have warned the public about it.
Kelly, who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff between 2017 and 2019, told The New York Times that Trump “certainly prefers the dictator’s approach to government.”
Trump’s former top aide also claimed to The Atlantic that Trump conveyed admiration for the loyalty that Adolf Hitler’s generals showed him. Trump has denied this.
Kelly’s remarks also come after former Trump-appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, described him as a “fascist to the core,” according to Bob Woodward’s recent book, The War on Watergate .
Vance attacked Kelly, accusing her of having a “worldview that is so anti-peace.”
Tapper responded, “So all those 10 people, including former Vice President Mike Pence, all these people are — they’ve done terrible damage to this worldview, and they’re all just going after Donald Trump because they want to send people to war?”
“Is that really your argument?” Tapper added indignantly.
“Absolutely,” Vance insisted. “All the people, Jake, they came into office thinking they could control Donald Trump, when he said he wanted world peace.”
Trump, 78, has expressed regret about some of his staff selections, telling podcast king Joe Rogan that the biggest mistake I made was “I picked some people I shouldn’t have picked.”
The 45th president described some of his choices as “neocons, or bad people, or treacherous people.” During the same interview, he praised some hardline Republicans in his orbit, such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who have shown loyalty to him.
After Vance’s combative interview with CNN, the network tapped Cheney to contradict him. CBS’ “Face the Nation” similarly aired an interview with Vance on Sunday followed by one with Cheney.
“What we just looked at is what it looks like when someone has to go through incredible contortions to try to find a way to protect 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 candidate to a warped understanding of Trump at the time, which was distorted by the media.
The GOP vice president also emphasized during the interview with Tapper that he aims to be a work for all Americans, not just conservatives.
“Of course, I will run to be 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.
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