Sen. JD Vance Warns Against Underestimating Biden

CLAY: We are joined now by the final guest for the week. He is JD Vance, recently elected senator from Ohio. And Senator, first of all, thanks for making the time for us. I want to start right here. I was just talking about Joe Biden saying — and this is a direct quote from him — “Anyway, not a major breach,” when directly asked about the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the entire United States. Doesn’t it seem like that’s kind of a major breach to you, and if it’s not, what in the world would Biden consider to be a major breach?

SEN. VANCE: Well, it is a major breach, and I actually attended classified briefings yesterday. So I’ll be a little bit careful about what we learned and what we didn’t learn or what we still don’t know. But I will say, having sat through that brief, I came away with two thoughts. One, it confirmed my view that we should have shot this thing down the moment it entered North American airspace — which, remember that it started out Alaska. We were aware of that on January the 28th. It went through a major chunk of Canada — completely unoccupied, uninhabited territory, maybe sparsely populated parts of Canada — where we could have easily shot this thing down and we should have.

The second thing is, it was a major breach. In fact, we don’t fully know what the Chinese learned from it, but we know that the balloon had intelligence-gathering capabilities. We know they learned a lot about some important American military installations. And we know that we actually aren’t fully aware of exactly what they learned. And that’s a big problem, right? You don’t want a foreign balloon of America’s biggest adversary floating overhead for days without being fully aware of what they’re gathering. So it was a major problem that should have been shot down. I think Joe Biden is being really, really careless when he tries to downplay this. He should level with the American people. I would actually respect Biden more if he came out and said, “Look, this was a mistake. We should have shot it down earlier, and it’s a big problem, and it suggests a major escalation from the Chinese.”

CLAY: You just got elected from Ohio and you wrote a fabulous book, Hillbilly Elegy. I bet you saw James Carville go on MSNBC and call Marjorie Taylor Greene “white trash.” You guys are around the… We’re around the same age, you and me. I’m from Tennessee. You grew up in Kentucky, in Ohio, in that area. You know that that is among the most pejorative terms out there that you can toss on someone. He also said she dressed like white trash. When you look at Democrats basically becoming the party of the woke, white college educated, I’m curious how you would respond to that, because Carville helped to get Bill Clinton elected in ‘92 and ‘96. He’s a Louisiana guy. I’m stunned that he would go on… You can have lots of issues with people, variety of backgrounds, but to call her white trash, it just felt like such a window into what Democrats have become and even that Carville himself has become that.

SEN. VANCE: Yeah. I have a few thoughts about this play, and I could probably talk about this for longer than you have time. But first of all, James Carville calling somebody white trash? I mean, isn’t that the ultimate pot-calling-the-kettle-black moment?

CLAY: (laughing)

SEN. VANCE: The second reaction I have is, you know, Marjorie, as you may know, is a good friend of mine. I think she doesn’t get credit from the media for actually being much more thoughtful than they realize and a much bigger leader, I think, in our movement than people realize in the future. But, look, this is why Democrats lose working-class white people — that’s my entire families — because they speak about us with such incredible disrespect and derision. And by the way, Clay, there is no group in America that you can get away talking about like that —

CLAY: Yep!

SEN. VANCE: — without losing your job or losing your livelihood. The double standard, people are aware of it, and it’s why all of this talk about white privilege and all these other things is completely bogus, because people know that if you are a middle class, working class white person that the media can talk about you like you’re a sewer rat and they’ll get away with it. And that’s a big double standard.

CLAY: And you see it in particular, because Ohio’s a perfect window into that, right? Ohio used to be a toss-up state, and because Democrats have become so derisive in the way that they talk about so many people in the state — people who have to work for a living, blue collar — I don’t even know how they can get back that group. Right? I mean, I. I know what. Maybe it shouldn’t have been staggering to me, but to go on MSNBC and say it so explicitly? It was just crazy to me.

SEN. VANCE: Yeah, no, it’s a big part of the reason why they’re suffering politically. Look, people want to have basic respect from their political leaders. This is America, after all. We are not ruled by kings. We’re ruled by nobody. We’re led and governed by our fellow citizens. And if you don’t have respect for people, how can you possibly expect to earn their votes? It’s interesting to compare what Carville said to Biden’s State of the Union address, where, look, there are all of these problems with it. He was doing a victory lap on the economy. That’s a disaster. He didn’t even mention the Chinese spy balloon. He didn’t sound great; he didn’t look great.

We can go through all the problems. But the one thing that I think Republicans have got to be careful about with Biden is that while a lot of people don’t like his policies, they don’t hate him at a personal level. He talked about forgotten towns and he talked about bad trade deals, the loss of manufacturing, the loss of dignity that comes along when you lose a job. I thought that was actually pretty effective politically. But the problem with Biden and the Democrats is they are completely led and surrounded by people like James Carville, who really hate a big chunk of the population in Middle America — and you can’t run from that and you can’t pretend it isn’t there when you’re a Democrat.

CLAY: You’re talking about 2024. As we look forward, I believe you have endorsed Donald Trump for 2024. In your mind, is it pretty much a foregone conclusion that Biden is going to be the guy for Democrats? And if so, what does that tell us about the Democrat Party?

SEN. VANCE: You know, I don’t know, Clay. It’s crazy to me that it’s anything close to a foregone conclusion because he clearly is not the same. I met Joe Biden once in 2016. Reasonably briefly. He’s just a fundamentally different person than that seven years later. So, it’s shocking to me that he could lead the country potentially for another six years. But he sounded like a man during the State of the Union who was going to run again. So I do think he’s the likely Democratic nominee. And, you know, I think Trump is the likely nominee. I think he’s certainly the frontrunner. Obviously, I’ve endorsed him. But I think we’re going to have a tough primary on the Republican side. At least I expect that we will.

CLAY: When you look forward and think about what’s going to happen, you saw the State of the Union from Joe Biden, and I bet you even picked up on the fact that he sounded a little bit like Donald Trump.

SEN. VANCE: Yep.

CLAY: I mean, he didn’t sound anything like the Joe Biden who has governed the first two years. What happens for the next two years? You’re now in the Senate. What can get done, what should get done in the remainder of the Biden regime?

SEN. VANCE: Well, look, I think that Joe Biden realizes politically that the border is a disaster. And this is one area where, you know, I think it’s the most important crisis that we face as a country. And if Biden is willing to meet us halfway or any way, it’s where we should be most willing to cut a deal for the American people. If we can stop or at least reduce the flow of illegal migrants, of illegal drugs, of criminal activity across the border, we should do it. I think it would be good for Biden politically, but I don’t care about that. I just want to stop the border crisis.

And I think that’s the most important thing that we can do. I think there’s maybe some room to work on what we’re doing with China, on beefing up our industrial capacity. You know, we need to be manufacturing weapons that we could use, God forbid, if we get into a conflict with China two years down the road, five years down the road. Right now, our country is not capable of producing the weapons systems we would need for any potential future conflict. Again, you hope that it doesn’t happen.

But the best way to prevent it from happening is to make sure you’re ready for it. I think there are potentially ways to work with Joe Biden on that. But look, by and large, the Democrats are already running for reelection in the Senate. We’re not working all that hard because the Senate Democrats have us in a lot of recess because they’re trying to defend their political territory. They’re not thinking about governing. So I don’t think a whole lot is going to get done. We can prevent the bad, maybe get some things accomplished on the border and China, but that’s the posture for the next couple of years.

CLAY: I know you’ve probably not had much time or experience with him, but John Fetterman was elected at the same time that you were. He’s been in the hospital now for two nights. He’s in there for a third day. What has your experience been like with John Fetterman, and what do you think about his potential health prognosis so far as you can tell?

SEN. VANCE: You know, at first I wish the guy the very best. You know, he’s got some serious health problems. It’s been very clear in communicating with him, the little that I have, that he has some serious hangovers from the stroke. But on the one hand, look, we can pray for his recovery — I certainly have and will continue to do so — and on the other hand, acknowledge the unbelievable dishonesty of the media where when people raised his health as a potential problem for him serving, the media, shot it down, did not investigate it, did not really ask the questions that should be asked of anybody after a serious health consequence or emergency, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats. So, I think the fact that John continues to struggle is sad. I also think it’s an incredible indictment of the media. They should have been on top of this from the very beginning. The people of Pennsylvania should have been made aware of those problems, and a lot of them weren’t because the media didn’t do their job.

CLAY: No doubt. All right. Easy question for you to close out here. I imagine you’ll be watching the Super Bowl. I imagine you’re also still ruing the fact that the Cincinnati Bengals lost in the way that they did to the Kansas City Chiefs. What happens? Who wins? Why?

SEN. VANCE: Well, look, Clay, I think that if the Kansas City Chiefs are playing not just the Eagles but with the referees on their side like they did against the Cincinnati Bengals, they’re going to win a massive Super Bowl victory.

CLAY: (laughing)

SEN. VANCE: You know, the Eagles can’t beat both the Chiefs and the refs. I have I have poked some of my colleagues who are from the Kansas City area about this. But I will never get over the officiating of that AFC Championship Game, and I gotta be honest: I don’t really care who wins, but I’ll certainly be watching like everybody else.

CLAY: By the way, as a big Bulls fan, what did you think of the Cincinnati mayor’s proclamation? We played that I think, on Monday of maybe a couple of weeks ago. It’s one of the craziest proclamations I’ve ever seen. For people who don’t remember, the Democrat mayor of Cincinnati basically gave the most trash talking thing that I’ve ever seen any politician put out there. I would think people in Cincinnati are still kind of fired up about that because clearly the Kansas City Chiefs players took note because Travis Kelce was ripping the mayor, which I’ve also never seen after game.

SEN. VANCE: (laughing) Well, you know, obviously as a Democrat; I’m a Republican, but I admire the fire in the belly because, look, a lot of us were pissed off about this. I am not, Clay… I have never, I think, in my life as a sports fan, complained about the officiating as much as I have the last couple of weeks. I’ve just never seen anything like it.

CLAY: Yeah, I know. It was a mess. There’s no doubt at all that it was a mess. Well, we’ll talk to you again soon. Appreciate all the work you’re doing and thanks for making the time with us here on this Friday.

SEN. VANCE: All right. Take care, man. Have a good weekend.

CLAY: Yeah, for sure.