JD Vance accuses CNN’s Jake Tapper of media manipulation in explosive interview
Republican vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio) sparred with CNN’s Jack Tapper on Sunday, challenging the accuracy of comments Tapper attributed to former President Donald Trump.
Tapper opened the interview by questioning Vance about criticisms from Trump’s former chief of staff, retired Marine General John Kelly, who expressed concerns that the former president would allegedly deploy the military against “the enemy from within.” Last week, Kelly accused Trump of being a “fascist” and an “authoritarian.”
‘Show me the quote where he said that.’
Vance dismissed the allegations and described Kelly as a disgruntled former employee attempting to tarnish Trump’s reputation. He told Tapper that several witnesses have accused Kelly of fabricating false statements he has attributed to Trump.
Tapper claimed that Kelly and Trump are in alignment on policies, but Vance stated, “I don’t buy that.”
Vance said, “If you actually look at John Kelly and folks like Liz Cheney, the fundamental disagreement they have with Donald Trump is, even though they say they’re conservative, they’re conservative in the sense that they want America to get involved in a ton of ridiculous military conflicts. They want America to police the world, and Donald Trump [doesn’t].”
Tapper interrupted Vance, stating, “John Kelly lost a son in Afghanistan. Why are you saying, like — I’ve never heard John Kelly say whether he supports Iran or Afghanistan.”
Vance responded, “And I honor his son’s sacrifice and his family’s sacrifice; that doesn’t mean he’s not wrong about policy.”
“Is your argument that a person that lost a son in Afghanistan can’t be wrong about public policy?” Vance asked Tapper.
Vance stated that many of Trump’s conservative critics who were previously in his Cabinet had turned against him because he “wouldn’t listen to the leadership of the military when they wanted him to start ridiculous conflicts.”
Tapper pressed Vance on his claim that Kelly coordinated with Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign before making his critical comments about Trump. Tapper reported that sources close to Kelly and the Harris campaign denied any such communication.
“I’m highly skeptical of that, Jake. You know the way that these attacks work,” Vance responded. “You’re telling me that based on secondhand conversations with John Kelly.”
Vance contended that the only reason Harris does not have former staff criticizing her is because “she doesn’t fire people who fail.”
“That’s why we haven’t had a real audit of the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal,” he added. “Kamala Harris protects failures in government; Donald Trump fires them.”
Tapper argued that several of Trump’s former staff members think Trump is “not fit for office.”
“Oh, they didn’t think he was unfit for office until they had a falling-out with him because he fired them, and we’re not talking about public policy,” Vance responded.
The senator tried to steer the conversation to policy issues, urging Tapper to question him on Trump’s strategies for reducing grocery and housing costs for Americans.
“You’d much rather talk about what Donald Trump allegedly said than what Trump did in office,” Vance stated.
Tapper stated that Trump threatened to use the military against American citizens, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
“He did not say that, Jake,” Vance fired back. “Show me the quote where he said that.”
“He’s talking about people rioting after the election,” the senator continued. “People who burn down American cities in the summer of 2020. Yes, we should have a federal law enforcement response.”
Tapper persisted, claiming that Trump intends to use the military to “go after the enemy from within.”
“Here’s the game that you’re playing,” Vance explained. “He said that he wanted to use the military to go after far-left lunatics who are rioting, and he also called them ‘the enemy within.’ He separately, in a totally different context and a totally different conversation, said that Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff were threats to this country.”
“You’re imputing things. You’re taking words out of context. You’re taking two separate conversations and pretending they were made at the exact same time,” Vance remarked.
Vance then slammed Tapper and CNN for giving credence to the “Russia hoax.”
“Ask yourself a basic question on network integrity. You guys talked about the Russia hoax nonstop,” Vance stated. “And so you took the words of unnamed FBI agents and put them on your network as though they were the gospel truth. You did it again and again.”
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