JD Vance went into the lion’s den on Tuesday as the hosts of “The View” grilled him on a litany of hot political topics. The vice president appeared on the ABC talk program to promote his new book but was instead faced with questions about the Epstein files, ICE and the Trump administration’s whitewashing of Black history.
Alyssa Farah, Ana Navarro and Joy Behar started the segment by asking Vance about the economy, with the vice president saying the administration has “made good progress” on lowering inflation.
“[Trump] said he loved inflation,” Navarro said, and Vance replied, “What he said is he loves inflation is going to come down when this war is over.”
“That’s not what he said,” Behar retorted. “Are you his interpreter or his vice president? Come on.”
Sunny Hostin then brought up the Epstein files, asking why the administration has yet to release the entirety of the documents.
“I wanted to have full transparency. What I disagree with is the idea the White House wasn’t committed to full transparency,” Vance said. He added, “I have to defend my boss,” noting that “Epstein hated Donald Trump” because “Trump literally reported Jeffrey Epstein to the police.” (According to a recently released FBI interview summary, Trump reportedly told police officers in Florida “thank goodness you’re stopping him” in relation to Epstein in 2006.)
Behar pushed back on Vance, saying of Trump and Epstein, “They were best friends for a decade.” And Navarro argued that Trump and Epstein’s fallout had nothing to do with the latter’s sex crimes but rather a “real estate deal they got into a fight over.” “Let’s be truthful and transparent. They didn’t just know each other. They were close friends,” she said.
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Asked about how he flipped from once calling Trump “America’s Hitler” to “America’s best hope,” Vance said he developed “a little humility,” saying he had made false predictions about Trump about manufacturing and wage growth.
Sara Haines pushed back on Vance, saying his past criticism of Trump were not just about policy but about “what Christians were willing to excuse. That’s the part I can’t get past,” she said. “What are you willing to excuse in the name of power?”
Haines went on to ask Vance about ICE. “You speak about immigration at length in this book. I believe as a Christian I can tell my kids why it’s important to have borders. I get that,” she said. “It’s harder to explain when I see someone dragged out of a house or wrongly taken … [when] they aren’t a violent criminal.”
Navarro added: “Over 50 people have died in ICE custody. There are thousands of children, 6,200, being held in places that people that have visited — I don’t know if you have visited — talk about the subhuman conditions, lack of clean water, medical attention, lack of education. I would urge you as a Christian and as a father to visit those detention centers where the children are being held and make sure that the conditions are up to the values that we hold in this country.”
Vance responded that America has to “strike a balance” when it comes to enforcing laws, adding, “We don’t want to dehumanise people.”
“Law enforcement is always inherently not a pretty process,” he said. “Especially when you deal sometimes with violent people, with people who are resisting arrest. Some of the people that I have been told by the media were completely peaceful, never violated any laws, you look into the record and find out they were violent or they did have a criminal record. They had a sex traffic conviction.”
Hostin rejected Vance’s argument, saying that the “majority” of people who have been “rounded up” and “taken out of their homes” by ICE are “not criminals.” Hostin condemned the federal immigration enforcement agency’s separation of families and “using children as bait.” Vance dodged her point, saying that during the Biden administration there were “tens of thousands of children who were sex trafficked by cartels [and] brought into our country.” Vance said, “Unless you enforce the border, you invite that conduct.”
Throughout the episode, Whoopi Goldberg struggled to cut to commercial break, repeatedly having to cut off her co-hosts in heated interactions with the vice president. Toward the end of the segment, she had her chance to ask Vance questions. “What did Black people do to this administration that has allowed it to really stigmatise folks of colour? You know how hard it is. You have folks of colour in your family,” she said, referring to Vance’s wife Usha, who is Indian American.
“They are taking down the actual history that happened in this country,” Goldberg continued, seemingly referencing the Trump administration’s removal of certain government webpages and changes to National Park exhibits. “Slavery happened. All kinds of stuff happened. It seems that it has been very easy for this administration to remove that and also to denigrate Black folks who have worked their behinds off to get this American dream.”
Hostin added, “We’re talking about Black history erased. Black voter districts dismantled. Black leaders are sidelined from our ranks. Where do Americans of colour fit in this vision? It doesn’t seem like we fit.”
“I think everybody is welcome in our political coalition, even if you didn’t vote for us,” Vance said. “Everybody is welcome in our country so long as you are an American citizen. Let me give you an example: You say we are anti-minority or anti-Black.”
“I didn’t say that,” Goldberg interjected. “I asked. Don’t start anything with me. Don’t get me in trouble.”
Vance went on to cite declining rates in violent crime in Washington, D.C., where Black people make up nearly half the population. “This is not about crime. This is about human rights,” Goldberg argued.
Once again, the hosts soon needed to cut to commercial. At the end of the episode, Vance had a few moments to plug his book, and Farah gave the VP a “View” onesie for his fourth child on the way.
From Variety US