CNN’s Jake Tapper wouldn’t let up on JD Vance as he questioned him about the enemy within and eventually Vance cracked and admitted he supports using the military on Americans.
Transcript via CNN:
VANCE: And did he say that he wants to use the military against those people here? Here’s the game.
TAPPER: He said he wants to use the military to go after the enemy within.
VANCE: There’s the game that you’re playing. He said…
TAPPER: I’m not playing a game.
VANCE: No, no, no, let me — can I answer the question, please? He said that he wanted to use the military to go after far left lunatics who were rioting. And he also called them — he also called them the enemy within.
He separately, in a totally different context and a totally different context in a totally conversation, said that Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff were threats to this country. He never said…
TAPPER: Were the enemy within, were the enemy within. He said they were the enemy within.
VANCE: So, every time he uses the exact same phrase, we assume that he used…
TAPPER: I don’t know. I don’t go around the term of enemy within to talk about using the military against going — American people.
VANCE: Well, you’re a journalist. And you’re asking his vice president, but you won’t let me answer the question.
I’m telling you that Donald Trump has said, and I agree with him, that we should use the U.S. military to…
TAPPER: To go after Americans?
VANCE: … go after people who riot, who burned down our cities. We should call in the National Guard.
TAPPER: And this is what John Kelly — this is what John Kelly was alarmed by, the idea of using the U.S. military to go after Americans.
Video:
Jake Tapper confronts JD Vance on the enemy within until Vance gets flustered and admits, “I’m telling you that Donald Trump has said and I agree with them that we should use the US military to go after American people who riot.” pic.twitter.com/WaicPZAiKZ
â Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) October 27, 2024
JD Vance has consistently been a trainwreck on the Sunday shows, but the Trump campaign keeps trotting him out there because their candidate can’t do mainstream media interviews or his cognitive decline will be exposed, so they send Vance who manages to admit while defending Trump that not only is his running mate a fascist, he is too.
The issue of democracy is clearly hurting Trump and Vance with voters, and JD Vance is digging the hole deeper.
Jake Tapper deserves a lot of credit. He has been all over the enemies within story from the beginning and he isn’t letting Republicans off the hook as they try to gaslight America on Trump’s comments.
With days to go before election day, JD Vance is not helping Donald Trump.
To comment on this story, join us on Reddit.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association