JD Vance On The US Economy, Trump Administration’s Handling Of Epstein Files — The View

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: For 29 seasons, this show has invited thousands of guests with all kinds of diverse points of view. And we have been asking our next guest to join us for a while now. So we're glad that he's taken us up on the offer today. Please welcome author of the new book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, the Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance. [00:00:30] Speaker 2: I was surprised at how tall you were. [00:00:52] J.D. Vance: If you only see somebody on TV, you just see their, in my case, giant heads. It hides how tall I am, that's right. [00:01:00] Speaker 1: We are the table of big heads here. [00:01:02] J.D. Vance: So this is a show of MAGA Republicans, right? [00:01:06] Speaker 1: That's what my media team told me? [00:01:07] J.D. Vance: Okay, good. [00:01:09] Speaker 1: Well, we'll find out. I think you have the first question, Alyssa. [00:01:15] Speaker 4: Yes, Mr. Vice President, thank you for being with us. Now, you came into office with clear momentum, but when I talked to my friends and family who supported you and the President, and still support you and the President, one issue comes up time and time again, and it's the economy. Inflation's up, wages are down, gas prices are starting to drop at news of this Iran deal, which we will get to. Sure. What can you say to voters who trusted you to lower costs on day one, and will they be satisfied by November? [00:01:39] J.D. Vance: Well, I think that's ultimately up to the voters, right? I think voters have every right to expect as much as possible out of their elected representatives. We certainly know that we were elected on a number of mandates. One was to close the border, which I think we've done successfully, exceeded expectations there. Number two was to lower prices, and there's a lot of work to do. In part, in large part, because of what's happened over the last few months in the Middle East. But as you said, oil, which got up to $120 a barrel, now is at $80 a barrel. That's going to be reflected in lower fuel, lower food, lower energy prices. But there's a lot more work to do. The thing that I'm proudest about most, because as some of you may know, I grew up in one of these towns that was forgotten by the leaders in Washington of both parties. Is that you're seeing, that's Middletown, Ohio. That's my hometown in southwestern Ohio. It was a proud steel town. I was raised by a grandfather who was a union steel worker. Is that those jobs disappeared. Those factories closed down. The thing that I'm most excited about is you do see a large amount of capital investment coming into our country. Factories being built, construction jobs are way up, manufacturing jobs are starting to catch up. So there's a lot more work to do. I think that we're making progress, but ultimately, we're going to make our pitch to the voters in November, and they're the ones who get to decide whether we've done a good job or not and that's how they're going to vote. [00:02:50] Speaker 2: Okay, so President Trump has called affordability a hoax. He said that, not me. He's pouring money into this ballroom of his and the reflecting pool. Oh, don't forget the arch to Trump pay, I call it. And a White House cage, a White House cage match. All these things. Why is he doing them when you just, everybody knows that Americans are struggling. What is he spending all this money for? [00:03:15] J.D. Vance: Well, I got to defend the president on the hoax point. What the president said is the idea that Republicans cause the affordability problem is a hoax. And I think that's true. If you go back to the Biden administration, inflation got up to 9% under the Biden administration, okay? Right now, it's at 3.5%. By the way, too high. We're doing everything that we can to bring it back down to 2.5%, which is where most people would like to see it. But we inherited an affordability problem. We're doing a lot to make it better. It's going to take a little bit of time. There's a lot more work to do. But the president knows that a lot of Americans are struggling. In fact, he ran on that. He talked about it. And we've done some things and made some good progress on that point. [00:03:54] Speaker 5: He just said he loves the inflation. [00:03:55] J.D. Vance: What he said, Anna, what he said is that he loves the fact that the inflation is going to come down when this war is over. That's what he said. [00:04:04] Speaker 6: That's not what he said. That wasn't a direct. That's not what he said. [00:04:06] Speaker 2: Wait, are you his interpreter or are you his vice president? [00:04:09] Speaker ?: Come on. [00:04:11] J.D. Vance: Well, look, what the president said, people were asking about the inflation. They were asking about the affordability problem, which again is very real. And what he said is, I love the inflation because it's going to come down when the war is over. And now, again, we already see gas prices, gas prices today, $4.06 a gallon, too high, but way down from where they were just a couple of weeks ago. So there's a lot, again, there's a lot we got to do. But I think that we're doing as much as we can. We're going to keep on working at it. And again, the American people are going to make their verdict. But I think that we have a very credible case to run on that we brought a lot of new investment. We're building the factories. That is going to pay serious dividends for the American people over the long haul. [00:04:49] Speaker 6: When? [00:04:51] J.D. Vance: Well, Joy, if you look at manufacturing jobs, those jobs are increasing at a large number. Construction jobs are doing a little bit better. So what happens is the construction jobs to build the factories, and then the manufacturing workers go back to work. That also leads to rising wages. That's one of the things that I'm very proud of, is if you look at the amount that wages are going up now compared to, say, 2022, they're going up way faster. That's a good thing. The affordability problem. Again, gas, way too high right now. Certain things, way too high. You know, rents have been either flat or down for 12 months now. So there are things that are showing signs of life, things that are showing signs of progress. My view, I'm sure you guys don't agree with it, is that we inherited a mess and we're fixing it. But sometimes it takes a long time to fix a mess. Sunny. [00:05:36] Speaker 6: Okay. Mr. Vice President, according to a new report from the New York Times, you were the leading voice behind the scenes to release the Epstein files. And we applaud you for that. And you warned top officials, including top DOJ officials, at strategy meetings taking place inside the Situation Room, we understand that there are tapes of those meetings, that this was a huge problem for the base. The report says you even floated having Tucker Carlson interview Ghislaine Maxwell to clear the president's name. But you were rebuffed by your people. Why? [00:06:14] J.D. Vance: Well, I'd say first of all, don't believe everything that you read in any newspaper, whether it's a right-leaning paper or a left-leaning paper, because as you guys know, well, there are things that are true, things that are false and things that are totally missing context. Well, here's what I'll say. So, number one, I am, frankly, kind of a conspiracy theory on the Epstein stuff. And that story says that that's one of the things that's true, is that some people called me a conspiracy theory on the Epstein stuff. The chief of staff, Susie Wiles, called you a conspiracy theory. And I love Susie, but absolutely, she thinks I'm a conspiracy theorist on the Epstein stuff, because I think that it's crazy that you had this guy who is clearly a sex predator, who is hanging out with a lot of very wealthy and powerful people. Like, that really bothered me. I don't know what's there, of course. Nobody knows exactly what happened unless you were there, but that really bothered me. And I wanted to have full transparency. What I disagree with is the idea that the White House wasn't committed to full transparency. We have to remember, like, I was inside the room when some of these decisions were made. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, the one that the president signed, the one that led to all these files that we're seeing, the emails. By the way, again, sorry, Dwight, do I have to defend my boss? I know you guys don't always appreciate this. But, you know, one of the things you see in the Epstein emails is that Jeffrey Epstein hated Donald Trump, and that Donald Trump literally reported Jeffrey Epstein to the police. That's one of the things that came out of these files. [00:07:29] Speaker 5: They were best friends for about a decade. And remember, he signed that Transparency Act under duress when some Republican women, Congresswomen, like Lauren Boebert, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, did not give in to his pressure of not signing. He brought Lauren Boebert into the Situation Room to pressure her into caving on not voting for that bill. [00:07:49] J.D. Vance: So let me respond to that. [00:07:50] Speaker 5: That's all true. [00:07:51] J.D. Vance: Let me respond to that. So number one is, yes, Donald Trump, he said this, he knew Jeffrey Epstein back in the 1980s. He also threw Jeffrey Epstein out of his club when he found out he was a creep and reported him to the police. That's something that the media often misses when it reports this story. They tell the fact that they knew each other in the '80s, which the president himself admits. They ignore the fact that he narked on him to the police and led ultimately to Jeffrey Epstein's downfall. To that point, Anna, you know the Republican Party, well, it's one of the things that led to law enforcement investigation. But on the point that you made. [00:08:21] Speaker 5: It was allegedly over a real estate deal that they hadn't got into a fight over. [00:08:26] J.D. Vance: But the email says, the email says actually. [00:08:28] Speaker 5: They didn't just know each other. Let's just be truthful and transparent here. They didn't just know each other. He's in a lot of pictures. They were incredibly close friends. [00:08:34] J.D. Vance: He reported him to the police. That's what I'm saying. That is objective. That is objectively true. But Anna made another point that I think, whoopee if I may, because Anna made a very important point. This question about did Donald Trump release these files only under duress from Republicans. And Anna, you know the Republican Party probably better than I do. The idea that Donald Trump runs around afraid of Republican congressmen as opposed to the other way around is kind of crazy. What was the bipartisan though? It was Republicans and Democrats. But because the Republicans control the House and the Senate, particularly the Senate, you need the Republican sign off. What the president did is, look, I will say this. Again, I was in there in the meetings. He was very frustrated that the Democrats were making this about him when he's like, look, I threw the guy out of my club. I am the guy who reported him to the police or one of the people who reported to the police. The president was frustrated about that. Absolutely. But he eventually came to say, you know what, let's just get everything out there. Let's have this out in the public. And he actually called the senators. I was there. He called the senators and said, you know what, pass this bill, I'll sign it. And that was it. [00:09:37] Speaker 6: Let me follow up briefly. Let me follow up briefly. Yes. It sounds like you believed that there would be men in the files who would be held accountable. Rightfully so. And the American people are with you on this. Why haven't we seen the release of over 2.5 million additional Epstein file documents? It seems like you are someone that is on the right side of history on this. [00:10:02] J.D. Vance: So we have released, I think it's 6 million files or 6 million pages of documents. My understanding is the 2.5 million, Sonny. I'm going to check on this to make sure. But my understanding is that a lot of those are duplicates of things that have already been released. So then we'll release them, but we're not going to have any questions. We're not holding anything back. Some of those things are like the courts have to order you to release them. So that was one thing that we confronted. You talk about these situations in our meetings is, you know, there was a big bunch of files that existed, I think in the Southern District of New York, or maybe it was some other jurisdiction. But we were like, we want to release these files, but you need the court approval in order to release the files. Sometimes we would apply to release the files and the courts would say no. So those particular documents, I would need to actually like know exactly what you're talking about. [00:10:43] Speaker 6: Because 3.5 million documents were released. And my understanding is 2.5 million have not been released. [00:10:49] J.D. Vance: Those may have been the ones that are under court. So I don't know what the documents you're talking about. [00:10:53] Speaker 1: But I'm telling you, we're... [00:10:54] Speaker 6: Let me go to break. [00:10:55] J.D. Vance: Sure. Let me go to break.