Transcript: Sen. JD Vance on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Aug. 11, 2024

The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. JD Vance, Republican of Ohio, on “Face the Nation,” airing Aug. 11, 2024.

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MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you for having us out here to Ohio. You know, President Trump has said you are outstanding, but when you look at what decides elections, the vice presidential pick rarely matters. How are you going to prove him wrong? 

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, I think President Trump’s right about that, actually. I think most people are voting for Donald Trump or for Kamala Harris. Donald Trump delivered rising wages and a secure border. Kamala Harris has delivered an open border and falling wages relative to inflation and groceries and housing and so forth. So I think that he’s actually right, that most people, when they cast their ballots, they’re basing it based on who the presidential nominee is, not the vice presidential nominee. It’s just straightforward political reality. I think Donald Trump’s right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you are there to deliver some of the punches. 

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, I’m there to help define our opposition a little bit. I think that unfortunately, Kamala Harris has run a campaign where every time she’s in front of voters, a teleprompter is in between. She doesn’t really talk to the media, like at all. She hasn’t answered, I think, a single tough question from a reporter. So yeah, one of my jobs is to get out there and just make sure the American people know that this is a person who supported open borders, who suspended deportations, who stopped the Remain in Mexico policy that kept a lot of Americans safe. And of course, my job is to help govern once we actually get elected. But I think, again, most people are voting for Donald Trump or for Kamala Harris. That’s just the way it is.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So let’s talk about the vision for the country–

SEN. JD VANCE: Yeah.

MARGARET BRENNAN: That you’re offering. You supported the Supreme Court ruling recently on Mifepristone, the so-called abortion pill, that ruled opponents lacked the legal right to sue over the FDA approval. 

SEN. JD VANCE: Sure. That’s right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: This drug is used in like 60% of all abortions in the United States. In a Trump Vance administration, would you use the FDA to block access to this drug?

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, no. What the President has said very clearly is that abortion policy should be made by the states. Right? You, of course, want to make sure that any medicine is safe, that it’s prescribed in the right way, and so forth, but the President wants individual states to make these decisions, because, look, Margaret, California is going to have a different abortion policy from Ohio, which is going to have a different abortion policy from Alabama–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, but that was actually different, because after Dobbs, the Supreme Court took up this case.

SEN. JD VANCE: Yeah.

MARGARET BRENNAN: They viewed it as different. 

SEN. JD VANCE: Sure, but like you said, on a matter of legal standing, but I think that what we really want is when states and voters in those states make decisions, we of course want the states and the federal government to respect those decisions, and that’s what President Trump has said is, consistently, we need to get out of the culture war side of the abortion issue. We need to let the states decide their specific abortion policy. And look, what President Trump and I want to do on family policy is make it easier for families to start in the first place. We want to bring down housing costs so that if you have a baby, there’s actually a place to raise that baby. Want to increase and expand the child tax credit. We want to make it easier for moms and dads to not be shocked by these surprise medical bills when they go to an out-of-network provider. We’re working on all this stuff, and I think that’s ultimately how we turn down the temperature a little bit, is to make it easier to choose life in the first place. Because when you talk to women, you talk to moms and dads, a lot of times they feel like, if you have a pregnancy, especially an unexpected pregnancy, there just aren’t options. We want to provide more options so that people are raising families in a thriving and happy way in this country. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: So at his presser this past week, Donald Trump seemed to indicate he was open to restrictions on Mifepristone. He was asked by a reporter about this, and he said “there are many things on a humane basis that you can do, but also give a vote.” So he did seem to be indicating he’s open to restrictions on this particular drug. 

SEN. JD VANCE: Look, I think what he said — 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you saying that’s wrong? 

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, I think what he said, Margaret, is- first of all, even some of the reporters who were in the room at that press conference said it wasn’t clear what the reporter was asking. Maybe he couldn’t hear that person super clearly. So I don’t want to put words in President Trump’s mouth. What he said very clearly in the debate is that he agrees with the Supreme Court decision, but more importantly, he wants these decisions to be made by the states. I think that is the President Trump vision for the Republican Party.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Because you, personally, signed on as a senator to a letter to the DOJ demanding it shut down all mail order abortion operations under the Comstock Act. So would you seek to enforce that law differently?

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, what we said in that letter, Margaret, is that we want doctors to prescribe this stuff to ensure that it’s safe. I mean, we do this with antibiotics, we do this with a lot of antidepressants —

(CROSSTALK)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the FDA says it is.

SEN. JD VANCE: And we just want the FDA to make sure that doctors are prescribing this in a safe way. That’s all that we ever said, and I believe that that is how President Trump feels about this is, again, you want the states to make these determinations, you also want to make sure the FDA is ensuring that these medications are safe for anybody who’s taking them.

MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s been on the market for decades, and the FDA does say it is safe, but would- where a doctor —

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, antibiotic– Margaret, antibiotics are safe, but we want to make sure they’re prescribed by doctors, and the doctors are properly monitoring this stuff so that people don’t get hurt. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Of course, but —

SEN. JD VANCE: We’ve talked now, I think for six questions about abortion–

MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m still trying to get a clear answer. So for an FDA–

SEN. JD VANCE: And I gave you one.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Commissioner that you would be part of choosing, where that Commissioner stands on this drug, would that determine whether or not they are chosen to be put in this key role? 

SEN. JD VANCE: I think President Trump has clearly said there are no litmus tests on this particular issue. He just wants to make sure that drugs are safe and effective before they’re out there in the market, and, of course, that doctors are properly controlling this stuff so that people don’t get hurt. And again, Margaret, I mean, we talk about abortion, I think President Trump’s views on abortion are extremely clear. What’s interesting, of course, is that President Trump is trying to find some common ground on this issue. And you have Democrats who have supported abortion right up to the moment and sometimes even beyond the moment of birth, which is just sick stuff. And I think it’s such a contrast–

MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s not accurate.

SEN. JD VANCE: It is accurate. In fact, the Born Alive Act, multiple members of the current Democratic administration, including our vice president, supported that legislation*, they have supported taxpayer funded abortions up to the moment of birth. I just think it’s bizarre, and you contrast it to Donald Trump, who’s trying to find some common ground on this issue, what he’s trying to do —

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well actually he’s saying send it back to the states, so he doesn’t have to stake out position on this, but–

SEN. JD VANCE: No, so that the states, so that the states — Margaret, that’s an important part of our federal process, is that states sometimes are going to make these decisions for themselves, and I think that’s how you find some common ground. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: But on that- but on that, you were saying both that it should be doctors who determine the safety of a drug, but also that states should determine the availability of that drug. Do I have that right? 

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, no, that states are going to determine their abortion policy, and of course, doctors are going to decide the safety of drugs.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And if 60% are through medication abortion, it brings us back to the pill. That’s why I was asking you that. 

SEN. JD VANCE: But again, states are going to make these decisions. I’m actually confused a little bit by the question Margaret, because if Alabama, let’s say, is going to have a different abortion policy from California, that’s not inconsistent within saying doctors are going to have to prescribe this stuff, whatever the individual policy of the state is. I’m not sure what the confusion is there.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I don’t know. President Trump said there are some humane things that could be done, in addition to the vote, so I’m —

SEN. JD VANCE: Well again, in a loud room where he couldn’t hear the question super well. But I think his view on this has been very clear, and I’ve just articulated it. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: So let me talk- you talk about family policy. So I have some specific questions for you on that. You’ve been talking about the concern about the low birth rate in the United States of America, which is well documented. You said people without children should pay higher tax rates than those who have children, and the US should look at lowering income tax rates on women who have multiple children, and you pointed to Hungary as a model for that. How do you plan to implement that policy?

SEN. JD VANCE: Well it’s called the child tax credit, and we should expand the child tax credit. If you think about what the child tax credit does–

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you and the Biden administration agree on the child care tax credit? 

SEN. JD VANCE: Well we think it should be bigger. I think President Trump and I believe in expanded Child Tax Credit. But we also, importantly, want to actually get this thing done. The child tax credit has languished thanks to the Biden administration, because Harris has failed to show fundamental leadership. Chuck Schumer has been unable to get it through the United States Senate, and we want to have a more pro-family policy now, you asked about ç 

MARGARET BRENNAN: — There was just a vote on this. You know that. And- and you weren’t- you weren’t there. 

(CROSSTALK)

SEN. JD VANCE: But, Margaret —

MARGARET BRENNAN: It was a messaging bill. I’ll give you that. 

SEN. JD VANCE: It was a show vote. 

MARGARET BRENNAN:  I’m —I’m with you on that. But — 

SEN. JD VANCE: — And if I had been there, it would have failed. And I was and I was — 

MARGARET BRENNAN: So tell me specifically what you want to do to expand the child care tax credit, because it’s like two grand per kid right now. 

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, I think one of the things you can do is make it bigger per child. I think we’d love to see it at a higher dollar value — 

MARGARET BRENNAN: — Do you have a number in mind?— 

SEN. JD VANCE:  — And again, President Trump and I have proposed that. I mean, look, I’d love to see a child tax credit that’s $5,000 per child. But you, of course, have to work with Congress to see how possible and viable that is. We’ve also proposed legislation, Margaret, to end this practice of parents getting these surprise medical bills where they go to the hospital, they have a baby, they chose an out of network provider, and they come home with unexpected bills. I’ve actually sponsored legislation to end that practice. So we have a whole host of pro-family policies that are out there. And- and again, on the Harris administration, I’ve got to push back against something a little bit Margaret, because when these comments, where I said parents should pay lower taxes via the Child Tax Credit came out, the Harris administration immediately jumped and said, we disagree with this. The Harris campaign said we disagree with this. So do they want the elimination of the Child Tax Credit? Or were they just being careless in responding to remarks that I made three years ago? I don’t know. They should clarify it, maybe in an interview with you. But of course, Kamala Harris refuses to do interviews with anybody. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we hope — we hope to have on and ask her about that. 

SEN. JD VANCE:  Me too.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So the child care tax credit, you said $5,000 per child is what you’d like to get to. Where would that kick in? Because the current one, if income is below- is $400,000 or below, it’s $2,000 per child. So at- where would the $5,000 per child kick in for you?

SEN. JD VANCE: I’d like to have a broad based family policy and a broad based Child Tax Credit, Margaret. Again, we’ve talked about doing this for a long time. President Trump has been on the record for a long time supporting a bigger child tax credit, and I think you want it to apply to all American families. I don’t think that you want this, this- this massive cut off for lower income families, which you have right now. You don’t want a different policy for higher income families. You just want to have a pro-family Child Tax Credit.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you have personally opposed universal child care. How do you solve the child care crisis in America?

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, what I’ve opposed is one model of child care. We, of course, want to give everybody access to child care. But look, in my family, I grew up in a poor family where the child care was my grandparents, and a lot of these child care proposals do nothing for grandparents. If you look at some of these proposals, they do nothing for stay-at-home moms or stay-at-home dads. I want us to have a child care policy that’s good for all families, not just a particular model of family, and that’s what I’ve said. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: So what do you mean by that? There would be like a credit per kid if it’s a stay-at-home mom? A credit per kid if it’s Grandma? 

SEN. JD VANCE: Exactly–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Like they get a check to take care of their–  

SEN. JD VANCE: — That’s exactly what I propose. Now I don’t you know that’s exactly what we’ve proposed, both publicly and I’ve talked about doing privately. I’m just saying that I don’t want us to favor one family model over another. If you’ve got grandparents who are at home taking care of the kids, I think they deserve to be treated the same as- the same way as other family models by their government.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Gay families, they’d be included? All families? 

SEN. JD VANCE: All families would be included of course. All families would be included.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So I was looking at the platform, the Trump-Vance platform, the- that was rolled out at the RNC. You talk about school choice, you talk about 529 savings accounts. What about really young kids? Should three and four year old kids have access to preschool?

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, look, I think that certainly some families are going to choose that, but again, some families are going to choose grandparents and so forth. I think our view– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: — Well that’s child care. That’s different than a preschool. 

SEN. JD VANCE: — Well- well our view- well very often preschool is child care, is at least a form of child care. I know that when I went to preschool– 

MARGARET BRENNAN:– Your kids went to preschool– 

SEN. JD VANCE: — Yeah, and we use it as child care, right? You’re hoping your kids get a good education, but you’re also doing it because you want to provide child care for your kids. I don’t think there’s anything incongruous or inconsistent about that. And I think, look, we believe that we want to make it easier for American families, Margaret, to make their own choices on this stuff. We talk about school choice, of course school choice would apply to all families, it would would apply to all parents, and we would just want parents to have choices– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: — Including for preschool, because in many public school systems, there is no preschool. That’s why I’m asking. 

SEN. JD VANCE: I think that we want parents to have choices, Margaret. Like I just said, we want them to be able to make the choices that make the most sense for their family. For some it’s going to be preschool. For some it’s going to be daycare. For some it’s going to be having the kids stay at home a little bit longer. We just want the government to treat everybody equally, regardless of whatever education or family model you have.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you have a very young family–

SEN. JD VANCE: I do. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –You have a very accomplished wife, Usha, who she went to– 

SEN. JD VANCE: I’m very proud of her. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. Yale, Cambridge, she clerked at the Supreme Court. We heard her on stage at the RNC. You gave a recent interview to Megyn Kelly, and you spoke about white supremacists attacking your family because she’s not a white person. How concerned are you that this kind of hate would follow you to the White House? 

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, look, it’s going to follow us wherever we go, because that’s the nature of public life in America, and it’s disgraceful. Look, I love my wife. I’m very proud of her. I’m extremely lucky to have met her and to have gotten the chance to build a life with her. And my attitude on this is, people want to attack me, attack my policy views, they’re welcome to. I signed up for it. My wife didn’t sign up for it. And by the way, she’s out of the- she’s way out of their league, the people who are attacking her. So I wish they would just keep their mouth shut, or at least focus on me. But look, it’s the nature of public life in this country. My wife’s pretty tough, and she knows what we signed up for.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I imagine it’s hard to keep your temper when you hear things like that. 

SEN. JD VANCE: Yeah, I get pissed off sometimes, certainly– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

SEN. JD VANCE:  –when people attack your family, and certainly attack your family for something that no person can control. And I do think that there’s been this thing in America where we’ve said that we should judge people based on their skin color, based on their immutable characteristics, based on things that they can’t control. I frankly think that unfortunately, a lot of people on the left have leaned into this by trying to categorize people by skin color and then give special benefits or special amounts of discrimination. The Harris Administration, for example, handed out farm benefits to people based on skin color. I think that’s disgraceful. I don’t- I don’t think we should say, you get farm benefits if you’re a Black farmer, you don’t get farm benefits if you’re a white farmer. All farmers, we want to thrive, and that’s certainly the President Trump and JD Vance view of the situation. But I do think unfortunately, when our leaders divide us by race, you’re going to have hate on the left side of the political spectrum. You’re going to have hate on the right side of the political spectrum. We should just judge people based on individual characteristics and based on merit, and that’s certainly what President Trump and I want to do.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But that wasn’t born in the last four years, I mean, one of the–

SEN. JD VANCE: No, no not at all, but I think that President Biden and Harris have certainly accelerated it. I don’t think you’ve seen any- anything like what we’ve seen from Kamala Harris when it comes to handing out government benefits based on people’s immutable characteristics. The actual legal enshrinement of discrimination in this country, we haven’t seen anything like in the last 30 or 40 years. Certainly back in the 60s and 50s, we all look at that as a period that we wanted to get away from, and in some ways, the Harris Administration has re-implemented it. I think it’s pretty disgraceful.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, in your own movement, that’s what I want to ask about, because one of the supremacists who was saying things like this about your family– 

SEN. JD VANCE: Yeah

MARGARET BRENNAN: Nick Fuentes, an avowed antisemite– 

SEN. JD VANCE: Sure.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –went after your wife. He had previously dined at Mar-a-Lago with Donald Trump. Does this have any room in your movement, in the MAGA movement? 

SEN. JD VANCE: Of course, it doesn’t have any room in the MAGA movement. And of course– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Would you disavow him and this?

SEN. JD VANCE: And of course – and of course Donald Trump has criticized this person. Look, I think the guy’s a total loser. Certainly I disavow him. But if you ask me what I care more about, is it a person attacking me personally, or is it government policy that discriminates based on race? That’s what I really worry about. Is bad government policy that harms people based on their immutable characteristics. Look, a lot of losers are going to attack me and attack my family. I think the proper response to them is to ignore them. Don’t feed the trolls, and they largely go away. What I worry much more about is bad government policy, Margaret, because I think it’s a bad, bad thing.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about some of the things you’ve said on the business front. You said you’re among the most pro-labor Republicans in the Senate. You’re not a big fan of Right-to-Work laws that make it harder to, you know, for unions to organize. Our latest CBS poll shows your ticket is down 13 points, 56 to 43, among voters with a union member in their household. Why do you think there is this differential? Why behind? 

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, first of all, Margaret, I’m skeptical of any polling at this level, because I think that you have to persuade voters. The poll that actually matters is on election day. And I think we’re doing great with union voters, especially people like the Teamsters, the United Auto Workers, because we’re the people who are trying to protect their jobs. Kamala Harris has pursued a series of green energy policies that would ship more and more manufacturing jobs to China, more and more energy jobs to China. That’s going to destroy a lot of union jobs. And what President Trump and I have to do is make the case to these workers, union and non-union alike, that we’re the candidacy, we’re the presidency that’s actually going to protect their jobs and protect their right to earn a good wage in the country they love. I think that when people know about the policy difference between Kamala Harris, pro shipping American manufacturing jobs to China with ridiculous energy policies, and Donald Trump, who wants to drill and actually open up American energy markets so that we can manufacture more. They’re going to vote for President Trump. I have no doubt about that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re one of the few Republican supporters of antitrust reform.

SEN. JD VANCE: Yeah. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Which has actually been a cause the Biden administration, the Biden-Harris Administration, has taken up here, trying to block mergers and ramp up antitrust. You said of FTC Commissioner Lina Khan, “She’s done a pretty good job.” 

SEN. JD VANCE: Yeah. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: What do you mean by that? If you’re in office, you’re going to go after trying to break up Google, trying to break up Microsoft? What does that mean? 

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, look, I don’t agree with Lina Khan on every issue, to be clear, but I think that she’s been very smart about trying to go after some of these big tech companies that monopolize what we’re allowed to say in our own country. I don’t want a billionaire–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Like which companies? 

SEN. JD VANCE: I don’t want Google or a billionaire that controls Google that’s in bed with China to be able to censor American information, and that’s exactly what they’ve done. I think these companies are too big, too powerful–

(CROSSTALK)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Elon Musk, though, comes to mind immediately and he’s a huge supporter of your movement–

SEN. JD VANCE: But he does not censor–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –and he does so much business with China. 

SEN. JD VANCE: One, he does not censor. And two, he does not have a monopoly over free speech in a way that Google has a much, much bigger company, a much more powerful control. And by the way, the presidency that started the antitrust lawsuit against Google was Donald J. Trump’s presidency, right? So in a lot of ways, President Trump and I look at this in the same way. We want good wages for American workers. We want Americans to be able to speak their own mind in their own country, and sometimes that means you’ve got to take on those monopolies. President Trump already did it, and I think he’ll do it again if we give him another chance.

MARGARET BRENNAN: It just stands out as interesting to me, because you, you courted so much money, effectively, for the campaign from Silicon Valley and from so many of these tech guys – 

SEN. JD VANCE: Not from, not from Google and Facebook, Margaret. I think there’s a big difference between big tech and little tech, right? A lot of these companies are upstarts. They’re trying to build a cool product. They’re trying to take on the Googles and Facebooks of the world. Google and Facebook are not giving me a whole lot of money because they don’t like me, because I believe that Americans ought to be able to speak their own mind in their own country. And I think these companies are too big. We ought to take the Teddy Roosevelt approach to some of them. Break ’em up. Don’t let them control what people are allowed to say. So yes, the big tech companies don’t like me. The little tech companies, people, I think, who are trying to do something important to take on those big tech upsta-, those big tech incumbents? Yeah, a lot of them do support me, I’m of course, proud to have their support because we agree on a lot of big issues.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you’re promising them, what, less regulation of certain things is that what you–

SEN. JD VANCE: Promising who?  

MARGARET BRENNAN: Small tech. You didn’t give any names. So I don’t know which you’re talking about–  

SEN. JD VANCE: Well look, I mean, I think Twitter, for example, if you look at its user base and you look at how much control Google has over the digital advertising infrastructure. We ought to be going after some of those incumbents. And certainly I don’t think that Elon Musk has any monopoly. He’s not using his company to try to destroy competitors. And that, to me, is when something crosses the line where you’ve got to be a little bit more focused on antitrust issues.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So I want to move a little bit to foreign policy here, excuse me, if I could. We’re going to mark this year the three year anniversary of the U.S.- the end of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. President Trump negotiated that withdrawal. The execution, you’ve been very critical of, was very chaotic, under President Biden. But let’s look at what you could do if you’re in office. There are about 80,000 or so Afghans who were left behind, many of whom worked for the United States. Does America owe them? Should you bring them here? 

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, I think that we should bring people here who helped us and have been properly vetted. And that’s very, very important, because a lot of the people the Biden administration has brought in have not been properly vetted and I think–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you talking about Afghan vets?

SEN. JD VANCE: And I think the most important- certainly, the Biden administration has let in Afghan nationals who say that they supported Americans but actually did not. We also need to remember, Margaret, there was a lot, when we were in Afghanistan, a lot of so-called Blue on Green, or Green on Blue violence, where people who are allegedly supposed to help us killed American troops. So I want them in our country? Of course I don’t. In fact, I wish they weren’t on this earth anymore. So we have to be careful about who we let into this country–

(CROSSTALK)

MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m talking about– 

SEN. JD VANCE: But I think–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –people who worked alongside United States service people– 

SEN. JD VANCE: And if they’re–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –on the ground in Afghanistan.

(CROSSTALK ENDS)

SEN. JD VANCE: And if they’re properly vetted, I think that we should help them. Some of them don’t want to come here, by the way, Margaret, some of them would like us to give them safety in another country. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

SEN. JD VANCE: You don’t have to bring every single person who helped the United States into the United States, you can send them to other places as well. But, certainly, I don’t think we should abandon anybody who’s been properly vetted and actually helped us. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: I ask you that because President Trump said a few days ago he’ll suspend refugee admissions to the United States–

SEN. JD VANCE: Exactly, because we’re not properly–

MARGARET BRENNAN: But you’re saying not in this case?

SEN. JD VANCE: No, absolutely I’m saying in this case, Margaret, because we’re not properly vetting the people that are being let in through these refugee programs. What President Trump said is very important. You cannot show up at an American consulate and say, I helped the Americans, go let me into America because I’m a refugee– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s not how the process works, you know that.

SEN. JD VANCE: It very often is how the process works, Margaret–

MARGARET BRENNAN: It is not.

SEN. JD VANCE:  –the Biden Administration has been scandalous in not properly vetting these people. Donald Trump is exactly right. And again, just because they helped us, allegedly, doesn’t mean you have to let them come to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Maybe some of them should go to other countries. Maybe we should help some of them in their own country. And President Trump is exactly right about this. In fact, we know, we know beyond a shadow of doubt, that some of the people who have been let into this country are on the terrorist watch list. That is disgraceful. And Trump is right that we should stop it. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: I think now you’re conflating a few different things. You are now talking about people who have come in through the southern border, versus people who were vetted, and worked in U.S. intelligence–

SEN. JD VANCE: Oh no, we’ve certainly let in people through refugee resettlement who should not be in this country. Absolutely, we have. We have not properly vetted everybody who’s come in.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you have something that you’ve been briefed on?

SEN. JD VANCE: Certainly, if you look at–

MARGARET BRENNAN: A specific example you’re worried about?

SEN. JD VANCE: I have been, I have been briefed privately, but there’s also been public reports of people who have come in through the refugee resettlement process who are actually on some kind of terrorism watch list who- or who, importantly, were not actually helping Americans, even though they claimed- we got to be careful, Margaret. We have a country to protect, and we have, I mean, I have three young children. I don’t want people walking around the streets of this country who said they served the United States, but because the Biden Administration doesn’t believe in immigration enforcement, they didn’t properly vet them.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But you would properly vet them and allow them in if you’re in the White House?

SEN. JD VANCE: No, I didn’t say that, I said- Let everybody in? No, I think you want to help them–

MARGARET BRENNAN: I didn’t say everyone. I said specifically Afghans.

SEN. JD VANCE: I say, you want to help them. Maybe they want to resettle in their own country. Maybe they want to resettle in another country. What I’ve said is, I do think that we should help the people who were good to us. That doesn’t mean every single one of them has to come to the United States of America, right? 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, I’m being wrapped, but I really want to ask you about China. 

SEN. JD VANCE: Please.

MARGARET BRENNAN: If you’re game?

SEN. JD VANCE: Yeah, yeah. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, so do you view China as a competitor or an adversary? 

SEN. JD VANCE: I think they’re both, right, and I think that what we want to do here is build the kind of international order where we can check China. We don’t want to go to war with China, but certainly they’re an adversary. I mean, they know, for example, the Chinese know that they’re manufacturing tons of fentanyl, they’re letting come- come into our country. Kamala Harris has done nothing about this. She should apply diplomatic and economic leverage over the Chinese to stop manufacturing this fentanyl, which then comes into the Mexican drug cartels, which they then ship into our country. 

(CROSSTALK)

MARGARET BRENNAN: The United States has– 

SEN. JD VANCE: This– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: The United States has designated– 

SEN. JD VANCE: This is a–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –some of these groups– 

SEN. JD VANCE: This is a scandal–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –and pressed the Chinese government.

(CROSSTALK ENDS)

SEN. JD VANCE: Oh, we could do so much more. Fentanyl is not easy to manufacture, Margaret, and if Harris was applying proper leverage to the Chinese and to the Mexican drug cartels, we would not have so many people dying of fentanyl overdoses.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Like, what? How do you do that? What’s your vision of do- how you do that?

SEN. JD VANCE: Well, I think you walk into- to Beijing, you talk to Xi Jinping, and you say, your entire economy is going to collapse unless you get access to American markets. You need to take this fentanyl seriously or we are going to impose serious tariffs and economic penalties for not following our laws and not helping us stem the flow of this deadly poison. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: And you wouldn’t be worried about blowback on the U.S. economy?

SEN. JD VANCE: I think that we have a powerful economy, Margaret, with the best workers in the entire world. If we need to fight a trade war with the Chinese, we will fight it and we will win it, but we cannot do what Kamala Harris has done, which is be so terrified of using the ec- economic power that we have that she’s not even willing to stop the flow of this deadly poison coming into our country.

MARGARET BRENNAN: President Trump said Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi were lovely individuals when he was speaking in Montana last night. You agree with that characterization? 

SEN. JD VANCE: I think that President Trump gets along with world leaders, and there’s nothing wrong with him complimenting them as people, if it makes him more effective diplomatically. And there’s an irony here–

MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s different than walking in and laying down the law to Xi Jinping.

SEN. JD VANCE: –there’s an- oh, no, it’s not actually, because you’re better able to lay down the law, like President Trump did, if you actually have a good relationship with people and they trust you to follow your word. We have to remember that Democrats, including Kamala Harris, attacked Donald Trump for having a good relationship with Vladimir Putin. Well, when Donald Trump was president, Vladimir Putin didn’t invade another country. When Kamala Harris was vice president, he did. So maybe they should take a lesson from Trump’s pray- playbook about diplomatic legitimacy, because I think Donald Trump got a lot done because world leaders respected him.

MARGARET BRENNAN: JD Vance, always good to talk to you. 

SEN. JD VANCE: Thanks, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you for making time for us. Good to see you. 

*A CBS News fact check finds Harris voted against advancing the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act twice when she was a senator, and has previously called it extreme and a setback to reproductive rights in America. We have found no evidence that anyone who currently serves in the Biden administration voted for it either.