Speaking in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday, August 11, Ohio Senator and Trump 2024 running mate JD Vance sounded off on host Jonathan Karl, fact-checking him in real time over fake information that Karl was pushing in an attempt to discredit Trump.
The contentious back and forth came when Vance pushed back on Karl’s characterization of the Republican position on family and gender issues. Particularly, Karl claimed that Trump wrongly characterized Walz’s policies regarding separating children from parents over gender reassignment treatment disagreements, and Vance brilliantly pushed back on Karl’s claims.
Particularly, Sen. Vance argued that the GOP’s generally stiff resistance to such state-backed interventions in parent-child disputes over gender treatments is a matter of respecting parental rights to raise children, and of respecting their worldviews.
Vance, commenting on Walz’s policy as governor and what Trump said about it, told Karl, “What President Trump said, John, is that Tim Walz has supported taking children from their parents if the parents don’t consent to gender reassignment. That is crazy.”
Continuing, he added that Walz’s message is discordant given policies such as this one, saying, “And by the way, Tim Walz gets on his high horse about mind your own damn business. One way of minding your own damn business, John, is to not try to take my children away from me if I have different worldviews than you.”
Karl then tried to push back on the claims Trump and Vance have made about Walz and the policy, firing back, “That’s not what he’s proposed.” Vance fact-checked him in an instant: “If you disagree with decisions about gender reassignment, yes, he has proposed that, John,” Vance responded. “He absolutely has.”
Vance spoke about other subjects as well during the contentious interview. At one point, for example, he sounded off on the Biden-Harris Administration’s termination of the highly effective “Remain in Mexico” policy that the Trump Administration used to great effect.
He said, “You start with what’s achievable. I think that if you deport a lot of violent criminals and frankly if you make it harder to hire illegal labor, which undercuts the wages of American workers, I think you go a lot of the way to solving the illegal immigration problem.”
Vance also defended Trump and attacked critics of his wife, who is of Indian heritage, during the interview. When Karl attacked Trump for not disavowing a certain figure on the right, Vance told him, “The one – the one thing I like about Donald Trump, Jon, is that he actually will talk to anybody. But just because you talk to somebody doesn’t mean you endorse their views. And look, I mean Donald Trump spent a lot of quality time with my wife. Every time he sees her, he gives her a hug, tells her she’s beautiful, and jokes around with her a little bit.”
Vance then added, “I’m not at all worried about Donald Trump. I’m worried sometimes about these ridiculous attacks. But again, this is what you sign up for when you come into politics. I wish people would keep it focused on me. But, whatever. They’re going to say what they’re going to stay. My wife’s tough enough to handle it and that’s a good thing.”
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