Sen. J.D. Vance dove head first into the media onslaught Sunday as he fielded questions from reporters on numerous talk shows.
In a prerecorded interview that aired Sunday on ABC News, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, said he was “extremely confident” in their chances of winning the election.
When asked by host Jonathan Karl how the duo’s mass deportation plan would work, Mr. Vance said they would “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,” the Ohio Republican said.
He went on to dispute the premise of the reporter’s question.
“I think it’s interesting that people focus on, well, how do you deport 18 million people? Let’s start with 1 million. That’s where Kamala Harris has failed. And then we can go from there,” he said.
He talked about his now notorious “childless cat ladies” comments and his pro-family stance such as suggesting that people with children have a greater stake in the nation’s future and thus deserve a greater say in its politics.
He said he “regret[s] that the media and the Kamala Harris campaign has, frankly, distorted what I said.”
“They turn this into a policy proposal that I never made. … I said, I want us to be more pro-family, and I do want us to be more pro-family,” he said.
He also stood up for his wife, Usha Vance, who has been the target of White-supremacist comments since being thrown into the spotlight.
“Look, my attitude to these people attacking my wife is, she’s beautiful, she’s smart. What kind of man marries Usha? A very smart man and a very lucky man, importantly,” Mr. Vance said.
“My view is, look, if these guys want to attack me or attack my views, my policy views, my personality, come after me. But don’t attack my wife,” he said. “She’s out of your league.”
He also downplayed the Trump team’s links to White-supremacist Nick Fuentes, who has dined at Mar-a-Lago and has since made comments about Mrs. Vance’s Indian heritage.
He said Mr. Trump “doesn’t know [and] doesn’t care” for Mr. Fuentes.
“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,” he said.
On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Mr. Vance said Sunday that there was “nothing wrong” with Mr. Trump’s words about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“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,” Mr. Vance said after host Margaret Brennan brought up the former president’s having called the two world leaders “lovely individuals.”
He argued that when Mr. Trump was president, nobody invaded any countries.
“So maybe [the Democrats] should take a lesson from Trump’s playbook about diplomatic legitimacy, because I think Donald Trump got a lot done because world leaders respected him,” he said.
He defended Mr. Trump’s offhand statement last week that his administration would consider restricting access to the abortion pill, mifepristone.
Mr. Vance said the question from a reporter was unclear and that the GOP ticket just wants to make sure the Food and Drug Administration is handling the drug in “a safe way.”
“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,” he said.
Mr. Vance said he “of course” wants to debate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
He said the “weird” comments made toward him, which originated from an interview given by Mr. Walz, is “fundamentally schoolyard bully stuff.”
“I’m doing this because I think that me being vice president will help improve people’s lives, so I accept their attacks, but I think that it is a little bit of projection,” Mr. Vance said to host Dana Bash.
He also defended Mr. Trump’s comments about Ms. Harris’ racial identity, and said he believes she “is whatever she says she is” after Ms. Bash asked whether he believes Ms. Harris is Black.
“I believe importantly that President Trump is right that she is a chameleon,” he said. “She pretends to be one thing in front of one audience, she pretends to be something different in front of another audience.”
Mr. Vance has now hit several of the major Sunday shows, while neither Ms. Harris nor Mr. Walz have not done a single sit-down interview.
Ms. Harris told reporters Thursday that she’s “talked” with her team and wants “to get an interview together by the end of the month.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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