Speaking in Hershey, Pennsylvania, at an event with political commentator Tucker Carlson, Vance emphasized that the majority of the country agrees on the “three issues that matter” — specifically foreign policy, immigration, and jobs staying in the U.S. — but that the “leadership class” has sowed division among the public.

“Those three issues have divided people — I think, have divided the entire country — but actually only the leadership class because I actually think that 70% of Americans agree with our viewpoint on these issues. I just think that the leadership of this country has gotten so deranged that they convince themselves that there is a great American majority for fighting a ton of wars, importing a ton of illegal aliens, and shipping all of the jobs overseas. And I just don’t think there is,” he said.

Carlson responded by saying that the consensus among the public is higher than 70% because the “advocates of the positions you just described will never admit that they’re advocating for them.”

“No one will ever say, ‘Yeah, we just brought in tens of millions of illegal aliens.’ They lie about the fact they did it, so clearly there’s no constituency for that,” he said.

Vance’s comments come as the Nov. 5 election is less than two months away, and the economy, jobs, and immigration are the issues top of mind for voters. According to an Economist/YouGov poll in August, 54% of voters said the most important issues were jobs and the economy, immigration, and inflation.