J.D. Vance Destroys Margaret Brennan On ‘Face The Nation’

One clue President Donald Trump’s administration is using a completely different playbook than former President Joe Biden is its willingness to have an unscripted, on the record, in-depth conversation with adversarial media. That is what Vice President J.D. Vance did Sunday when he did an interview with Margaret Brennan, host of CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

By saying yes to the interview, Vance graciously overlooked Brennan’s routinely anti-President Trump stance, including her notorious moderation of the October debate between Vance and Democrat opponent Tim Walz, during which she showed favoritism to Walz.

Brennan came prepared for a take-down interview with a stack of tough questions, a serious navy-blue suit, and a sometimes-furrowed brow. Vance was not intimidated, answering her accusing tone on each topic with calm reason, a contrast that made her look unhinged at times.  

They discussed Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship, which grants citizenship to everyone born in the United States, even if their parents have no legal tie to the country. Vance noted that babies born in the United States to tourists or diplomats are not granted citizenship. They are citizens of their parents’ home country. In the same way, a baby born in the United States to an illegal alien is not automatically a U.S. citizen.

Ahh, but, “This is a country founded by immigrants,” Brennan responded. “This is a unique country.”

“Just because we were founded by immigrants doesn’t mean that 240 years later, that we have to have the dumbest immigration policy in the world,” Vance retorted “…America should actually look out for the interest of our citizens first, and that means, again, if you’re here permanently and lawfully, your kid becomes an American citizen. If you’re not here permanently, if you’re not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and don’t plan to be, why would we make those people’s children American citizens permanently?”

When she asked the question, Brennen smiled and nodded with a superior air, as if she had him now. But Vance’s answer shut that topic down.  

“When you talked to us in August, you said, ‘I don’t think we should abandon anybody who’s been properly vetted and helped us.’ Do you stand by that?” Brennan asked.

“I don’t agree that all these immigrants or all these refugees have been properly vetted,” Vance said. “In fact, we know that there are cases of people who allegedly were properly vetted and then were literally planning terrorist attacks on our country. That happened during the campaign, if you may remember, so clearly not all of these foreign nationals have been properly vetted.”

Brennan insisted all illegally present foreigners have been vetted.

“Just like the guy who planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma a few months ago? He was allegedly properly vetted. Many people in the media and the Democratic Party said that he was properly vetted. Clearly he wasn’t,” Vance replied. “I don’t want my children to share a neighborhood with people who are not properly vetted, and because I don’t want it for my kids, I’m not going to force any other American citizens’ kids to do that either.”

Brennan pressed, saying it was not clear if the alleged Oklahoma terrorist was radicalized in the United States or before he arrived.

“I don’t really care, Margaret,” Vance responded. “I don’t want that person in my country, and I think most Americans agree with me.”

Brennan was out of ammo and called for a commercial break. Incredibly, “Face the Nation” has a lot of advertising support.

“At what point will these leftwing media hacks figure out that they’re no match for JD?” Donald Trump Jr. posted on X about the exchange.

The interview covered a lot of ground, with Vance outwitting Brennen at every turn. On Pete Hegseth, who was confirmed to lead the Department of Defense with a tie-breaking vote from Vance, Brennen asked, “If the nominee can’t unite your party, how’s he going to lead 3 million people?” As if uniting Republicans is a job requirement of managing the DoD.  

“Pete is a disrupter, and a lot of people don’t like that disruption but, Margaret, that disruption is incredibly necessary,” Vance replied, noting that massive bipartisan measures have kept the U.S. military in many losing wars, and the current military’s recruitment and procurement cost crises render it “totally dysfunctional.”

“We need a big change. Now, admittedly, there are people who don’t like that big change, but it is necessary, and it’s explicitly what Donald J. Trump ran on.”

Perhaps the strangest exchange centered on Brennen pressing Vance to say when the economy would improve, just five days into the administration. It sounded like she expected to see results by now. At least she admits through this questioning that the economy Democrats just handed off is not in great shape.  

“You campaigned on lowering prices for consumers,” Brennen said, questioning Vance in a way no reporter ever pressed Joe Biden when he was in the White House. “We’ve seen all of these executive orders. Which one lowers prices?”

Vance spoke very simply so the journalist could understand, explaining that lowering the cost of energy will lower the cost of everything else.

“How does bacon get to the grocery store? It comes on trucks that are fueled by diesel fuel. If the diesel is way too expensive, the bacon is going to become more expensive,” Vance said. “How do we grow the bacon? Our farmers need energy to produce it, so if we lower energy prices, we are going to see lower prices for consumers, and that is what we’re trying to fight for.”

Brennen questioned Trump’s nomination of Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, noting the Wall Street Journal and National Review have criticized the pick. Do their positions give him pause about the nomination?

“These are publications that attacked Donald J. Trump obsessively. But those publications don’t determine who the president is, the American people do,” Vance said. “Donald J. Trump is the person who determines who his cabinet is, not these publications that I think, frankly, have lost relevance.”

Vance was too polite to say it, but the same could be said of “Face the Nation.”

Vance noted Gabbard has had a military career with a classification at the highest levels for nearly 20 years, and she will be tasked with returning trust to the intelligence services.

“The bureaucrats at our intelligence services have gotten completely out of control,” Vance said. “They’ve been part of the weaponization of our political system—the weaponization of our justice system. We need to have good intelligence services to keep us safe, but part of that is restoring trust in those services, and we think Tulsi is the right person to do it.”  

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.