Bulwark Takes - Stephanopoulos Kicks JD Vance Off the Air

Episode Date: October 12, 2025

Jack Cocchiarella takes on JD Vance’s excruciating Sunday-show performance—from dodging questions about the $50,000 bribe to getting booted off the air by George Stephanopoulos.

Hey, it's Jack Cottrell with the bulwark, and today I am so excited to be talking about the time-honored tradition of Republicans going on the Sunday shows to debase themselves. We know that MAGA generally has this humiliation kink, but today, J.D. Vance, oh, he really tapped into it with probably one of the worst performances I've ever seen at Vance. He's usually okay at, not to give him a compliment, but like evading questions and pretending that he's the debate bro, who's kind of, of dunking on the lib. But today it was horrible for a couple of reasons. The first, he was so unable to answer one of George Stephanopoulos's questions that he was literally removed from the show. They just decided that he was going to have to bounce. The other was because Vance once again found himself in a disagreement with Donald Trump in a resurface clip. We're going to get into it all. I want to start with Vance just getting kicked off of air by Stephanopoulos for refusing to answer

a question about Tom Homan because it's what journalists should be doing. And then we'll get into how he had to go against Donald Trump's own words. The White House borders are Tom Homan was recorded on an FBI surveillance tape in September 2024, accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money or give it back? George, you've covered the story ad nauseum. Tom Homan did not take a bribe. It's a ridiculous smear.

And the reason you guys are going after Tom Homan so aggressively is because he's doing the job of enforcing the law. I think it's really preposterous. I know Tom. I think that he's a good man. He gets death threats. He gets attacked. He gets constantly threatened by people because he has the audacity to want to enforce the country's immigration law. I think that it would be a much more interesting story about why is it that Tom Homan, who is simply enforcing American's immigration laws, is getting constantly harassed and threatened to the point of death threats.

That's a much more interesting question that I think journalists should focus. on, we can agree to disagree on that question. Well, wait, you said he didn't take a bribe, but I'm not sure you answered the question. Are you saying that he did not accept the $50,000? George, this story has been covered ad nauseum. He did not take a bribe. Did he accept $50,000? I'm sure that in the course of Tom Homan's life, he has been paid more than $50,000 for services.

The question is that he do something illegal, and there's absolutely no evidence that Tom Homan has ever taken a bribe. different question, I'm asking you, which is why he's working in the administration. I'm asking you, did he accept the $50,000 that was caught on the surveillance tape? Did he accept that $50,000 or not? George, I don't know what you're talking about. Did he accept $50,000 for what?

He was recorded on an audio tape in September 2024 and FBI surveillance tape accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money? Accepting $50,000 for doing what, George, I'm not even sure I understand the question. Is it illegal to take a payment for doing services? The FBI has not prosecuted him. I've never seen any evidence that he's engaged in criminal wrongdoing.

Nobody has accused Tom of violating a crime, even the far-left media like yourself. So I'm actually not sure what the precise question is. Did he accept $50,000? Honestly, George, I don't know the answer to that question. What I do know is that he didn't violate a crime. So you don't, what was caught on the tape? You're saying right now, you don't know whether or not he kept that money. Oh, my God.

I don't know what tape you're referring to, George. I saw media reports that Tom Homan accepted a bribe. There's no evidence of that. And here's, George, why fewer and fewer people watch your program and why you're losing credibility, because you're talking. All right, I've heard enough of J.D. We're going to cut to the end when he gets booted. It's not a weird left-wing rabbit hole.

I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50,000. as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024, and you did not answer the question. Thank you for your time this morning. No, George, I said that I don't. We'll be right back. Honestly, I'm going to clap it up for George Stephanopoulos. I haven't loved maybe any decision coming from ABC recently, so at least they can get a little

checkmark on that. But I'm unsure of any argument that Vance is trying to make here. It's just kind of conjecture and saying, well, if there is a tape, then there isn't a tape, The tape doesn't exist, but what the tape shows is that what happened on the tape is fine, but there is no, what is Vance trying to present? This is a well-documented story, and you can't, I haven't seen it my way out of it. You're just not going to be able to pull that off. This is also one of the most comical examples, and it's sad that we've gotten to the point

of the Trump administration where the corruption becomes comical and not maybe prosecute Tom Homan for committing a crime. But the man got $50,000 cash. I don't know if it was in like crinkled up bills, but in a in a cover bag and like like he was getting a little takeout. Honestly, it sounds delicious as I'm recording right now and, you know, didn't have breakfast, but that's on me. But what is Vance even trying to communicate here other than I don't want to answer?

I don't know. It's usually outside of kind of the debate pro style that he tries to present. But he did try to wiggle his way out of. question rather than not responding when he was on Meet the Press, equally as bad. And it was once again JD going against Donald Trump's words. Okay. I do want to turn to the big news here back at home, the ongoing government shutdown. I want to play you a little bit of what President Trump had to say about shutdowns passed when Barack Obama was president. Take a look. If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States.

They're not going to be talking who the head of the house was. head of the Senate. I really think the pressure is on the president. If you were president, what would you do? Well, very simply, you have to get everybody in a room. You have to be a leader. The president has to lead. You have to get the people in a room and you have to get a deal. Mr. Vice President by President Trump's own calculus, the pressure is on him to get everyone into a room and get a deal. Is it not? Well, Kristen, I wouldn't focus on the political pressure to get a deal. We

really don't care what the poll numbers say. But what about what President Trump said? What's good for the American people? What about what Mr. Trump said? His own words. Well, Kristen, the president was talking back then when Barack Obama was president about the political realities. We are focused now on the governing realities because we're in power and we're trying to make the American people's government work for the American people, despite the fact that Chuck Schumer, the Democrats have shut down the government. We have to- Okay. So it's good that J.D. acknowledged that he is in power. That's the first time that we've heard that. But I also I also think it's funny for him to be saying, we don't care about the political pressure of the American people being upset that they're about to see their premiums double and triple that military families are at food banks right now.

We don't care about that political pressure, right, of people being furious with the government and the way that this administration has decided that public goods will be ripped apart and sold to the highest Peter Thiel bid. But Vance says we're worried about the governing pressure because we know people. are upset that we're governing poorly. That is the same thing. J.D., you should be upset and worried about the poll numbers because they're reflective of how poorly you've governed. But again, he just tries to do the swarmie, smarmy debate bro. Oh, well, the word that you used is an apt for the description of the thing that we care about. No one cares about the semantics. People are upset that in the wealthiest nation in the world, for some reason, the wealthiest people, the wealthiest people to ever work in government have decided maybe instead of getting the care that you

need for a treatable disease, die or go bankrupt in a hospital bed while Donald Trump gets his COVID booster, right? He gets his flu shot, all the while RFK Jr. is telling you that science doesn't exist. It doesn't really compute JD, and you can't words your way out of it. It just is not a good look for you. But on the topic of JD Vance deciding that he's going to come up with new terms and new ideas for how he is going to find his way out of all the problems that this administration is facing, because that's what we need at a time of a real struggle is J.D. Vance to be lecturing us. He's got a new, a new solution to all our problems. It is reminiscent of Donald Trump's two weeks away. J.D. has his own two words that are solving all

our problems. This was unfortunately hilarious, but deeply, deeply troubling. She would be better off for it. Well, where will the money come from then for the troops? Is it tariff revenue? Well, some of it will come from just tightening the belts. Some of it will come from tightening the belts in other areas, but Maria, this is exactly right. A lot of this will come from incoming revenues to the Internal Revenue Service, tariff revenue, but also income tax revenue, that is going to make it possible for us to pay our troops. Tariff revenue. Tariff revenue.

It is the new two weeks away. Tariff revenue. Do you have a problem in your life? Have you thought about tariff revenue? It's just going to be the answer going forward. I guarantee whenever Trump is pressed on anything will be, well, quite frankly, I think the tariffs are going to solve that. There is a, there's a big hole in the center of the earth. Well, maybe we can get some tariffs on it, and that'll work out. It's what he's doing with China, crashing the markets right now. No surprise there. A little bit of insider trading as well. I'm going to pivot from JD. I need to take a moment to talk

about this. I haven't seen nearly enough coverage. Some crypto whale bought what was the massive dip in the market after Donald Trump announced that we're doing tariffs on China and he's blowing up the economy again. So someone was able to buy some puts on crypto and project out that this market would be falling apart and was able to make $100 million in one day with what was clearly insider information. I know this is just another example of the corruption coming out of Donald Trump's administration. And I know this is kind of a pivot to the things that I want to talk about in that J.D. clip. But can we just acknowledge how horrible these people are, the lies that they're willing to tell, the insider trading that is clearly happening because of tariffs. I just had to, I had to do that

aside. But let's get back to J.D.'s answer. This clip went incredibly viral that we saw of troops and their families, waiting at a food bank because Donald Trump will not be sending them their paychecks. And why is that? Well, because he can't make a deal. And he doesn't really seem interested in making a deal. He just doesn't actually have the capacity to govern. Project 2025 wasn't just written out so Donald Trump and the rest of his goons could try to find a way to break the government as quickly as possible. It was compiled because they knew that Donald Trump had no actual interest in governing. It is Spotify playlist. It's remodeling the White House to make it ugly as fuck. And by the way, that Rose Garden, all the cement that's out there, this is another

little bit of my aside. But clearly the reason that Donald Trump did this was because some rich guy got mud on his shoes. He talked about this like twice. I think he's like, well, people don't, they don't like the mud. And it's like this American icon, we're going to destroy it and make it look like Mar-a-Lago because some rich guy got mud on his shoes. But how can you be a military family at a food bank watching Donald Trump give 50K bonuses to ICE? All the while, J.D. talks about tariff revenue, which is actually coming out of your pocket because it's a tax on working people and think that this administration has any idea of what it's doing. You cannot go on the Sunday shows, lie, humiliate yourself, decide that you're going to spin some Tom Homan narrative that doesn't make

sense about the big bag of cash that he took and expect anyone to believe it. It is just embarrassing for J.D. Vance, but that's what he does. I'd also like to point out the fact that we have heard nothing from Donald Trump today except for a truth social post about how Adam Schiff needs to be locked up for Trump's first impeachment. And the last time Donald Trump did an actual interview, it was over text with Jake Tapper, which if you want to talk about humiliation, I'd say for both of them. But this is what the administration has come to. It is J.D. Vance going out, trying to spin failing to do so and embarrassing himself. And we know they're afraid. We know they're panicking, certainly over the No King's protests that are coming up. But I am going to continue to cover this

and join you all on Sundays, sometimes Saturdays. So, but Jady Vance. I don't even want to say do better. This is what he does. Each. Not great. With the bulwark, I'm Jack Cottrella. I'll be seeing you soon.