The Keith Edwards Show - JD Vance Panicked as Damning Unearthed Video Resurfaces

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

Keith Edwards discusses a resurfaced video of JD Vance condemning the misuse of executive power to coerce political opponents—calling it extortion—highlighting the irony as Donald Trump now pressures Harvard in a seemingly similar way. Keith points out the blatant hypocrisy, contrasting Vance’s past stance with Trump’s current actions.

Wow, a video just resurfaced of J.D. Vance attacking one of the main positions of Donald Trump and their administration. And this comes just on the heels of the Lincoln Project, releasing this brilliant ad that I want to show you right now, attacking and exposing what the Donald Trump administration are really doing. You paid your taxes every year. You work to pay for your Social Security every year. You played by the rules. Now Republicans are changing the rules. Social Security is in chaos. Offices closed. Support staff slashed.

Helplines turned off. Starting today, some people could have their entire monthly social security check withheld. But don't worry. You have a retirement fund. You've been careful. Save money. How's that going? Millions of Americans are losing money from their retirement plans as the stock market continues its downward trend.

They don't care. The ones who aren't billionaires have gold-plained pensions, the best government-paid health care. They think it's all a game. You know it's your life. Do you personally expect a recession? I think probably that's a likely outcome. Republicans promised lower prices, more prosperity, a fresh start. What did we get?

We got screwed. Really good, right? Really good. J.D. Vance is also under fire for these comments he made about China. and I think this is like part of the main point is that as that ad says, the Trump administration is doing everything they can to make your life worse, the things that you worked hard for to disappear, the things that you're owed to not get.

And J.D. Vance, when talking like this, is only making it worse. To buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacturer. That is not a recipe for economic prosperity. This is the comment from J.D. Wenz about Chinese people calling them peasants and now listen to a savage reply by a Chinese analyst. You will know the comments from the Vice President J.D. Vance calling the Chinese peasants. How does, where does that leave U.S.-China relations and any sort of talks between the two presidents, do you think? I want to be very brief.

J.D. Vance and I went to the same law school. Your law school. I was 20 years ahead of him, and I'm ashamed for the ignorance and the bigotry he demonstrated, because he called China the peasants, the peasants finance them, the peasants sold them goods. Let me just make one simple point. The middle class in China is larger than the total population in the United States. The urban population in China is about three times as big as the total population of the United States. So my advice to my alumni at Yale Law School, J.D. Vance, is wake up or you go back to school to study more diligently to avoid making yourself a fool in front of the world.

Yeah. So, oh, by the way, I just thought up you want to see this. This is what the back of J.D. Havans's head looks like. Not politically relevant, but still, interesting. What is going on here? What in Gaza? This is what happens when you don't have gay people in your life. to help you. This is an absurdity and an obscenity. And I'm sorry I had to show you, but we must expose the truth. J.D. Vance, what the fuck is going on with your hair? China is also pissed off at J.D. Vance for those comments. And Chinese TikTok is releasing clips like this. China's Gidea, Gidea Kuhl. Brilliant.

And let's get to this clip of J.D. Vance that has resurfaced. I'm going to show you this clip. Then I'm going to tell you why this matters. Whether we have functional constitutional government in this country, if the IRS can go after you

because of what you think or what you believe or what you do, we'd no longer live in a free country. That's what this is all about. And if you think, they're not going to eventually use it against your politics, whatever they might be,

It's ridiculous. They certainly will. I can also assure you that were this a Republican president, a Republican attorney general, and a Republican IRS that we're targeting Democrats, I at least would speak out just as vigorously against it. Because if we are going to respect rule of law, the apparatus of the federal government cannot and should not be used as a partisan tool to bludgeon your enemies. I can tell you that what's become clearly apparent is a culture throughout the federal government. Not just the IRS, but the Department of Justice, the State Department, etc. We've seen that now. There's three different incidents that basically use the government as an instrument of political activity

to target your political opponents, to make life difficult for people that are saying things that you don't like, to make life difficult for whistleblowers that are saying things about the State Department that you don't like. And I believe that all that comes from the top of any organization. So I think that's where the questions are increasingly leading. for the country. These are things you typically see in the third world. I think the conservative Tea Party groups were intentionally targeted as critics of the administration and that people used the power the IRS gave them over these groups to silence one group and let the other group flourish and that's bad

for democracy. They systematically, and for a sustained period of time, targeted people for exercising their most fundamental right, their right to speak in a political fashion. Their free speech rights under the First Amendment. Amendment and they went after conservative groups. They were put on a list. They were denied their taxism status. So of course there was targeting. The point that he's raising with regard to how the IRS is now sort of in this role of stepping on the scales to determine what is or isn't political speech to me seems to be completely outside the realm of what the IRS

ought to be about. Huh. J.D. Vance says this is about whether we have a functional constitutional government in this country. If the IRS can go after you because of what you think or what you believe or what you do, we'd no longer live in a free country. All right. Keep that quote in your head because the Trump administration is showing how they want to assert control at Harvard and elite colleges. And as you may or may not know, Donald Trump said, hey, do these things and you will keep getting money from the government. Don't do these things and we are going to make your life hell.

Columbia, uh, bent the knee. Harvard's not bending the knee. Harvard's not bending the knee. And shout out to anyone at Harvard who is making these decisions because it is far and few between where people in power in who are in elite circles who are actually standing up to this tyrant. So shout out to Harvard for actually doing the right thing, but now it comes at a price. And so that's why we have to make sure that we pay attention because they need our support. Behind the scenes, a task force of about 20 people, most of whom are not publicly known, has met regularly in D.C. since February to discuss reports of discrimination, review grants, and right recommendations in New York Times reported. The Trump administration said it would freeze

Harvard's $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in companies. contracts at the university said it wouldn't comply with its demands. And this is the important part. The Trump administration has reportedly asked the IRS to rescind Harvard's tax-exempt status. Let's just listen to that quote one more time. Functional constitutional, this is about whether we have functional constitutional government in this country. If the IRS can go after you because of what you think or what you believe or what you do, we'd no longer live in a free country. So Jady Vance, according to him, we no longer live in a free country.

And I have to say, I don't know if I necessarily disagree. The one server lining here is that these are a bunch of fucking fools. And there's in a scoop that now the White House is pissed off at Howard Lutnik and his comments on the temporary nature of the tariff exemptions and apparent 180 from where the world thought the trade negotiations were, and I will say that I had a conversation with a very close Trump ally, and they are not happy with this man. So there's a lot of infighting. There's a lot of infighting, and we have to make sure that we get the message out. And the message is there, because as I showed you, there's this JD Vance clip, but I'm going to end with this.

two minutes worth of Republicans criticizing the use of the IRS to punish organizations for their politics. So clip this part out, screen record it, share it. We need to make sure everyone knows that they know that what is happening is wrong. It's un-American. And it means that we live in a less free society if they're using the tools of the government to attack people just for speaking up. And I'll see you next time.