The Megyn Kelly Show - J.D. Vance on Democrats' Anti-Family Policies, Media Attacks, and Whether Biden Can Remain in Office | Ep. 849

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

Megyn Kelly is joined by Sen. J.D. Vance, GOP vice presidential nominee, to discuss the controversy this week about Vance's prior "childless cat ladies" comments, the Democrats' "anti-family" policies, the full context of Vance's comments, the media and celebrities taking his pro-family comments out of context, his actual support for IVF and parenting of all kinds, the left creating an anti-family society, the need to make things easier for working mothers, the undemocratic way Harris was anointed as the new Democratic nominee, the state of the 2024 race right now, whether Biden is fit to continue serving as president, how Harris was involved in the cover-up about Biden's cognitive decline, the media turning on him and his story now that he's on the presidential ticket, the fraudulent "equity" push by Harris and others, getting the call from Donald Trump offering him the VP spot on his ticket, what his son said to Trump, and more.More from Vance: https://x.com/JDVanceFollow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east. Hey, everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. As the Democratic Party ousts President Joe Biden and elevates Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of its ticket without a single vote having been cast for her in that role. In just a matter of hours, the media suddenly turning all of its focus seemingly to Senator J.D. Vance, Trump's running mate. Donald Trump's number two coming under intense criticism for comments he made three years ago about, quote, childless cat ladies, because this is what Americans who can't pay their mortgages care about. Senator Vance is here to respond to this controversy. But first, we want to start by walking you through how it all began. Going back now to July 2021,

Mr. Vance had just launched his campaign for senator in the great state of Ohio, and he gave a speech to a conservative organization called the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. This was a speech essentially about declining birth rates, and they're bad, by the way, in the United States. They're at a 17-year low, and they continue to go in the wrong direction, and what it means for the future of this country. Mr. Vance talked about how he wanted to see the Republican Party as a pro-family party. He discussed the importance of children and brought up the fact that many top Democratic leaders don't have any kids, questioning what kind of a message the party as a whole

is sending to young Americans. Take a listen. Democrat Party. The names are obvious. They're well-known people. Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who's now the Secretary of Transportation, Cory Booker, AOC. Think all these people. They're different. They come from different walks of life, different parts of the country. What is the one thing that unites every single one of them? Not a single one of them has any children. Look, a lot of people are unable to have kids for very complicated and important reasons. There are people, of course, for biological reasons, medical reasons, that can't have children. The target of these remarks is not them. It's important to point that out. It is one thing to recognize that there are people who don't have children.

It's one thing to recognize that there are people who don't have children through no fault or choice of their own. But it's something else to build a political movement invested theoretically in the future of this country when not a single one of them actually has any physical commitment to the future of this country. Kids are the ultimate way that we find healthy people, at least I think self-meaning in life. We should treat this as a crisis in this country. And we should send the signal to the culture that we are the pro-family party and we're going to back it up with real policy. Now, because Mr. Vance named names in his speech, it caused some headlines at the time, mainly because Vice President Harris is not a mother of her own biological children,

but she's a stepmother. At the same time, Secretary Buttigieg did not have any children. But about a month later, he adopted twin babies. So a few days after those remarks back in 2021, Mr. Vance went on Tucker Carlson's show on Fox to address some of the blowback. And that's when he made the comments about the child, his cat ladies. Watch. We're effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made. And so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. And it's just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats

is controlled by people without children. Well, the Harris team recirculated the comments this week, leading Democrats and the media, the same media currently rewriting history to tell us Kamala Harris was never the border czar, to immediately pile on, on cue. On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton shared it on X and sarcastically wrote, what a normal, relatable guy who certainly doesn't hate women having freedoms. Literally, your husband has been accused of repeated sexual assaults. So take a seat, madam. On Wednesday, actress Jennifer Aniston weighed in, writing, I truly can't believe this is coming from a potential VP of the United States, and urged Senator Vance to think about his own daughter, hoping that she might never need IVF,

which she accused Mr. Vance of being against, which, as we pointed out yesterday, is not true. And it did not end there. Watch. How dare you? You never had a baby. Your wife had a baby. You know who else didn't have kids? George Washington, the father of a nation. Like Kamala, he raised Martha's children. Because they invalidate even the idea of women who use IVF to get pregnant or women who don't have children or women who are stepmoms. Like none of those are valid women to them. Those women don't matter.

They're trying to reinforce this message that the only valid version of America is the America where white women didn't leave the home. My kids are over. Does that make me childless? I want to qualify. He is falling into the line of Donald Trump, offending women, offending minorities. So if you have stepkids, J.D. Vance is saying that you should not have as many rights as everybody else. Like this is a person, him and the former president, they want to control women. Jesus did not have children, right? Joining me now, GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. J.D., Senator, welcome back to the show. It's great to see you.

Good to see you, Megan. Thank you. So Jesus didn't have kids. Therefore, you are wrong. What were you trying to say? I guess they're comparing Kamala Harris to Jesus. I don't know. That doesn't make a ton of sense to me, Megan. But look, I know the media wants to attack me and wants me to back down on this, Megan. But the simple point that I made is that having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way. This is something, of course, we've recognized for hundreds of years in this country that human civilization has always recognized. But there's a deeper point here, Megan. It's not a criticism of people who don't have children. I explicitly said in my remarks, despite the fact the media has lied about this, that this

is not about criticizing people who, for various reasons, didn't have kids. This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child. We have to ask ourselves, Megan, why do we have masking of toddlers years after the pandemic ended? Why do we have the Harris campaign coming out this very morning, Megan, and saying that we should not have the child tax credit, which lowers tax rates for parents of young children? It's because they have become anti-family and anti-kid. And I'm proud to stand up for parents. And I hope that parents out there recognize that I'm a guy who wants to fight for you. I want to fight for your interests. I want to fight for your stake in the country.

And that is what this is fundamentally about. The Democrats in the past five, 10 years, Megan, they have become anti-family. It's built into their policy. It's built into the way they talk about parents and children. And it's time that we call that out. I don't think we should back down from it, Megan. I think we should be honest about the problem. Here's what's crazy. It's not just Senator J.D. Vance, Republican and running mate to Donald Trump saying that just recently there was a long piece, June 10th, 2024 in the New York times. And another one in the New Yorker highlighting a book that's called what are children for on ambivalence and choice in which the authors, leftists, liberals got deep into this

very problem and chastised their own side for the reluctance to have children and the messaging to young women about priorities. It's not just a Republican thing. The honest liberals will admit themselves that somehow the Democrats are running away from family as one of their previous old core values. I'll just give you a couple of excerpts from the New York times piece by these two authors, Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman. Again, this was a month ago. They write for progressives waiting to have children has become a kind of ethical imperative. They go on to say the the success narratives of modern liberal life leave little room for having a family. They say this is not just a recipe for unhappiness. It also reflects a deep confusion.

And they go on to write as follows. The question of children ultimately transcends politics and deciding whether to have them. We confront a philosophical challenge is life, however, imperfect and however challenging, however, fraught with political disagreement and disaster worth living. So this is not, and I could go on. I mean, the New Yorker piece had the similar point. We've seen it from AOC. We've seen it from the hardcore environmentalists on the left in particular, urging people not to have children because they don't see a future for the country or the world. Yeah, Megan, and I think it's profoundly weird and dangerous rhetoric because, you know,

I think most parents would say professional achievements, whether you're a mom or dad, all that stuff eventually fades away. The thing that you're most proud of is having kids, what your kids do, the relationship that you have with your family. That is what I think brings the most meaning to life is family, not all these weird little accomplishments and degrees and everything else, right? It's family that really brings the most meaning to our lives. And Megan, this comment that I made was actually motivated in part by a conversation I had with my wife, where she at the time had two babies. We hadn't yet had a third. And she was talking about how she felt this

incredible professional pressure to not have kids because it set back her professional advancement. And what a weird society that we've set up where moms who want to work that we can promote a real culture of life. You started your monologue, Megan, talking about how we have the lowest birth rate. And basically in our history in this country, what our young moms and dads are telling us is they don't feel comfortable in this society bringing new life into the world. That is a catastrophic problem. And it's interesting when I raise this issue about we don't have enough babies, a lot of liberals and a lot of people on the left will say, well, we can just replace American children with immigrants. Well, look, there's nothing against immigrants. Obviously, I'm married to the daughter of immigrants. But if your society is not having enough children to replace itself, that is a profoundly dangerous and destabilizing thing. You look across history. That's a real problem. So I just think that we

have to say, Megan, having kids is good. Being a parent changes your perspective on the world. That is not a bad thing to stand up for parents. In fact, it's the best thing. If our politics isn't standing up for parents, then what the hell are we doing, Megan? All right. I'm giving you the New Yorker again. This is the first was from The New York Times. Here's the New Yorker, how liberals talk about children by Jay Caspian Kang. This is from June. This is a month ago. And it ends with the following. He talks about how this person, Jay, talks about how the messaging from leftists around children is all about their economic value, how much they're going to cost, what kind of a burden they're going to be, as opposed to the goodness they bring into the world and our lives. And the piece ends as follows. We should talk about them as a universal and immutable good. So that's exactly what you did in those remarks, JD. And I understood it completely. And I think even the left, if they're honest, understands that piece of it.

Here's where I think it gets controversial and where, you know, your attacks are coming in from. Sure. It was this piece where you then talked about the relative value of voting, of a person's voting rights, a parent versus somebody who isn't. Here's the that piece of the original remarks and so forth. The Democrats are talking about giving the vote to 16-year-olds, but let's do this instead. Let's give votes to all children in this country, but let's give control over those votes to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power. You should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic than people who don't have kids. Let's face the consequences and the reality. And all the usual suspects will criticize

me about this in the coming days. Well, doesn't this mean that non-parents don't have as much of a voice as parents? Doesn't this mean that parents get a bigger say in how our democracy functions? Yes, absolutely. So do you stand by that? Well, Megan, look, I'm obviously doing a thought experiment there where Democrats have talked about giving children the right to vote. And I'm saying, experiment there where Democrats have talked about giving children the right to vote. And I'm saying, well, if we're going to give children the right to vote, shouldn't we give parents the say over how that vote? You know, in so many other areas of life, we say that parents determine what's best for their children. If we're going to give kids the right to vote, it might as well be true in that scenario, too.

So I think, again, the point that I'm trying to make here, Megan, is that having kids is a profoundly life altering thing. It's a fundamentally good thing. And the Democratic Party has become very anti child in their messaging and in their public policy. That is what I want to change. And that is what I think the Republican Party stands for, where the party of parents, where the party of kids. And we want to fight for parents and children to have good lives. I have to say, Megan, just one of the things that's been profoundly dishonest about the media, and of course they're dishonest, they always do this, but they've taken this incredibly out of context. They say that I'm opposed to IVF or that I'm criticizing people who have fertility problems. Megan, I said explicitly in my remarks that I wasn't talking about people who couldn't have

children. I was talking about people who have turned anti-child into the ethic of their entire party. That's a fundamentally different thing. And it's obvious that the Democrats don't want to own up to the fact that their party has become very anti-family. You have Hollywood celebrities saying, oh, well, J.D. Vance, what if your daughter suffered fertility problems? Well, first of all, that's disgusting because my daughter is two years old. And second of all, if she had fertility problems, as I said in that speech, I would try everything I could to try to help her because I believe families and babies are a good thing.

That's the whole point is if you believe families and babies are a good thing, you should be trying to promote life being, you should try to promote the fact that we want to have a good family policy in this country. That is what's so profoundly wrong about where the Democrats have gone. And I think we have to fight back against this, Megan. I think a lot of people, you know, the media has been attacking me and this is how it goes. We cannot give up an inch on this. We're the pro family party. I think I want to keep us that way. Just to, you know,

and I would like to talk about the IVF because as far as I understand it, you oppose the Democrats' bill on IVF, like allowing it in all states, but also providing funding through everybody's insurance for it, which is more controversial. But you supported Ted Cruz's

and Katie Britt's bill to protect the IVF, if my memory is correct. But I guess I'll just ask you now, where do you stand on IVF? Well, first of all, Megan, I know beautiful children. I mean, kids that play at my house with my kids that have been brought into the world through IVF. Of course, we want to make it easier for moms and dads to choose life if, of course, they're in a terrible situation where they have fertility problems. I think the problem with the Democrats' approach on this is they're trying to take away religious

liberty. And you just go back to Kamala Harris, Megan. This is a person, of course, who has tried to say that members of the Knights of Columbus should not serve in public office. This is a person who's tried to say that Catholic hospitals and Christian hospitals should have to do IVF in the way the Democrats want them to do it. I'm talking about religious liberty here. I think we have to protect the rights of Christian hospitals to operate the way

that they want to operate. But of course, that's totally consistent with promoting fertility treatments for parents who need it. And I believe in this stuff, again, because I believe babies are a profound moral good. I think it transforms society. I've seen friends of mine become totally different people when they became fathers. I know my wife would say the same thing about her friends who became mothers. This is a good thing. And I hate that our politics has become so profoundly anti-child. I want to change that, Megan. I'm going to keep on fighting on this. And honestly, so profoundly pro-victim. I've never seen, I have seen, but it's yet another instance in which you see all these left-wing politicians, people rush to play the victim in response to these

comments, right? Like Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords, who were not included in the scope of your remarks. You did not name them, but they've rushed of course, because he's being considered reportedly for her VP for her running mate. And so they ran out to offer the following comment. And you know, Jennifer Aniston was another like taking issue, as I mentioned in the intro, as if your comments were about her personally, but I I'll say something to Jennifer Aniston. You know what? I don't know what your child situation is, but you should read this piece in the New York times. You should read this piece that says as follows liberal conventional wisdom encourages people to spend their twenties on journeys of personal and

professional self-discovery and self-fulfillment. Children are treated as a bonus round, something to get to only after completing a long list of achievements, getting a degree, forging a satisfying and well-established career, buying house, cultivating the ideal romantic partnership, and making the point that this is an empty life, that without the ultimate goal of children, you are not, they write as follows, having children remains the most basic and accessible way for most of us to affirm the value of our lives and that of others. And if you realize that too late, you might be feeling bitter. You might find yourself in a situation where you have no choice but IVF because your most

fruitful childbearing years have passed you. It's a choice every woman has to make. It's not anybody else's fault if you choose to pursue career and find yourself in that situation, as frankly, I did. But I got lucky and IVF worked for me. OK, so in any event, I want to go back because Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly are taking aim at you saying as follows. Gabby Giffords, of course, was was shot in a terrible mass shooting incident in which she was the target several years ago. And she's married to Mark Kelly, former astronaut, now senator.

She writes, Vice President Kamala Harris is a proud mom of two remarkable stepchildren. And so am I. Captain Mark Kelly and I were trying to have a baby through IVF before I was shot. And that dream was stolen from us to suggest we are somehow lesser is disgraceful. How do you respond to that? Well, of course, first of all, Kamala Harris, you know, I don't know her family situation. I've read in the media that she's got two stepkids. I wish her stepchildren and Kamala Harris and her whole family the very best. The point is not that she's lesser.

The point is that her party has pursued a set of policies that are profoundly anti-child. These people want to conflate the personal situation here with the fact that I'm making an argument that our entire society has become skeptical and even hateful towards the idea of having kids. I mean, you have young women and young men who say, we don't want to have children because of climate change. We don't want to have children, of course, because housing prices are too expensive. And that's a concern I take seriously and I think is a very real problem. But people have to remember that when you look back on your life, you talk to people, the thing that they remember most is not their career or their education. It's their family.

And I just want us to be a country that's pro-family. Of course, what happened to Gabby Giffords was terrible. I wish her the best. Of course, Kamala Harris has a great family. I wish them all the best. But why are they pursuing a set of policies that make having families harder? Why are they wanting to mask toddlers years into the pandemic? Why are they pursuing a set of policies that make having families harder? Why are they wanting to mask toddlers years into the pandemic? Why are they saying that we should get rid of the child tax credit, which lowers taxes for working families with children? They are creating an anti-family and anti-child society. And I think it's important for Republicans to fight back against this, Megan, and not

take the bait here. We wish the best for these people's families, but they should not use their families as a pretext to pursue all these ridiculous anti-family policies for the rest of Americans. Well, I was going to say, in defense of Kamala Harris and other childless leftists, plenty of leftists with children tried to mask our children interminably and did not care about their own kids' suffering or ours. Last comment on this, then we'll move on. The childless cat lady. Would you like to comment on that? That reportedly has many conservative women outraged, though when I clicked on the Newsweek article suggesting as much, I saw three quoted.

Look, Megan, I've heard from a lot of conservative women and frankly, a lot of liberal women who said, I'm actually glad that you pointed out that there's become something profoundly anti-family in our public policy and in our public conversation. Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I've got nothing against cats. I've got nothing against dogs. I've got one dog at home and I love him, Megan. But look, this is not, people are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said. And the substance of what I said, Megan, I'm sorry, it's true. It is true that we become anti-family. It is true that the left has become anti-child. It is simply true that it's become way too hard to raise a family. You know, Megan, you know, I myself had a lot of

step-parents when I was growing up. I certainly was enriched by some of those step-parents and frankly not enriched by others. My own wife is a working mother. You hear leftists say, J.D. wants to keep women in the home. My own wife, I've supported her career for my entire life. I'm proud of it. But because I'm proud of it and because I supported my wife, Megan, I've seen the fact that it's hard to be a working mom, that the corporate world is fundamentally hostile to working mothers and working fathers because we have made stupid and bad choices as a country.

I want us to make different choices. And I think it's shameful for the Democrats to hide behind their personal circumstances when they have supported policies that have made it harder on working moms and dads. And they're still this very day doing the exact same thing. You mentioned Usha. Joy Reid, in that montage of media reaction I played, suggested that what your comments get to is that the only valid version of America is a white woman who stays at home.

So that's your position, according to her. You only value white stay-at-home moms. It's just so disgusting, Megan. And look, I love my wife so much. I love her because she's who she is. Obviously, she's not a white person. And we've been attacked by some white supremacists over that. But I love Usha. She's such a good mom. She's such a brilliant lawyer, and I'm so proud of her. But yes, her experience has given me some perspective in the

way in which it's really hard for working families in this country. And a big part, you know this, Megan, going back years, well before I was in politics, I've always wanted to be the kind of person who supports parents and fulfilling their dreams and having as many kids as they want to. It's profoundly important for our society. We have no future without kids. People forget that. If you don't have children, you do not have a future. You cannot import the next generation. You've got to actually have stable, healthy, happy families. President Trump and I, our entire agenda is about promoting it, promoting schools that are good for kids,

bringing down housing costs so that if young families want to start a family, they can afford to. These are the things that are important in our public policy and in our discourse. I'm going to keep on fighting for them, Megan. I'm actually glad the left has attacked me over this because I think it started an important conversation about how our society became so profoundly anti-family. I get it. So you're saying just for the record, you value stepmothers, you value people who have nephews and nieces. You're not, you're basically just trying to make the point that children are valuable and that we need more of them, not people like this who are making it very clear that they don't want kids or that they actually have to factor in environmental causes to their desire to have children. And I'll give you AOC in 2019, number five. Scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult. And it does lead, I think,

young people to have a legitimate question, you know, should is it OK to still have children? According to Morning Consult, one third of young people agree with that sentiment, one third. And those obviously are Democrats. It's not going to be conservatives thinking considering not having kids because these catastrophic environmental forecasts, which, you know, don't come true. So they've given up their, the joy of having a child over these catastrophic forecasts they're getting from Greta Thunberg. I do want to say this, um, the same people lecturing you right now on this issue, this comment, this throwaway comment or whatever the position are the same people pushing through the revised title nine.

That's going to force my daughter and eventually yours. If we don't change things to shower with biological boys, when they're in the fourth grade, when they're in the eighth grade, when they're in the 10th grade, compete against biological boys who could hurt them in sports like volleyball, soccer, field hockey, all of which we've seen, and who are just fine mutilating people like Chloe Cole, who at 15 had her depression mistaken for gender confusion, and they chopped off her breasts after one meeting. They're fine with that, Senator, fine. They're totally fine with that, Megan. If you want to talk about childless women, let's talk about the victims of migrant crime under Kamala Harris's administration, people who have been deprived of their children because we've

led in violent criminals into this country who have killed American citizens. Let's absolutely talk about the fact that they have become pro-mutilation of children. The Democrats have completely lost the plot here. And again, of course, we love stepmoms. We love aunts and uncles. You know, Megan, I was raised by a whole collection of step-parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. We love all of these people, but we want to make life easier for them because of that. And we have to accept, Megan, that our country has become anti-family. You see it in our birth rate. You see it in how many young people, to your point, say that they don't want to have children. This is a crazy change that's happened just in the past 20 or 30 years.

I'm not going to stand by while it happens. I think it's important for us to call it out. We're going to keep on doing that, even if the left attacks us, especially if the left attacks us, because sometimes it's the truest and most important points that cause them to attack you the most. I went out there to Ohio. I met you and Usha. I met Aunt Wee. I met your extended family. Absolutely wonderful, beautiful people. And yes, you have amongst the closest family bonds of anybody I've ever known, which is why it was weird for me, having read your book back in 16, done an in-depth profile of you in 17, to hear Governor Beshear of Kentucky, where you were born and spent your early years, attack you as like a fake hillbilly,

as sort of appropriating their culture. I've got to play a little bit of this because I'd love to get your reaction. Here he is. J.D. Vance is a phony. He's fake. I mean, he first says that Donald Trump is like Hitler, and now he's acting like he's Lincoln. I mean, the problem with J.D. Vance is he has no conviction, but I guess his running mate has 34. He claims to be from eastern Kentucky, tries to write a book about it to profit off our people, and then he calls us lazy. And this makes me angry, but it especially makes me angry about our people in eastern Kentucky. Listen, these are the hardworking coal miners that powered the Industrial Revolution, that helped build the strongest middle class the world has ever seen, helped us win two world wars. And he called them lazy, acting like he understands our culture.

And he's one of us. He's not. Yet another VP hopeful on the Harris ticket. Your thoughts? Well, first of all, in Eastern Kentucky, people call Steve or Andy Beshear, I should say, Lexington liberals, because the guy has no connection to Eastern Kentucky. This is a guy, Megan, who got his first law firm job from his daddy's law firm, who inherited the governorship from his daddy, who's never had to work for anything his entire life. And what he said about me is despicable. You know, I have deep connections to Eastern Kentucky. I spent a lot of my early life there. I still have a lot of family that's there, but most importantly, he is supporting Kamala Harris, who wants to put all of those coal miners out of work. She supports banning fracking. She supports destroying the

livelihood that has served as the foundation for a lot of those families. So he wants to come after me and my personal story. The guy was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. And we all know that if his preferred candidate, Kamala Harris, wins, those people will be in deep poverty and our country is going to have skyrocketing energy prices. That is not standing up for people. That's lying to people and using these weird personal attacks to conceal the fact that Kamala Harris has the

most anti-energy policies we've ever seen in a candidate. And it's going to be people in eastern Kentucky and Pennsylvania and Michigan who are going to hurt the most if Kamala Harris gets in there and bans natural gas and bans coal, which is exactly what she said she wants to do. The same media that is obsessing every day over your comments in a throwaway interview with Tucker three years ago. And that one phrase is not covering any of that with respect to Kamala Harris. They are not getting into the fact that she wants to take away private health insurance, the fact that she wants to ban fracking, the fact that she wants to get rid of the filibuster so she can push through the green new deal. We could go on. Ben Carson was on with Tucker

and said today the media is trying to make her into MLK in a dress. What's your reaction to the coronation of Kamala Harris as the nominee and the complete whitewashing of her policy history? Yeah, well, I was talking with President Trump about this last night, Megan. We had dinner and, you know, for three weeks, the media was honest about Joe Biden and they were honest in the service of cynical politics. They lied for years about Joe Biden's mental acuity and they decided to be honest because they knew that they could force him out of the race. And now that they forced him out of the race, they've gone back to dishonesty. They completely ignore that Kamala Harris is the most liberal senator in the country. She was the most liberal senator when she served. She's the border czar at a time of historic open

borders. She's encouraged illegal immigration, even though it's brought in a ton of fentanyl that's killed a lot of innocent people. She wants to ban fracking, which would destroy manufacturing and energy in this country. She has on every single issue stood for the far left of the Democratic Party instead of working people in this country. This is not a hard case to make. And as much as the media

is going to lie about Kamala Harris, I wouldn't even say, she's like a mixture, according to the press, she's like a mixture of MLK and Abraham Lincoln, right? She can do no wrong. The problem is her record is her record, Megan, and she can't run away from it. We cannot let people who are going to destroy the American manufacturing and energy economy take over the reins of power. We've seen it for three and a half years. It's been bad.

It's going to be a lot worse when you get somebody who's even more liberal than Biden in there. And yet the polls are tightening. You've seen that there was just one out hit late, late last night, New York times, Sienna, Trump, 48 Harris, 47. That last poll in early July had Trump plus six over Joe Biden. And then we had Emerson polling on yesterday and they were talking about how it's getting tighter in the swing states too, including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, now that she's on the ticket. So to Republicans feeling, you know, who were feeling euphoric at the RNC, that this is going to be a slam dump, slam dunk. What's your message? Well, look, we have to work, Megan. We have to run through the finish line. This election is not going to be easy.

Obviously, Kamala Harris is going through a bit of a honeymoon phase. We all expect the polls to tighten a little bit. But I think the structure of this race is fundamentally very simple. Do you want higher inflation? Do you want lower prices on groceries and housing? If you want higher inflation, vote for Kamala Harris. If you want lower prices, vote for Donald Trump. Do you want a wide open border? Then vote for Kamala Harris. If you want lower prices, vote for Donald Trump.

Do you want a wide open border? Then vote for Kamala Harris. If you want to close down that border and get the drug dealers and the fentanyl out of our communities, vote for President Trump. The contrast is very simple. Kamala Harris has supported all of the most unpopular policies. So yeah, she's gonna get a little bit of a honeymoon, Megan,

but the truth is the truth. She's extremely liberal. Her policies have been bad for this country. They'd be even worse if we gave her another four years. We can't do that. And I think Americans are smart enough to recognize that we just have to prosecute our case, get our voters out there, make sure people are knocking on doors and getting the message out. That is the job of a presidential campaign. And I feel very good about where we are. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has admitted he can't serve a second term, but has not admitted that he probably

shouldn't be serving this one and the remaining six months. We're in a provocative position now with respect to our security as world leaders take a look at what we all saw from the Oval Office the other night and the days and weeks before. And I wonder your feelings on whether

the sitting president needs to step down. Well, look, Megan, we have a constitutional process, the 25th Amendment. If the president can't run for president, how can he possibly serve as president? And it drives home how much this was totally a cynical political ploy. This is not about public service. Kamala Harris lied, Megan, for an entire presidential term about Joe Biden's mental fitness. She only told the truth when she saw an opportunity to cast him aside and the entire Democratic Party saw an opportunity to cast him aside to salvage their political prospects. They saddled America for three and a half years with

a president who can't do the job, and they only changed their minds when they recognized there was a political opportunity to get rid of him. That is not public service. That is political cynicism in a way that's made our country so much weaker, Megan. And we have to call that out. And importantly, if Joe Biden cannot do the job, he's got to step down. And I don't know anybody who's watched Biden over the last few weeks who can say with confidence, this is a guy who could actually serve as president of the United States. The fact that Democrats are still covering for him drives home how shameful their conduct has been over the last few years. So, I mean, when you say he can't serve as president, do you, because that, are you saying he should step down? Because of course that would elevate her

and that might make her tougher to beat. I don't think it would make her tougher to beat, but Joe Biden cannot continue to serve as president if he can't do the job, right? This is not about politics, Megan. This is about, do we have somebody who can actually do the job as president? Clearly, Joe Biden can't. The Democrats have lied about that fact. And most importantly, because it's only six months, we've just got to remind the American people that the reason why we have a president who can't do the job is because Kamala Harris lied to people. Remember, she said that he was sharp as a tack just a few months ago. She said that he was totally capable of doing the job and the entire Democratic Party joined her.

We now know they were lying to us. And the only way to penalize that dishonesty is to vote them out in November. That's what I'm trying to convince every American to do. You know, one of the main concerns, as you know, voters have in this election is the economy. I mean, it just, the economy and immigration remain one and two, depending on the day, they reverse positions. And I don't, I haven't seen the evidence that Kamala Harris has any ability to address the economy. We've seen what she's done at the border, although they're now denying all responsibility for it. Though every single paper, the New York Times, the Washington Post,, all whether they use the term borders are not usually they did said she had been appointed in the lead position over it. But here's the thing.

Her approach to the country and I assume to the economy as well continues to go back to this term of equity. She sees any difference in America's economic position or any position as relating to equity and our problems with it in America. And she explained it herself in this mashup that, forgive me, I don't know who put it together, but we'll get it. I wanted to place some of her thoughts on it and get your reaction on that issue of equity versus equality in SOC 26. So there's a big difference between equality and equity. Equality suggests often everybody should get the same thing. Well, that often assumes everybody started out in the same place as opposed to equity, which is everyone should end up in the same place.

And if you then understand not everybody started out in the same place, you understand some people need more. So we all end up in the same place. Right. principle of what we must do in the spirit and in the interest of equity to put equity firmly at the center of our economic policy. That was by a Twitter account called and wokeness was a great follow. What do you make of this notion? It's totally crazy talk, Megan. Look, I think most Americans, regardless of their skin color, would say we want people to work hard to actually get ahead, right? We want people who

benefit from this great American system to benefit if they work hard and played by the rules. You can't say everybody has to end up in the same place because some people are going to work a little bit harder than others, and that's fine. And we want those people to be rewarded. The other crazy thing about this, Megan, is it justifies some really monstrous discrimination from the Harris administration in the name of so-called equity. Let's just take one example. There was a farm program that the Harris administration put in place to help farmers who are trying to get off to a start in farming. A great program, something I support, but I think it should apply

to farmers, whether they're white or black or any other skin color. The Harris administration explicitly said, if you're a white farmer, don't apply. A court found that that was illegal. And that monstrous level of discrimination based on skin color is what is justified when people start appealing to equity instead of equality under the law. The fundamental American principle is we treat everybody the same. If you work a little bit harder, you should be rewarded for it. If you don't work as hard, you shouldn't be rewarded for it. But you don't discriminate against people based on their skin color because you have some crazy left-wing notion that you have to put everybody at the exact same place at the end

of the day. It sounds kind of okay, kind of weird, depending on your perspective. But if you think about what it justifies in our government, it is taking us back 50 years, discrimination on the basis of law, discrimination on the basis of skin color. It's bad news, Megan, and I don't think we should go for it. It sounds kind of communist is what it sounds. And it's pretty alarming that that decision you made, you referenced about the Biden-Harris administration on the farmers and the ranchers would give the help to black farmers, irrespective of their financial situation. So literally Oprah Winfrey could say she has this ranch out in Montecito and that she wanted to take advantage of the program and she would get it. And some struggling farmer or rancher

in Appalachia would be denied if he happened to be white. It was insane. And discrimination on the basis of race is illegal. And so that's why it was struck down. You know, it wasn't so long ago that the same people piling on you now, Joy Reid, who says you only care about white moms who want to stay at home, even though you're married to a non-white mom who is not staying at home. Just crazy talk. They were in love with you after Hillbilly Elegy until, you know, because they thought you were like a Trump whisperer. You were the guy who could help them understand the evil man who had ascended to the presidency. But there was an interesting exchange that you had on Joy Reid's show back in the day. This is 16 discussing your book. We pulled it up just for kicks. Here it is. Katie, thank you so much for being here. I have read so many think pieces about your book and

seen so many interviews with you. I have the book right here. Can't wait to dive into it. But your story, first of all, is fascinating. So the way you went from sort of Rust Belt country to Yale. One of the things that's really fascinating about your story, J.D., is how similar some of the pathologies you talk about are to the pathologies that normally people assign to African-Americans. Right. That, you know, these ideas about the way you're raised, you're raised mostly by your grandparents. The way that you were able to use opportunity like the military to get a college degree. That's very familiar across racial lines. So why do you suppose there's such a huge gulf and distance ideologically between African-Americans and people from where you like the ones you came from? Well, obviously a lot of it goes back to 40 or 50 years ago when, when the two groups sort of diverged because of, of, of certain policies that were supported. A big part of it is just that because of the way that black Americans have been discriminated against legally,

I think black Americans have tended to focus on a politics of race and which party is going to provide the most racial uplift or tear down the most legal barriers. Whereas white Americans have typically voted their pocketbook voted a politics of class. And so they've tended to not necessarily overlap. Pretty fascinating. By the way, you look so young. It's crazy what's happened to you in the past eight years. It was before the beard, Megan. That's a long time ago. Well, yeah, I feel like Usha's done a good job with you, JD. You're kind of, you know, you're sharper dressing and you got, I like the beard. Yeah, you gotta chill out with that. She's already arrogant enough about a lot of things. She deserves to be. But I think you were making a good point there. And I think, you know, even Joy Reid could see it back then. Now, maybe not.

Well, look, it's very simple. And actually, I think it's started to change, by the way, Megan. I think you see a lot of black and white Americans voting more along class lines, voting more along who's actually best for me. There are a lot of black energy workers who are not going to benefit from the policies of a Harris administration to destroy the American energy industry. So I do think that's slowly starting to change, but it is interesting to sort of hear how fascinated these people were with my story five, 10 years ago. And now that I am on the presidential ticket, they've decided that I'm the worst possible guy in the world. It's, it's fascinating to me. It's not surprising Megan. And it's kind of what I signed up for, right? I mean, I want to make people's lives better. My whole idea here, and the reason I accepted President Trump's invitation to join

the ticket is because I think that Americans have been screwed over by a lot of stupid policies. I'd like to change that. And at the cost of changing that as people like Joy Reid used to say nice things about me, and now they lie about me, whatever. As Harry S. Truman said, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. I think it's an honor to be here and everything that comes along with it, I just see as a necessary part of having to do this job. When Trump named you as his running mate,

we revisited some of your bio and one of the points I made that day was, this is a man whose life has been formed by strong women. That's very clear. That's a fact. It's not spin from mama, your, your grandma to your mom. Oh, it was a complicated relationship and remain. So I'm sure to your sister, Lindsay, with whom you're very close to aunt we, and then you move on to Yale law school. And there's Amy Chua, our mutual friend who we love, who encouraged you to

write the book and change your life and saw in you this special story in person that ultimately would lead you to enter the national conversation. And then Usha, who you met at Yale Law School, who I know has been responsible in large part for teaching you how to love, how to be in a relationship, how to conquer some of those childhood demons. So to me, it's, it's a great success story of not just dating events, but of American women, strong American women from mama with her guns and her love of the F bomb to your own mom with her addiction problems, though she managed to make her imprint, um, to the beautiful Lindsay, the sisterly love who beat herself up for not protecting you more ultimately to the beautiful Lindsay, the sisterly love who beat herself up for not

protecting you more ultimately to this more sophisticated, incredible dynamic wife, Usha, who's taking you on the next leg of the journey. So how do you see those women in like your arc with them, JD? Well, I think it is the through line of my life, Megan, that there have been strong women who have made it possible for me to have a good life. And you mentioned Mamaw. I've heard so many Mamaw stories from friends and family just in the last few days, people who have come out of the woodwork, obviously, because we gave this speech at the RNC convention. And one story I heard, Megan, just a couple of days ago from my aunt is we were in a car and I was so young, I'd just forgotten this story. And we were driving to Eastern Kentucky and a motorcyclist pulls up and he's kind of swerving

and he's being aggressive and he's just being really ridiculous and kind of scaring us in the car. And I pointed it out. My aunt points it out. She's driving and ma'am all reaches underneath her seat, pulls out a 44 Magnum and taps it on the window. And this guy sort of almost swerves and crashes his motorcycle. Well, that was the end of the motorcycle harassment. And that's just the type of person Mamaw was, but she was just this incredibly strong person. And yeah, you know, Usha is more sophisticated in the ways of the world, but I think what is what sort of unites them is one, they're very tough. Two, they're incredibly protective of their family. Three, they're very smart, right? Mamaw wasn't well-educated, but she was a very brilliant person. And, you know,

the only downside I'll say of Usha is I asked the convention planners, I said, what about having my wife introduce me before my speech? I'm not making that mistake ever again, Megan, because she did such a good job and I was so proud of her, but I'm not going to have to follow that act ever again, Megan, because she did such a good job and I was so proud of her, but I'm not going to have to follow that act ever again. Right. I'm going to make president Trump. She, she really was. And she, she just her nature, like the way she projects is self-deprecating nature is what makes her so attractive and charming. Yeah. And, and, and she's just herself. And you know what, what I was worried about having never been in the spotlight is I just want you, honey, to be is I said this to you. I just want you to be who you are because I love you.

The world's going to fall in love with you. And she just went out there. She didn't accept the speechwriter speech. She wrote her own speech, said exactly what she wanted to say. And she did such a good job with it. And I just, you know, as a guy who's very in love with his wife, I was very, very proud of her. But not following that speech again, Megan. So how did you feel when you got the call from Trump?

You know, you and I talked when you were you weren't even in politics. You had just returned to Ohio from San Francisco. You were telling me you just couldn't take like the people openly defecating on the sidewalks. It was a lot from this kid, this kid from the Midwest. You weren't even in politics. And now, you know, flash forward eight years later, you get the call from President Trump asking you to be his running mate. How did he put it to you? How did he ask you and how did it feel? Well, the funny thing is, we're in the hotel room

in Milwaukee. We had just arrived. He apparently called and I didn't see the call because it went straight to voicemail or something. So I call him back and he answers the phone. He says, you know, JD, you missed a very important phone call. Maybe I'll have to give this to somebody else. So my heart kind of stops. Right. And I tense up really, really powerfully. But the funniest thing, Megan, is because we're in the hotel room with my seven year old kid, he's talking about his Pokemon cards. Right. So I'm trying to have this conversation with the president of the United States offering me the vice presidential nod. And in the background, my seven year old's talking about is Pokemon cards, right? So I'm trying to have this conversation with the president of the United States offering me the vice presidential nod. And in the background, my seven-year-old's talking about Pikachu. I'm like, God, for the love of God, son, for 30 seconds, just let me have this conversation. And it's funny, the president hears him and says,

put him on the phone. And then asks my seven-year-old, what do you think about this statement I'm about to put out nominating your dad for vice president? And my son listens to it and says, oh, that sounds nice. And it's just such a surreal moment. My wife actually got a photo of me on the phone with the president. You know, what an honor, right? I mean, that's the thing that I try to just remind myself of every single day is I didn't come from anything material, right? I did not have the advantages of a lot of people in politics, but I had an incredibly loving family. And I just feel so grateful to have this opportunity. And as I said to the convention, Megan, that the most important thing that I think I can bring to the ticket

is to never forget where I came from, to never forget the perspective of people who are struggling. Like, you know, it's people like Mamal who really suffer when grocery prices go up as much as they is to never forget where I came from, to never forget the perspective of people who are struggling. Like, you know, it's people like Mamal who really suffer when grocery prices go up as much as they have under the Harris administration. It's people like mom who struggled with addiction, but she's been clean for 10 years now, who really, really struggle when you have this poisonous fentanyl coming across our southern border.

So I just want to remember where I came from, serve the people who made me who I am. And I think if I do that, I'll be a fine vice president and the country will be better for it. But that's my goal. Senator and vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, what a pleasure. Great to see you again. Hope you come back. Thanks, Megan. See you. And thanks to all of you for joining us today. Wow. Would love your thoughts on our interview and this controversy and this ticket and how you like the chances, even though the race is tightening. Uh, you can email me Megan M E G Y N at Megan Kelly.com. Or you can go to our website, Megan Kelly.com and sign up for our once a week email where we give you all the news in 60 seconds

or less. What a fascinating guy. He's so interesting. It's amazing to me to see the media pile on this guy like he's the devil. Does he seem like the devil to you? It's just absurd. At the same time when they're running cover for her, literally scrubbing her record. You know, you got websites calling her the most liberal, nonpartisan websites calling her the most liberal senator in the Senate. Now scrubbing that. Just happened to scrub it this week. They say, oh, that was our policy. Every once in a while, like every year or so, we take another. Oh, really? Just happened to hit this week that you decided to make her not the most liberal senator? By the time they had labeled her that, her senatorial days were over. So what changed in terms of her liberal

Senate policies? Nothing. She ran for president. The borders are nonsense. Do you know how many times the mainstream media called her that? And forget that label, just said she was in charge of the border. She'd been placed in charge of the border, in the lead position in charge of the border. Now it's like, what border? What? That was Mayorkas. That media has decided to make these comments some national hurricane. And it's not going to be just this. We talked about this the other day because Kamala Harris is a woman of mixed race. They are going to make everything about race and gender.

Right. She's Asian. She's Indian. And she's black. Her dad was Jamaican. And her mom was trying to remember exactly. But she's Indian and she's black. Her dad was Jamaican and her mom was trying to remember exactly, but she's from India. In any event, everything is going to make, is going to be about race and gender. And so any small comment that he's ever made,

of course, that Trump's ever made is going to be ginned up and turned into a national news story because this is how they motivate their base. The Republicans are racist. The Republicans are sexist. We're the only good party. Ignore the fact that we're going to mutilate your 14 year olds. Ignore the fact that your daughter's going to face partial paralysis in a volleyball game because we insist on making biological boys have access to her sports and her private spaces. That's pro woman. Even if you're too stupid to understand it, the trick is just so old and watching them all rush to condemn, you know, a comment like this, it's just gotten so tiresome. I've seen it so many times now when it first happens to you and

you haven't been out there. Maybe some of our young viewers are experiencing this. It might seem genuine. Oh no, like they're really mad. Like this is bad. What he said. Once you get to be my old age, you start to see the patterns for what they are. This is a manipulation. Why do you think the potential vice presidential running mates to her are all over JD Vance. Do you think it's genuine outrage? Sure. Sure. You know, it's just not to mention the number of things that the left has said about women that they're fine with. You know, they, what are they, they were calling Casey DeSantis, the Walmart Melania. They called Melania Trump in the New York times, a mannequin when Trump was running the first time they've called Casey DeSantis and others. Um, what is it? Uh, the step, uh, not Stepford,

the, uh, what's the show, the handmaid's tale, like that there some sort of handmade tale version of life, not to mention what they said about Amy Coney Barrett, same thing. They were wearing those handmade tells outfit at her, at her confirmation hearings. That's fine. You can do all of that to Republican women. You can say as Gloria Steinem did about Sarah Palin, a woman only a man could love. That's no problem. But if you use the phrase childless cat lady in sort of a flip moment on Fox news on a cable news show where, you know, that's where you go to be flipped. You're the devil? All right. We report, you decide. Megan at megankelly.com. Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend. We'll see you Monday.

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