In Media Blitz, Vance Covers Trump’s ‘Fascist’ Threats – Mother Jones

Vance thinks everyone should chill out about Trump’s “enemy within” comments.Calvin Stewart/ZUMA

On a Sunday On the morning of the media blitz, vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) attempted to clean up former President Donald Trump’s disturbing comments about his domestic political opponents as “the enemy within.”

In conversations with CNN’s Jake Tapper And NBC’s Kristen WelkerVance tried to downplay, dismiss and change Trump’s repeated characterizations of the Democrats as ‘evil’, ‘dangerous’ and ‘enemies’.

Trump has made such comments several times. Earlier this month, he said told Fox host Maria Bartiromo: “We have the enemy from without and then we have the enemy from within – and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries.” Trump added that he considers California Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff among those enemies. And in a podcast interview with Joe Rogan on Friday, Trump said the ‘enemy from within’ was more dangerous than North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

Tapper, host of CNN’s State of the Unionpressed Vance on those comments, as well as John Kelly’s, from the beginning of their interview characterization this week of Trump as a fascist who admires Hitler. Vance said Kelly’s comments about Trump were inaccurate. At one point Vance said, “I believe Donald Trump is the candidate for peace.” Later in the interview, Vance said Trump was holding back on his threats to send the military after “people who rioted after the election” rather than all Americans.

At another point, Tapper reminded Vance that Trump shared a social media post featuring Liz Cheney – now one of the Republicans campaigning for his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris – to be brought before a war crimes tribunal. “Doesn’t that all sound fascist to you?” Tapper asked. “No, of course not,” Vance responded, before claiming Tapper was taking Trump’s statements out of context.

.@jaketapper: “Liz Cheney, (Trump) said, should be brought before a war crimes tribunal. Doesn’t that all sound fascist at all?”@JDVance: “No, of course not.” pic.twitter.com/3YuiEI3MGH

— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) October 27, 2024

When Welker, from NBC’s Meet the press, asked If Vance agreed with Trump that Pelosi and Schiff are “more dangerous than Russia and China,” he dodged it. “Well, I think what Donald Trump said is that these people are a greater threat to the peace and security of the United States because America is strong enough to face any foreign adversary,” Vance responded.

In his interview with Confront the nation host Margaret Brennan, he gave a slightly clearer answer. Although she did not specifically ask about his response to Trump’s comments about “the enemy within,” Brennan did ask Vance, “What price must Moscow pay for its efforts to manipulate American voters?” – referring to a Friday announcement by the FBI that Russia was behind a fake video of the destruction of ballots in Pennsylvania.

“Many countries are going to try to manipulate our voters. They’re going to try to rig our elections. That’s what they do,” Vance replied. After Brennan pressed him, Vance condemned Russia’s actions but said he would not commit to how the U.S. should or would respond.

Like my colleague Inae Oh and I did followedIndeed, Trump has threatened to prosecute or call for prosecution of a long list of political opponents, including Harris. CheneyPresident Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former President Barack Obama, among a host of others. So – contrary to Vance’s claims – Trump has given us plenty of reason to take his threats seriously.