INTERVIEW: Republican Vice Presidential Candidate, Sen. JD Vance on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan”

Ans But again, states are going to make these decisions. I’m actually confused a little bit by the question Margaret, because if Alabama, let’s say, is going to have a different abortion policy from California, that’s not inconsistent within saying doctors are going to have to prescribe this stuff, whatever the individual policy of the state is. I’m not sure what the confusion is there.

Q I don’t know. President Trump said there are some humane things that could be done, in addition to the vote, so I’m —

Ans Well again, in a loud room where he couldn’t hear the question super well. But I think his view on this has been very clear, and I’ve just articulated it. 

Q So let me talk- you talk about family policy. So I have some specific questions for you on that. You’ve been talking about the concern about the low birth rate in the United States of America, which is well documented. You said people without children should pay higher tax rates than those who have children, and the US should look at lowering income tax rates on women who have multiple children, and you pointed to Hungary as a model for that. How do you plan to implement that policy?

Ans Well it’s called the child tax credit, and we should expand the child tax credit. If you think about what the child tax credit does.

Q So you and the Biden administration agree on the child care tax credit? 

Ans Well we think it should be bigger. I think President Trump and I believe in expanded Child Tax Credit. But we also, importantly, want to actually get this thing done. The child tax credit has languished thanks to the Biden administration, because Harris has failed to show fundamental leadership. Chuck Schumer has been unable to get it through the United States Senate, and we want to have a more pro-family policy now, you asked about ç 

Q There was just a vote on this. You know that. And- and you weren’t- you weren’t there. 

(CROSSTALK)

Ans But, Margaret —

Q It was a messaging bill. I’ll give you that. 

Ans It was a show vote. 

Q  I’m —I’m with you on that. But — 

Ans And if I had been there, it would have failed. And I was and I was — 

Q So tell me specifically what you want to do to expand the child care tax credit, because it’s like two grand per kid right now. 

Ans Well, I think one of the things you can do is make it bigger per child. I think we’d love to see it at a higher dollar value — 

Q Do you have a number in mind?— 

Ans And again, President Trump and I have proposed that. I mean, look, I’d love to see a child tax credit that’s $5,000 per child. But you, of course, have to work with Congress to see how possible and viable that is. We’ve also proposed legislation, Margaret, to end this practice of parents getting these surprise medical bills where they go to the hospital, they have a baby, they chose an out of network provider, and they come home with unexpected bills. I’ve actually sponsored legislation to end that practice. So we have a whole host of pro-family policies that are out there. And- and again, on the Harris administration, I’ve got to push back against something a little bit Margaret, because when these comments, where I said parents should pay lower taxes via the Child Tax Credit came out, the Harris administration immediately jumped and said, we disagree with this. The Harris campaign said we disagree with this. So do they want the elimination of the Child Tax Credit? Or were they just being careless in responding to remarks that I made three years ago? I don’t know. They should clarify it, maybe in an interview with you. But of course, Kamala Harris refuses to do interviews with anybody. 

Q Well, we hope — we hope to have on and ask her about that. 

Ans  Me too.

Q So the child care tax credit, you said $5,000 per child is what you’d like to get to. Where would that kick in? Because the current one, if income is below- is $400,000 or below, it’s $2,000 per child. So at- where would the $5,000 per child kick in for you?

Ans I’d like to have a broad based family policy and a broad based Child Tax Credit, Margaret. Again, we’ve talked about doing this for a long time. President Trump has been on the record for a long time supporting a bigger child tax credit, and I think you want it to apply to all American families. I don’t think that you want this, this- this massive cut off for lower income families, which you have right now. You don’t want a different policy for higher income families. You just want to have a pro-family Child Tax Credit.

Q So you have personally opposed universal child care. How do you solve the child care crisis in America?

Ans Well, what I’ve opposed is one model of child care. We, of course, want to give everybody access to child care. But look, in my family, I grew up in a poor family where the child care was my grandparents, and a lot of these child care proposals do nothing for grandparents. If you look at some of these proposals, they do nothing for stay-at-home moms or stay-at-home dads. I want us to have a child care policy that’s good for all families, not just a particular model of family, and that’s what I’ve said. 

Q So what do you mean by that? There would be like a credit per kid if it’s a stay-at-home mom? A credit per kid if it’s Grandma? 

Ans Exactly–

Q Like they get a check to take care of their–  

Ans That’s exactly what I propose. Now I don’t you know that’s exactly what we’ve proposed, both publicly and I’ve talked about doing privately. I’m just saying that I don’t want us to favor one family model over another. If you’ve got grandparents who are at home taking care of the kids, I think they deserve to be treated the same as- the same way as other family models by their government.

Q Gay families, they’d be included? All families? 

Ans All families would be included of course. All families would be included.

Q So I was looking at the platform, the Trump-Vance platform, the- that was rolled out at the RNC. You talk about school choice, you talk about 529 savings accounts. What about really young kids? Should three and four year old kids have access to preschool?

Ans Well, look, I think that certainly some families are going to choose that, but again, some families are going to choose grandparents and so forth. I think our view– 

Q Well that’s child care. That’s different than a preschool. 

Ans Well- well our view- well very often preschool is child care, is at least a form of child care. I know that when I went to preschool– 

Q Your kids went to preschool– 

Ans Yeah, and we use it as child care, right? You’re hoping your kids get a good education, but you’re also doing it because you want to provide child care for your kids. I don’t think there’s anything incongruous or inconsistent about that. And I think, look, we believe that we want to make it easier for American families, Margaret, to make their own choices on this stuff. We talk about school choice, of course school choice would apply to all families, it would would apply to all parents, and we would just want parents to have choices– 

Q Including for preschool, because in many public school systems, there is no preschool. That’s why I’m asking. 

Ans I think that we want parents to have choices, Margaret. Like I just said, we want them to be able to make the choices that make the most sense for their family. For some it’s going to be preschool. For some it’s going to be daycare. For some it’s going to be having the kids stay at home a little bit longer. We just want the government to treat everybody equally, regardless of whatever education or family model you have.

Q So you have a very young family–

Ans I do. 

Q You have a very accomplished wife, Usha, who she went to– 

Ans I’m very proud of her. 

Q Yes. Yale, Cambridge, she clerked at the Supreme Court. We heard her on stage at the RNC. You gave a recent interview to Megyn Kelly, and you spoke about white supremacists attacking your family because she’s not a white person. How concerned are you that this kind of hate would follow you to the White House? 

Ans Well, look, it’s going to follow us wherever we go, because that’s the nature of public life in America, and it’s disgraceful. Look, I love my wife. I’m very proud of her. I’m extremely lucky to have met her and to have gotten the chance to build a life with her. And my attitude on this is, people want to attack me, attack my policy views, they’re welcome to. I signed up for it. My wife didn’t sign up for it. And by the way, she’s out of the- she’s way out of their league, the people who are attacking her. So I wish they would just keep their mouth shut, or at least focus on me. But look, it’s the nature of public life in this country. My wife’s pretty tough, and she knows what we signed up for.

Q I imagine it’s hard to keep your temper when you hear things like that. 

Ans Yeah, I get pissed off sometimes, certainly– 

Q Yeah.

Ans  When people attack your family, and certainly attack your family for something that no person can control. And I do think that there’s been this thing in America where we’ve said that we should judge people based on their skin color, based on their immutable characteristics, based on things that they can’t control. I frankly think that unfortunately, a lot of people on the left have leaned into this by trying to categorize people by skin color and then give special benefits or special amounts of discrimination. The Harris Administration, for example, handed out farm benefits to people based on skin color. I think that’s disgraceful. I don’t- I don’t think we should say, you get farm benefits if you’re a Black farmer, you don’t get farm benefits if you’re a white farmer. All farmers, we want to thrive, and that’s certainly the President Trump and JD Vance view of the situation. But I do think unfortunately, when our leaders divide us by race, you’re going to have hate on the left side of the political spectrum. You’re going to have hate on the right side of the political spectrum. We should just judge people based on individual characteristics and based on merit, and that’s certainly what President Trump and I want to do.

Q But that wasn’t born in the last four years, I mean, one of the–

Ans No, no not at all, but I think that President Biden and Harris have certainly accelerated it. I don’t think you’ve seen any- anything like what we’ve seen from Kamala Harris when it comes to handing out government benefits based on people’s immutable characteristics. The actual legal enshrinement of discrimination in this country, we haven’t seen anything like in the last 30 or 40 years. Certainly back in the 60s and 50s, we all look at that as a period that we wanted to get away from, and in some ways, the Harris Administration has re-implemented it. I think it’s pretty disgraceful.

Q Well, in your own movement, that’s what I want to ask about, because one of the supremacists who was saying things like this about your family– 

Ans Yeah

Q Nick Fuentes, an avowed antisemite– 

Ans Sure.

Q Went after your wife. He had previously dined at Mar-a-Lago with Donald Trump. Does this have any room in your movement, in the MAGA movement? 

Ans Of course, it doesn’t have any room in the MAGA movement. And of course– 

Q Would you disavow him and this?