JD Vance gave his first interview since becoming Vice President of the United States on Sunday, and in a somewhat surprising move, he chose to sit down with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan. You may remember her as one of the moderators who tried to rig the vice presidential debate by botching a “fact-check” and then cutting his microphone as he responded.
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The wisdom of giving these legacy press outlets any oxygen aside, there was never any doubt the vice president would run circles around Brennan. As RedState reported, he calmly dismantled her talking points throughout the interview, with some particularly satisfying exchanges.
SEE: Vance Decimates ‘Face the Nation’ Host Over Illegal Immigration, Energy, Executive Orders, and More
“I don’t really care” An iconic interview. Common sense over journalistic arrogance.
A public spectacle showcasing the demise of media elitism in the face of common sense.
They tried to tell us JD Vance was weird. They’re done.pic.twitter.com/xjBOpn0uam
— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) January 27, 2025
BRENNAN: These people are vetted. These people are vetted.
VANCE: Just like the guy who planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma a few months ago? He was allegedly properly vetted, and many people in the media and the Democrat Party said that he was properly vetted. Clearly, he wasn’t. I don’t want my children to share a neighborhood with people who are not properly vetted, and because I don’t want it for my kids, I’m not going to force any other American citizen’s kids to do that either.
BRENNAN: No, and that was a very particular case. It wasn’t clear if he was radicalized when he got here or while he was living here, but…
VANCE: I don’t really care, Margaret. I don’t want that person in my country, and I think most Americans agree with me.
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For a recap of just how badly things went for Brennan, here’s a handy guide to the various faces she made as Vance repeatedly took her to school.
I think JD Vance’s CBS interview went very well, “I don’t really care, Margaret” Edition pic.twitter.com/VlkO3v6txt
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 27, 2025
There was one exchange that I found especially illuminating, though. When the subject of disaster relief and helping Americans who have lost everything due to storms and fires, Brennan had a true mask-off moment.
Look at the elitist disgust on Brennan’s face as she asserts “low-income” states simply aren’t smart enough to handle disaster recovery without overpaid, useless federal bureaucrats dictating everything.
Mask-off moment. pic.twitter.com/WZYdb8sNfE
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) January 27, 2025
BRENNAN: You know FEMA has specialized expertise that some of these states just don’t have in their arsenal…
VANCE: Oh, Margaret, I wish that they…
BRENNAN: And how will these states who are lower-income states, the Mississippis, the Kentuckys, the Alabamas, be able to do this for themselves without federal help?
VANCE: Well, the president, to be clear, is not saying we are going to leave anybody behind. He’s saying that the way in which we administrator these resources, some of which is coming from the federal level, some of which is coming from the state level, we’ve got to get the bureaucrats out of the way and get the aid to the people who need it most.
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Look at the disgust on her face as she calls red states “low-income” hellholes that can’t possibly manage themselves without overpaid, useless federal bureaucrats telling them what to do. Notice that she didn’t bother to mention California, though, which has shown a lack of ability to effectively respond to natural disasters. Instead, she only sneers at those uneducated rubes in the “Mississippis, Kentuckys, and Alabamas.”
That’s not an accident. People like Brennan live in a bubble where they truly think credentialism and dollar totals on a spreadsheet dictate competency. For example, calling the above states “low-income” and suggesting that makes them incapable ignores that the cost of living exists. Incomes are indeed lower in Southern states but so are costs, which means the standard of living is not necessarily any worse than high-cost blue states.
Yet, Brennan sees the average income and just assumes everyone in Alabama is an idiot because that’s the mindset held by Beltway dwellers such as herself. They can’t fathom that other people are not only just as smart as they are but in many cases, are smarter. There’s a reason the top states in the country regarding economic growth and employment are almost exclusively Republican-led states, many that Brennan would claim are “low-income.”
The reality is that the federal bureaucracies have shown themselves to be the most incompetent entities in the country. If they had “specialized expertise” that simply can’t be replicated at the state level, then North Carolinians wouldn’t still be living in tents right now. What the Trump administration wants to do, which is streamline the delivery of aid to people in need, is exactly what needs to happen. When it’s run through federal agencies and their chosen NGOs, the inefficiencies are laid bare, and the timelines are stretched to absurd lengths.
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In other words, Brennan’s elitism is unearned. It’s the ramblings of someone who looks down on normal Americans, convinced they need her and people like her to guide them. Well, they don’t, and that’s been shown over and over.
