5 times JD Vance sparred with the media

Former President Trump selected Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his 2024 running mate Monday, tapping the firebrand first-term lawmaker to fill out the Republican presidential ticket as the party looks to reclaim the White House this fall.

As CNN was covering Trump’s announcement that he had selected Vance, anchor Kaitlan Collins asked Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son who had advocated for Vance, why he lobbied his father to pick the author and entrepreneur.

“I’ve seen him on TV,” Trump Jr. told her on the convention floor, adding Vance was good at “prosecuting the case” for Trump and against his political enemies.

Here are five times Vance has sparred with leading media figures and interviewers:

Stephanopoulos cuts Vance off

In February, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos cut short an interview with Vance after the two men argued over Trump’s authority to defy the Supreme Court.

“The president has to have Article II prerogative under the Constitution to actually run the military as he sees fit,” Vance told Stephanopoulos, who said the senator “made it very clear the president can defy the Supreme Court” and abruptly cut the interview off.

As Stephanopoulos went to break, Vance could be seen on camera speaking and pushing back on the anchor’s assertions, but his microphone was cut off.

Vance meets the press

During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” earlier this month, Vance was pressed by moderator Kristen Welker over the results of the 2020 election and if he would commit to accepting the results of the 2024 contest.

Welker told Vance “it was a free and fair election” in 2020 and asked him “do you understand that when you refuse to commit unequivocally that feeds into people’s concerns.”

“Kristen I don’t agree with that,” Vance pushed back. “What feeds into people’s concerns is that one half of America’s political system won’t pass legislaton to make it harder for illegal aliens to vote.”

Vance added he believes the media is “incurious about obvious problems in our electoral process.”

Vance tussles with Wolf Blitzer

During a late-May appearance on CNN, Vance and longtime newscaster Wolf Blitzer clashed over Trump’s conviction earlier this year in connection with a hush money payment he made to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election.

“Is America a fascist state?” Blitzer asked Vance.

Vance said he was “outraged” by the “entire proceeding” and argued Democrats were trying to throw Trump in jail for “a paperwork violation.”

Vance defends his policies on ‘Face The Nation’

During an appearance on “Face The Nation” on May 16, Vance debated with moderator Margaret Brennan over his stance on foreign policy and trade.

“All tariffs — which you’re — you seem to be in favor of. They’re inflationary. So how is the Trump-Vance idea here going to help make things more affordable for people, if you’re putting taxes on goods they’re purchasing from overseas?” Brennan asked Vance.

“Well, I — I don’t necessarily buy the premise there, Margaret. If you apply tariffs, really what it is is you’re saying that we’re gonna penalize you for using slave labor in China and importing that stuff in the United States,” he shot back.

After Brennan asked Vance if manufacturing jobs “came back” under Trump, Vance dug in.

“You did have significant onshoring, you had significant increases in people investing in factory construction. But it takes time, Margaret,” he said. “And that’s one of the things, one of the reasons why I think that we need a second term of President Trump is this stuff is not gonna happen overnight.”

Vance and Collins spar

Vance and CNN’s Collins had a contentious interview earlier that same month.

The anchor repeatedly pressed the Republican over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Trump’s legal cases and a number of other issues.

After Vance had denounced pro-Palestine protests that had broken out across college campuses, Collins said, “I’m just checking because you did help raise money for people who did so on Jan. 6.”

“You’re basically saying that if the president orders a military coup, you believe the only remediation for that is impeachment?” Collins asked Vance about Jan. 6. 

Vance brushed aside Collins’s premise, saying she was “dealing with hypotheticals.”