Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) turned an Associated Press reporter’s question on its head, calling her out directly for intentionally framing her question in a way that would force him to compare former President Donald Trump to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
The Daily Caller’s congressional reporter Henry Rodgers shared audio of the exchange, which he posted on X with the following description: “Sen. J.D. Vance destroys an AP reporter who asks about Trump’s ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ remarks.”
LISTEN:
LISTEN: Sen. J.D. Vance destroys an AP reporter who asks about Trump’s “poisoning the blood of our country” remarks.
Audio obtained by @DailyCaller: pic.twitter.com/a6WTO0WRb4
— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) December 19, 2023
“What do you have to say to the former president’s comments over the weekend about immigrants and saying that they’re ‘poisoning the blood of America’?” the reporter began.
Vance noted that it was not the first time he’d been asked that particular question — and proceeded to break down what he had heard when Trump made the remarks.
“First of all, he didn’t say immigrants were poisoning the blood of this country. He said illegal immigrants were poisoning the blood of the country,” he said. “Which is objectively and obviously true to anybody who looks at the statistics about fentanyl overdoses.”
He then pivoted to address the press as an organization, saying, “You guys seem far more upset about the guy who criticized the problem than you did about Joe Biden, who’s causing the problem.”
The reporter tried to resurrect her line of questioning anyway, asking Vance if they could please return to Trump’s comments — and when he agreed, she went right back to her original framing.
“Can we just go back to his comments, though, and sort of using language that we heard, you know, during World War II — I’m sure you’re a student of history, you’re well aware what that kind of language represents in historical context,” she continued.
“What organization do you represent?” Vance asked.
“I work at the Associated Press,” she replied.
“The idea that I am well aware, you just framed your question implicitly assuming that Donald Trump is talking about Adolf Hitler,” Vance pushed back. “It’s absurd. It is absurd.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP
“I think this is ridiculous,” he continued. “If you watch the speech in context and you look at what’s going on, it is obvious that he was talking about the very clear fact that the blood of Americans is being poisoned by a drug epidemic. To take that comment and then to immediately assume that he’s talking about immigrants as Adolf Hitler talked about Jews is preposterous. You guys need to wake up and actually do some journalism.”
“Should he use different language then?” the reporter was apparently unwilling to let go of her framing. “Because that’s language that Hitler used —”
“Here’s the problem with that question and that framing,” Vance continued to push back. “You are allegedly a journalist. You’re supposed to speak truth to power, and yet you’re trying to circumscribe and narrow the limits of debate on immigration in this country. What you’re doing is not speaking truth to power. You’re trying to police the guy who’s criticizing the problem so that Americans don’t pay attention to the guy who caused the problem. It’s an absurd question, it’s an absurd framing.”