JD Vance really doesn’t like being fact-checked.
The vice presidential candidate fumed over a correction during a recent debate with Tim Walz, and he stewed once again during a visit to ABC’s “This Week” that didn’t allow him to spread lies.
Vance started off the interview with a favorite canard of the Donald Trump campaign in recent weeks: that the federal response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton was delayed because affected areas reliably vote for Republicans. FEMA has outright rejected the idea that they are using voter maps to determine how quickly hard-hit areas receive aid, but that hasn’t stopped the conspiracy from growing in right-wing circles, aided by boosts from both Trump and Vance.
“If these areas were a little more Democratic, maybe Kamala Harris would have focused on them more,” Vance said of the response, declining to note that Harris is not currently the president of the United States.
“Senator Vance, I’m just going to say that local officials — local officials and FEMA officials say that is just flat wrong,” host Martha Raddatz chimed in, before moving on to rumors spread by the Trump campaign about the town of Aurora, Colorado.
Trump threw a rally in that city earlier this week and focused on the idea that certain apartment buildings in the city had been taken over by Venezuelan gangs. When Raddatz said the stories were “grossly exaggerated” and cited the town’s own mayor, Vance countered that the word “exaggerated” means “there’s got to be some element of truth here.”
Vance has previously admitted to making up or exaggerating stories on purpose to suit the narrative of his campaign, including a lie he promoted about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating local pets. That story led to a string of bomb threats and government closures in the town. Raddatz attempted to check Vance and keep him from sharing further falsehoods, which led Vance to rage that she was “focused on nitpicking everything.”
