Vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) defended former President Trump’s comments suggesting using military force on Election Day to combat “the enemy within” in an interview with NBC News published Saturday.
“Well, I think what Donald Trump said is that those folks pose a greater threat to the United States’s peace and security because America is strong enough to stand up to any foreign adversary,” Vance told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker.
“What he said, and I do agree with this, is that our greatest threat is not a foreign adversary because we can handle these guys; we can handle foreign conflicts,” Vance added before singling out former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D).
“Under Nancy Pelosi’s long life in public leadership, the United States has gone from the preeminent industrial power of the world to second, next to China,” Vance said.
His critiques of the California representative signals a larger battle between the Republican and Democratic party to secure razor thin races in the final days before general election.
“That fundamentally belongs on Nancy Pelosi’s shoulders, and if we’re going to have a more prosperous country, we’ve got to recognize our own leadership is why we lost our industrial base to China,” Vance stated.
Pelosi has publicly shared her own criticism about the Senator, including recently questioning his comments unveiling a personal connection to reproductive rights during the vice presidential debate.
Trump has faced scrutiny since he said in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo that the bigger threat to the country than foreign adversaries was “people from within.” He added that any unrest from his critics after the election “should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”
Trump has since doubled down on his comments despite the criticism.