Vice President JD Vance received a blunt reminder after urging voters—with no sense of irony whatsoever—to "vote against the crazy leadership in Washington, D.C.," in the midterms later this year.
Speaking at a manufacturing plant in Missouri, Vance was touting President Donald Trump’s economic agenda and trying to energize supporters ahead of the midterm elections when he appeared to misspeak.
He said:
"I'm not going to ask you to agree with us on every issue because that would be impossible."
"What I will ask you is if you want to make America great, if you want to protect your jobs and hopefully build jobs in this beautiful factory, if you want to make our streets even safer, if you want to rebuild the American dream for the next generation, vote against the crazy leadership in Washington, D.C."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
After the crowd applauded, he briefly paused before attempting to walk back and clarify the comment:
“Vote against the congressional leadership that will stand up and say ‘we care more about illegal aliens than we do American citizens,’ and vote for the leaders in Congress who have promised they are going to fight for you."
But the damage was done—Vance seemed to forget that it's his party that is in charge, as liberal activist Brian Krassenstein pointed out:
"JD Vance just accidentally told the Truth. ... President: Republican. House: Republican. Senate: Republican."
You can see his post below.
The official X account for the Democratic Party also responded to Vance's remark by sharing a photo of Trump surrounded by Republican legislators and captioned:
"The crazy leadership in Washington, DC."
You can see the post below.
Vance was mocked for his remarks.
Vance has made more than his fair share of gaffes, so he probably shouldn't be trusted to act as a smooth talker for the administration.
Just days ago, in his announcement this week that the Trump administration will be withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments from California due to alleged fraud, Vance had people raising their eyebrows after claiming that Trump "takes fraud seriously."
Vance completely overlooked the fact that Trump has used his presidency to enrich himself at the expense of taxpayers at a dizzying rate, whether it's false promises about a "made in America" Trump phone, his $10 billion suit against the IRS, or his sons investing in companies that win no-bid contracts with the U.S. government.
He probably should have considered the fact that Trump was convicted in 2024 on 34 felony counts, including falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to illegally influence the 2016 election—to say nothing of a long history of fraud and abuse that has landed him in court for decades.
