‘Show Me The Quote!’: JD Vance Fires Back At Tapper After 5-Minute Grilling On Trump’s Alleged Comments

Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance clashed with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday after the host centered the interview on unproven allegations raised by a disaffected staffer of former President Donald Trump.

Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, John Kelly, was the latest former aide to criticize the former president, telling The New York Times and the Atlantic last week that Trump “met the definition of a fascist” and allegedly admires figures like former Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. On “State of the Union,” Vance criticized Tapper’s fixation on the warnings, pointing out that some of the ex-staff members had been “fired” by Trump.

“But this is the thing Jake, we’ve now spent five minutes talking about people in Donald Trump’s staff, who he fired — ” Vance said.

Tapper quickly interjected that former staff members don’t believe Trump is “fit for office,” prompting Vance to question why they weren’t discussing the everyday issues that concern Americans.

“Oh they didn’t think he was unfit for office until they had a falling out with him because he fired them, and we’re not talking about public policy,” Vance said. “Can we talk about how Americans can’t afford groceries today? Can we talk about the fact that Americans can’t afford the cost of housing? Can we talk about the fact that a lot of people out there in Erie, Pennsylvania, they’re the ones who suffer and die when people like Mark Esper and Mark Milley don’t obey the commander in chief’s orders?”

The CNN host continued to highlight how some of the concerns from former staff members stem from Trump’s previous “enemy within” comments. Tapper asserted that the statement indicated Trump’s desire to “use the military to go after” the American people.