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Vice President Vance Holds First White House Press Briefing in 40-Plus Days. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 03, 2026 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00]

J.D. VANCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- they're realizing, by the way, that their control over the Strait of Hormuz is effectively gone and it's a diminishing asset.

So if you go back three months ago, how much oil and gas was coming out of the Strait under Iranian threats, it was virtually nothing. Now it's almost back to where it was before the conflict even started. So my advice to the Iranians is stop acting like crazy people and stop shooting at commercial shipping. And in the meantime, we've got to do what we've got to do despite what a foreign country is going to do in the Strait of Hormuz.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Iranians say that an attack on a wedding celebration earlier this week killed several people, injured dozens of others. I know CENTCOM says it's investigating, but have you been briefed on that attack and was the U.S. responsible?

VANCE: So I've been briefed to the extent that I know that we're investigating. I've seen the same public media reports everywhere else. I will say that the Iranian state media has not been a very good scribe about what's happened in the conflict thus far. So I'm extremely skeptical of this.

What I can say with 100 percent confidence is that unlike the IRGC, the United States never targets civilians in combat. We never will do that. We never have done that. And unfortunately, obviously, sometimes things happen. But in this particular case, I don't think that we have any information one way or the other. We're investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know.

And if we do make mistakes, again, this is a big difference between us and Iran. When our military makes mistakes, they learn from them to try to get better from them. So we're investigating it very fully.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Do you share any of the concerns of Secretary Driscoll and several Republican lawmakers about the current state of the army, specifically about the departure of so many generals and other top officials?

VANCE: Well, first of all, look, Dan is obviously a very good friend of mine. I think he was a great secretary of the army. Pete is also a very good friend of mine, and I think he's an amazing secretary of war.

And fundamentally, there are a lot of issues where I agree with Pete on. The issue where I'm in the most strident agreement with Pete is that we needed to have a culture shift at the Department of War. We have to ask ourselves some very difficult questions, and it has nothing to do -- I want to be clear -- this has nothing to do with the amazing troops that we have, the amazing military officers, noncommissioned officers, and enlisted personnel that we have.

But America has fought a lot of wars since I've been alive -- 42 years. And we have won almost none of them. Until Donald J. Trump became the President of the United States. What does that say about the culture of military leadership, the way that we did planning? And what does it also say, frankly, about the political leadership that we've had in the White House, at the Department of War, for 40 years of, frankly, military misadventures?

What Pete came in wanting to do was revive the warrior spirit in the United States of America. And I think you see evidence of that happening in a lot of different ways. Two important ways is, number one, we have recruitment at all-time highs. We had real recruitment problems under the Biden administration because people didn't want to join a woke military.

And what I mean is, they didn't want to join any military that was geared towards a particular political narrative. They just wanted to join a military that was willing to defend America's interests and do so at the very highest levels of professionalism and excellence. That is what the military under President Trump's leadership is geared towards doing.

The second way that I judge just that esprit de corps, that warrior spirit that you see at the Pentagon is, when you go out and talk to troops today, they talk about how much better it is, how much prouder they are, how much more they feel supported from Washington, as opposed to, frankly, oppressed by Washington. We're trying to bring the best and the brightest into the United States military and support them in every way that we can.

If you recall, under the Biden administration, guys were getting fired because they were making their own health care decisions, and the Biden administration was treating them like they were convicted criminals. We're not doing that. We're taking things in a much different direction. So I feel like the military is in a much better place than it was 18 months ago.

Of course, there's a lot of work still to do, and of course, some of that work is going to take years because, frankly, the rot got so deep under previous failed administrations.

Sorry, I'm always confused a little bit by the chaos here, and unfortunately, I'm old and blind now. But let's go to Kerry Picket.

KERRY PICKET, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Mr. Vice President, Tucker Carlson has called for the president's impeachment, and many accuse him of trying to jeopardize U.S.-Israel relations. What do you say to those who are uneasy with your close relationship with Carlson and claim that you're avoiding addressing a lot of these issues which may be causing divisions within the GOP?

VANCE: Well, look, I'm not avoiding addressing anything. Everybody knows that Tucker Carlson and I are friends, and I think it's very obvious that Tucker has said some things that I disagree with. He said some things about the president of the United States that I think are just wrong. I think yesterday, somebody sent me a clip that said that he would support El-Sayed over Rogers. I think El-Sayed is a crazy person. And I think whatever your views on Mike Rogers' specific policy prescriptions, I'd like to have a non-crazy person like Mike Rogers representing Michigan in the United States Senate, rather than a crazy person like El-Sayed.

[14:05:00]

That said, my attitude towards this, and I try to practice what I preach. And I remember when I became the vice presidential nominee, one of the hardest things for me personally is not when people attacked me, but when people attacked my wife, including friends of hers who knew her heart, who knew what a good person she was. And I remember thinking to myself, what a travesty it is that in the United States of America, we let political disagreements define who our friends are going to be and not going to be.

So yeah, Tucker is a friend of mine. Tucker is a friend, despite the fact that we disagree on a number of things. And I'm not going to play the game where I throw friends under the bus because I have political disagreements with them. I think that is a terrible place for the United States to go. And if you have a disagreement with somebody politically, even over a deeply held issue, you should still be friends with that person because the whole republic depends on people of different perspectives being able to talk to one another.

That's how I try to live my life and I encourage everybody else to do the same. All right. Let's go to --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't have to go by that list.

(LAUGH)

VANCE: Well, the problem is some -- OK, here's the thing. You guys can see the list here. It doesn't -- you know, you can take your zoom- up lens here.

(LAUGH)

VANCE: It doesn't -- nobody's even circled. Nobody even circled. If Karolyn Leavitt was still here, she would have told me who to call upon. But clearly that hasn't happened here. I'm going to go to Nik Popli from Time.

NIK POPLI, POLITICAL REPORTER, TIME MAGAZINE: Thank you. President Trump asked on social media, when are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight? Is the administration considering either arming or giving other direct support for Iranian dissidents?

(LAUGH)

VANCE: Wasn't it Peter Doocy who asked this question this morning on Fox News?

POPLI: It's a great question.

VANCE: And what the president said is exactly what I'm going to say, which is, of course, I'm not going to talk about that.

There are a lot of things that we're doing. A lot of things that we're doing, of course, to try to apply pressure on the Iranians, to get them to stop shooting at commercial shipping, accepting that they're still going to try to shoot at commercial shipping. Obviously, we're protecting a lot of ships, which is why we have not had a worldwide energy crisis.

I can't repeat this enough. But for the leadership of President Trump and the hard work of our troops, we would have had an energy crisis because the Iranians refuse to stop acting like terrorists in the Strait of Hormuz. Now, that said, there are a lot of, of course, additional tools that we have at our disposal.

Some of those the president will use. And I'm not going to advertise exactly how we're going to engage with the Iranians, because it, frankly, would take away the president's decision space. But everything that could happen is on the table -- economic pressure, military pressure, diplomatic pressure, covert pressure. Of course, these are things, these are tools in the president's toolkit.

But part of the reason they're tools in the toolkit is because the vice president, hopefully, is not dumb enough to stand up before, you know, all of you and a million Americans watching at home and say exactly what it is that we plan on doing.

OK. All right. I'm going to go to Emily Goodin.

EMILY GOODIN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK POST: Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

VANCE: Is it Goodin?

GOODIN: Yes, it is.

VANCE: OK.

GOODIN: Hold on. I wanted to ask you, when are you going to New York on 9/11 instead of the president? Is it because it's the 25th anniversary. Is there some special security concern? We know the president's been a target before.

VANCE: No, I don't think it's a special security concern, though. Actually, I will -- we'll follow up with Secret Service just to get you an actual answer on that. But that's not what I've heard. I mean, you have a vice president, you have a president. And there are two very, frankly, we'd like to be three or four places on 9/11. But you can't have one person be in multiple locations at the exact same time.

And so we just decided as a team that I would go to New York for 9/11 and the president would stay here in D.C., of course, to commemorate what happened at the Pentagon, because that was a critical part of the tragedy of 9/11 as well.

I will say that as much as it's tragic and it was a terrible day, I am looking forward to it because it's such an amazing honor to be able to go to New York and to share in that moment, you know, where the parents and the kids read the names of the people who lost their lives.

I did it once before, I think during 2024 campaign. It's one of the most amazing experiences of my life. And I encourage every American, particularly the people who are young enough to not really remember that day, just to tune in for a couple of hours and see what it meant.

And I think that sense of commonality and common purpose that we all had on 9/11, that's something that we should really try every single day to get back to. And if even just for a day, even if just for a few hours, I would encourage people to tune in.

I'm also, as you guys can probably guess, I'm really looking forward to hanging out with Joe Biden. I'm sure that we'll have many, many intense intellectual conversations and, you know, it'll be great. We'll have a great time with Joe Biden and the other presidents.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Vice President, thank you. A minute ago, you said that there is not a global energy crisis because U.S. is helping commercial ships.

[14:10:00]

Given that you don't have diplomatic talks with the Iranians to make them stop shooting commercial ships, are we talking about an indefinite Naval Blockade. Isn't that costly and hampers U.S. readiness elsewhere? And how will the president declare an end to the war if the U.S. Naval Blockade is still in place? Thank you.

VANCE: Well, first of all, the phrase, an end to the war, I want to push back on that just a little bit because major combat operations are currently not ongoing and they haven't been ongoing in a very long time. In fact, what we did just a couple of days ago is that we made it harder for the Iranians to shoot at commercial shipping, again, in order to ensure the flow of oil and gas into world energy markets.

So, you know, we have, again, a lot of tools at our disposal, but what we're talking about here is trying to maintain some basic balance in these world energy markets. Now, you ask about these things, don't they cost a lot, et cetera, et cetera. Well, look, the alternative I think costs a lot more, which is what the Gulf Arab countries have begged us not to do and what a number of other countries have begged us not to do, including those in Europe who will publicly criticize us on the one hand, but then privately acknowledge that if we weren't doing what we were doing, nobody else in the world could do it.

We are the only country in the world that can ensure, as you heard the president say, the control over the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians would like zero million barrels to come out of the Strait of Hormuz. Last night, 15 million barrels came out of the Strait of Hormuz. That's because of the United States of America. And if we don't do it, nobody else would do it. And if nobody else did it, we would have a catastrophic world energy crisis.

And our message to the Iranians is simple. It's been the same from the very beginning, is you've got to stop shooting at commercial shipping. They've got to stop. It's that simple. And to your point about negotiations, the president has been very clear. We're not talking to them, and we're not going to talk to them unless they stop shooting at commercial shipping.

(CROSSTALK)

VANCE: That's, I think, Darren? Go ahead.

DARREN BOTELHO, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. So President Trump, he posted on Truth Social, let data reign, but there's a Fox News poll with 70 percent of respondents, voters, saying that they do not want a data center in their area. So how do you bridge the disconnect there before the midterms in about two months?

And also, second part of the question, if Democrats do take control of Congress, then do we lose the A.I. race to China?

VANCE: Well, look, I think there's a very good chance that if the Democrats take control of Congress, we will lose the A.I. race to China, but we'll also lose a lot else. You will see higher energy prices. The Democrats have promised that they will raise taxes on working Americans.

The Democrats have promised that everything that we've done to protect American industry and rebuild American manufacturing, that stops as soon as the Democrats have real political power in this country. There's a lot that would go wrong if the Democrats take control of the House or the Senate or, God forbid, both.

But let me just say on the data center question, you asked how do you split the difference or how do you bridge the gap, or I forgot exactly how you phrased it. But look, man, the simple answer is the way that you bridge the gap is by following the president of the United States' lead. What was the most important thing that we've done on data centers? He, excuse me, came out and said we have to have rate payer protection. If you're going to build a data center, you have to feed power back into the grid as opposed to taking power out.

I'm a strong believer, and I've seen the same polls that you're talking about, that the political backlash over data centers, a very large chunk of it, not all of it, of course, but a very large chunk of it is that people associate data centers with my neighborhood is going to get worse. In particular, my power bills are going to go up. The way to bridge that gap is for people to do what the president of the United States has enabled.

He's made it easier to build a nuclear power plant or any other power plant next to a data center. He's made it easier for people to put power back into the grid as opposed to take it out. And there's a broader and deeper issue, I think, that's much bigger than data centers. And it's the United States, what the president is really trying to train, frankly, American industry to do is to build again. We cannot be a country that says we're not going to build more power, we're not going to build more rockets, we're not going to do anything because the regulations or the cost or the risk are just too high.

There's a chart that I'm obsessed with. And it looks at the amount of energy generated by the PRC, the People's Republic of China, and the amount of power generated by the United States of America. If you look at that chart, in about, I want to say 2005, is when China finally started producing the same amount of power as the United States of America. That was -- before that they produced way less, they caught up to us, and then they passed us. And today, China produces three times as much power as the United States of America.

[14:15:00] The way to get around that is, as President Trump's leadership has showed, to become a nation of builders again. We got to build more power plants. We've got to make the regulatory state easier to work with. And of course, we've done that. You've got to make it easier to reinvest in the United States of America. That's what we're doing every single day. We cannot be a country that says we're not going to build anything anymore.

But this backlash on data centers, I think that it is downstream of the fact that the United States doesn't build enough power, or at least it didn't until about 18 months ago. But obviously, that stuff takes a little while to come online. It's going to come online really fast under the president's leadership.

OK. All right. Let's go to -- OK, somebody said left side. Let's go to Joey Garrison.

JOEY GARRISON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, USA TODAY: Yeah, right here.

VANCE: OK.

GARRISON: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. You're speaking Wednesday night at the midterm Convention in Dallas. Several Republican candidates in close congressional races have said they don't plan to attend the convention, or they're being noncommittal about attending. Why do you think some of them are making that decision? And do you have any concern about there being absences from some of the battleground midterm Republican candidates?

VANCE: No, that doesn't concern me. I mean, look, so when you're running in a congressional race, especially in a very tight race, you have so many things that are local that you're focused on. You've got fundraising, you've got money you've got to raise, you've got staff that you've got to deal with and obviously give directives to. And then most importantly, you've got to go out there and meet voters and message to voters.

I think the unfortunate reality of the national media for this midterm convention is, like my speech will get covered a fair amount, the president's speech will be covered a ton. We can make the argument as much as possible that if you elect congressional Democrats, you're going to see higher prices, worse energy, higher taxes, and more fraud. The president and I can go and make that argument on national T.V. We don't need a congressman in a tight race to be there in all cases.

Sometimes it might be better if that guy's out there raising money. But I think people are going to make a determination. What is the best way for me to spend my time as a candidate? Fundamentally, the president and I get one vote each, just like every other American. And what we want is every person in a tight race to go out there and make the best case they can to their constituents so they can get reelected and so we can do more good for the American people. That's the goal.

Kaitlan?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Mr. Vice President, thank you. I've got two questions for you. First, the widow of an airman who was killed in the Iran War says she's having trouble getting some of the benefits that they should have access to because it has not been officially declared a war. Can you and the president personally ensure that the family of Alex Klinner gets all the benefits that they deserve, given he died serving the country?

VANCE: OK, so what's her name? You said his name is Alex Klinner?

COLLINS: Yes, he was an airman who was killed in the plane that went down over Western Iraq.

VANCE: So what I'd say, Kaitlan, is please, especially if you have the private contact information, we will reach out to her directly as soon as this is over and make sure that she gets what she's entitled to. Obviously, you know, our heart breaks for every single person who lost their lives in this operation. And, you know, as much as our heart breaks, I can't possibly fathom a young widow, what she's feeling and dealing with it. And so we want to be as helpful as we can and ensure she gets everything that she's entitled to. So we will certainly work that on the back end as soon as that.

And my message to her would be, we love you, we're grateful for the sacrifice, and we very much take very seriously our commitment to get you what you need to get.

COLLINS: Yeah, she's got three young children. Secondly, in terms of the war and the timeline, given this administration has put timelines out there before, what you just said about no negotiations happening with Iran, will this war be over by the time of the midterm elections? VANCE: Well, Kaitlan, again, I don't -- I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting. I recognize there have been places where this has flared up. Major combat operations -- again, major combat operations lasted for about six weeks. And since then, we destroyed, of course, their nuclear facilities with Midnight Hammer. With Epic Fury, we destroyed their defense industrial base for producing weapons, and also a lot of their conventional military.

And then we made it harder for them to rebuild that nuclear program. But when you ask, when will this end, you're asking me a question like, when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships? I think the reality is, I don't know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians. When will the Iranians shooting at ships stop having an effect on world energy markets? And the answer is, it has less effect day by day.

So what we're going to do is not depend on the Iranians behaving responsibly or negotiating in good faith. What we're going to do is use the tools that we have at our disposal to ensure that the American people, one, never have to deal with the threat of an Iranian nuclear program, and two, that world energy markets are properly supplied.

COLLINS: So it's up to the Iranians when this war ends?

(CROSSTALK)

VANCE: Well, if the Iranians keep on, but Kaitlan, if the Iranians keep on shooting at commercial ships, again, we have, I think, a responsibility, but certainly we're the only ones with the capability to ensure that the Iranians are not destroying world energy markets.

[14:20:00]

And our attitude is we're not going to set an artificial timeline because, let's just say, hypothetically, let's say I told you three months -- let's say I told you three days, OK? And then the Iranians start blowing up oil and gas ships, and the United States is the only country with the capability to ensure that those oil and gas ships get to market. Well, what I would say is it would be irresponsible for us to write out our strategy and our timeline for an Iranian nation that simply cannot honor its commitments and cannot stop shooting at commercial ships.

(CROSSTALK)

VANCE: Yeah, CNBC. Yeah.

EAMON JAVERS, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, CNBC: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. James Carville famously said that when he dies, he wants to be reincarnated as the bond market because you can intimidate everybody.

(LAUGH)

JAVERS: We've seen higher bond yields throughout the year this year. And I'm wondering if you can tell us how the U.S. government thinks about the bond market right now in terms of its impact on U.S. ability to borrow to finance our massive deficits and also on its impact on your decision-making about the Iran War and also American spending.

VANCE: Well, you know, obviously the president cares a lot about interest rates, and I think one of the main reasons he cares a lot about interest rates is because he wants Americans to be able to afford a home. When interest rates go higher, that means that borrowing costs are higher, and that's particularly true if you have a mortgage.

So our view, and this has been a consistent message from the president and the rest of the administration on down, is that we believe that the Fed should be lowering interest rates. We feel quite confident that if you look at the inflation numbers, if you look at the CPI numbers, that it's proper and responsible for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. So that is a very important thing. It's something we care a great deal about.

I would defer, like, the deeper questions about the bond markets to Scott Bessent, who probably knows more about the bond markets than anybody that I've ever talked to. But obviously, we care about this issue. We're doing a lot of things to try to keep those interest rates down, but it would be nice to have some help from the Federal Reserve.

OK. All right. OK. So does Andrew Feinberg have a question of less than 30 seconds? No? OK. Then we'll go on to Rocal (ph). Rocal (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir. Mr. Vice President, obviously, President Trump has let his frustration show at times recently with Senate Majority Leader, John Thune. You've worked with John Thune when you were a Senator. There will be leadership elections after the midterm elections in the Senate. Today, will you endorse John Thune to be the GOP leader in the new Congress?

VANCE: It's just not my business. It's the business of Republican Senators to determine who their next leader will be. I will say about John Thune that we have a very good relationship. He has a very good relationship with the president of the United States. That doesn't mean you don't disagree with people from time to time or have a preference or a priority. That's going to be different from the Senate Majority Leader.

But it's really not my business weeks, months before a Senate election to talk about who should be the next Republican Majority Leader. I suspect John Thune will run again. I suspect that he'll get the support of a lot of his colleagues. But I would defer to those folks about who their next leader is going to be.

The most important thing, and I think John Thune would agree with this, I know the president agrees with this, is we got to keep the Republican Senate Majority. Because if we elect Senate Democrats, what are they going to do? We all know what they're going to do. They're going to try to raise your taxes. They're going to try to stop us from preventing money going to fraudsters. They're going to try to investigate and investigate and investigate rather than legislate things that are in the best interest of the American people. So I think Senate Democrats taking over would be a nightmare. I think it'd be bad for the American people. But ultimately, the American people are going to make that judgment. And when they do, then we can have a conversation about who's going to be the next Senate leader.

OK. Let's go to Libbey Dean.

Libbey? Can you guys not hear me? Libbey. OK. Libbey, go ahead.

LIBBEY DEAN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NEWSNATION: I'm Libbey, Mr. Vice President. Thank you so much. First, a question on Iran, but also I want to ask you about East Palestine. On Iran, how concerned should Americans be about these cyber attacks by Iranian hackers? And then also on East Palestine, you called for an investigation on Friday into that train derailment. I mean, it's been three years. NewsNation has been talking with some of the people who live in that community --

VANCE: Sure.

DEAN: -- who say their health concerns have been suppressed. Would you consider an emergency declaration to give those people the federal help that they need while that investigation that you called for plays out?

VANCE: Well, on East Palestine, I wouldn't want to commit to something unless I would know that it would do some good. And so having been asked that question, I'll think about it. I've never thought about whether that's necessary to facilitate people getting what they need.

But on the broader issue, what we've learned over the last couple of months is something that I suspected, but frankly could never prove, which is that the Biden administration radically underestimated the risks to the people of East Palestine and that their Environmental Protection Agency wasn't being honest with the American people about what the consequences of that train derailment were.

[14:25:00]

So, yes, we want that to be investigated. We want the Biden administration officials to be investigated about they were hedging, whether they were lying, whether they were doing something malicious, and that's what motivated the letter that Lee Zeldin and I sent.

And your first question was about? Remind me.

DEAN: How concerned should Americans be about the cyberattacks by Iran and others?

VANCE: I see, yeah. So, look, I'll tell you that we're concerned about everything because that's our job. And I think you always have to, of course, balance when you're an American citizen, you have to balance, obviously, assessing the real risks that are out there, but also going about and living your life because none of us can be too overwhelmed by risk or by fear. What I would say is that we feel quite confident the homeland is safe. We also feel quite confident that the Iranians are going to try to do a lot of things that they don't have the capability to do. And that your government, the American people should know that your government is obsessively focused on both anticipating any potential cyber threats, but also responding to them appropriately and ensuring they don't happen.

So, you know, if you look at the Iranian ability to disrupt the normal lives of Americans, I think it's quite limited. It's not zero, but it's quite limited. I'd be much more worried about cyberattacks from other actors. But again, we're doing everything that we can to stay ahead of this stuff. And I think we're the best government in the world at anticipating and preventing cyberattacks.

So what I would say to the American people is it is a risk that's out there, but I don't think it's wise to worry about these amorphous risks. You elect a government that's going to fight for you, that's going to defend you. And that's what we're doing every single day.

(CROSSTALK)

VANCE: Let's go to Christian Detak (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Vice President, you called on green media --

VANCE: Christian (ph)? (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, sir. Thank you. Two questions, one foreign, one domestic. First, since this Economic D-Day announcement pertaining to Iran, has President Trump spoken directly to President Xi, asking him to stop Chinese banks from lending financial services to Tehran?

VANCE: So we've certainly had a number of conversations with the Chinese. And frankly, I think the Chinese have been responsive to some of the requests that we've made. I actually don't know whether the president has spoken directly to Xi, but we will get an answer for you in follow-up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, thank you, sir. And then I know you don't want to talk about your own potential 2028 prospects, but Senator Ted Cruz and your good friend, Secretary Hegseth, apparently have been privately and publicly in the case of Senator Cruz, positioning for 2028. Could you see yourself supporting either one of them for a presidential campaign?

(LAUGH)

VANCE: That's an innovative way to ask the question, but I'm still not going to take the bait. Let me -- look, first of all, I'd encourage any Republican, if you care about the country, and I think all of us do, you should be focused not on a job a few years from now, you should be focused on the midterms. And that's the approach that I've taken.

I think people sometimes don't believe me because they assume you're the vice president, you must think about this all the time. What I'm focused on, man, is trying to get as many Republicans elected as possible so that we can do as much good as possible for the second two years of the Trump administration. That's a long time. There's a lot of opportunity there. And this job is so crazy.

Look at this, guys. We're at the White House. That's the front lawn of the White House. We get an opportunity to come to work every day and make 350 million people's lives better. That's what we have to be focused on. And so politically, I'm very much focused on the midterm elections.

I mean, Pete is a great guy. And yeah, I could see myself supporting a whole host of people. But most importantly, right now, I've got a lot of people that I'm supporting right now to get elected for the November 2026 elections.

And on Ted Cruz, I mean, look, man, he's -- just clearly, Ted is a very authentic and likable guy, and I'm sure he'll do great.

Newsweek? Newsweek.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell me, Maria Bartiromo just left Fox News. Is she going to be the next White House Press Secretary?

(LAUGH)

VANCE: I don't know, man. No, I don't think so. You know, I just saw the news literally as I walked out before. I love Maria. I think she's an amazing person, amazing talent. I don't get involved in the personal drama of media stations. In fact, I'd like to invite Peter Doocy to come up here and answer a question about what happened to Maria. But I think whatever she does -- look, she's going to do great, and I wish her all the best. She's a very, very dear friend. I haven't even talked to her, so I don't know the back-story about why she's decided to leave Fox News.

(CROSSTALK)

VANCE: I'm going to do a -- I'm going to do a couple more. I'm going to do a couple more. I've got -- OK, on the side here. OK. Pink tie. Pink tie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's why I wore a pink tie today. I knew you would see it.

(LAUGH)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anyway, nine justices. We all know, growing up since grammar school, there are nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.

VANCE: Yep.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long does it stay that way based on what happened yesterday in the House?

VANCE: What do you mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, going forward. How confident are you it will remain at nine?

VANCE: Well, look, our commitment --