Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) condemned a Russia-funded video circulating online that purports to capture a person tearing up ballots in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania, but declined to say that penalties should be imposed on Moscow for the election interference.
“A lot of countries are going to try to manipulate our voters,” Vance told CBS’s Face the Nation. “I think the bigger question is, what is in our best interest vis-à-vis Russia, not what price Russia should pay for putting out social media videos. And I think what’s in our best interest vis-a-vis Russia is, in particular, for them to stop supporting the Iranians as the Iranians engage in acts of aggression.”
Regarding Europe, Vance contended it was “important for the killing to stop in Russia and Ukraine,” but that foreign policy should be dictated by the United States’s best interests and not by another country “spreading videos on social media.”
When pressed by anchor Margaret Brennan on whether election interference is crossing a red line, Vance conceded it is “bad.”
“But social media posts and social media videos, Margaret, you want us to go to war because the Russians made a ridiculous video or paid for it?” the senator said. “Everything that we’ve tried, a lot of the sanctions that we’ve tried, they’ve gone off like a wet firecracker.”
“We promised at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war that we would engage in financial nuclear war against the Russians,” he said. “Biden administration, Harris administration officials talked about how our sanctions would cripple their economy. They didn’t. And so we have to be realistic about what America can accomplish, compare it against our national interests and just be smart about this.”
Instead, Vance argued the federal government and public officials and figures should “encourage our fellow Americans to be careful” and not to “trust everything that you see on social media.”
“Of course, we should push back where appropriate,” he said. “But that’s the big question is, what is an appropriate response to a country making social media videos? I’m not going to make a commitment to that sitting right here.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency denounced the video shortly after it was reported last Thursday, alleging it was “manufactured and amplified” by Russian actors. It depicts a black election official in Bucks County destroying Trump absentee or mailed in ballots, but the Bucks County Board of Elections has said the envelopes “are clearly not authentic materials belonging to or distributed by” the board.
In the wide-ranging interview, Vance also expressed confidence that he and former President Donald Trump will win Pennsylvania this election, but remained open to the possibility of challenging the outcome “if something comes up.”
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With about a week until the polls close, Vance similarly appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker defending Trump’s “enemy from within” comment and, again, remarking on foreign policy toward Russia and whether the U.S. would continue to be a member of NATO under Trump.
“Of course, we’re going to honor our NATO commitments,” he said. “But I think it’s important, Kristen, that we recognize that NATO is not just a welfare client. It should be a real alliance. And this is a strong difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Donald Trump wants NATO to be strong. He wants us to remain in NATO. But he also wants NATO countries to actually carry their share of the defense burden.”