Vice President JD Vance was pressed on his definition of socialism as he and President Donald Trump use the ideology’s rise as a cudgel against Democrats before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Vance told reporters at the White House on Thursday that socialism is “a hard term to define these days.” In the past, he said, socialism has been “about prioritizing workers.”
“Yet in reality, I guarantee that most of the self-described socialists running across the United States of America are going to howl about this announcement today, which is prioritizing American workers over foreign workers,” he said in the South Court Auditorium, in announcing that the Trump administration was cracking down on Microsoft and nine universities amid allegations of visa fraud.
“So I don’t know what the term means anymore,” the vice president added.
Later on, Vance said that what socialism “actually means, in the American context, is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers, and you want boys to play in girls’ sports.”
“That’s what unites the socialists that I see running across the United States of America today,” he said. “It’s funny. Back in 2016, one of the most interesting things that happened is when Bernie Sanders, then of course the leading socialist in the United States of America, was asked about open borders, he gave an answer that sounded similar to Stephen Miller’s, where he said, ‘Of course we’re not going to have open borders because that’s going to displace American workers.’ It is ironic that so many of the self-described socialists running across this country, they love the idea of replacing American workers with foreign workers, which suggests to me, it’s really not about the working class.”
VANCE ACCUSES MICROSOFT OF FRAUD AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CLAMPS DOWN ON H-1B VISA ABUSE
Vance made the comments during a press conference for the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.
“The H-1B visa program is meant to allow companies to bring in really the best of the best from outside the United States of America for positions that are completely impossible to fill with American workers,” Vance said. “Unfortunately, the program has become rife with fraud over the last several years, probably the last several decades.”