Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Republican vice presidential candidate, spent three hours and 15 minutes on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, roughly 20 minutes longer than former President Donald Trump, discussing a variety of political and non-political topics.
Vance and Rogan talked about censorship, foreign policy, illegal immigration, religion, and much more during the lengthy sit-down.
Here are five of the biggest takeaways:
Rogan and Vance compare politics and religion
Vance and Rogan made numerous comparisons between political and religious beliefs. Vance got started by comparing liberal yard signs that begin “in this house, we believe” to the creed declared at Catholic mass.
“There’s almost a similar cadence between the Christian creed and what these guys are doing with this hyper-woke stuff,” he said. “And then there’s the rallies, and then there’s, of course, the various rituals, and it absolutely is a religious faith.”
Rogan agreed with the idea and brought it up at other times, saying it pops up in matters such as climate change and transgender ideology.
“A lot of this, you can call it a mind virus or whatever it is, but it does make people behave religiously,” Rogan said. “So it’s like they’re ignoring all of these signs because it doesn’t line up with this ideology that they prescribe.”
Vance says most Harris voters are good people
Vance criticized much of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, saying she would be dangerous on foreign policy, would likely involve the United States in new wars, and would not stem illegal immigration. However, he also said it’s important not to demonize her voters.
“This is what really bothers me about what Biden said,” Vance said. “Most Americans who vote for Kamala Harris are fundamentally good people. I believe that. And you’ve got to try to find the people who are reasonable and talk to them. That’s why I talk about the importance of regaining trust.”
He was referring to Biden’s comments regarding Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, where the president blasted a joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage,” arguing that the “only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The remark has become a controversy in the Democratic campaign’s final days, with the White House releasing a statement that the president referred to the “hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as garbage.”
Vance slams Washington Post after non-endorsement
Vance agreed with Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos that the press must regain the electorate’s trust. However, he said it won’t be done through the opinion pages.
“The problem with the Washington Post is not that their editorial page has been insufficiently conservative,” he said. “It’s that their entire journalism department is fundamentally engaged in Democratic political activism.”
He said the paper has effectively become a “propaganda outlet of the Democratic Party.”
The paper did not endorse Harris after backing the Democratic candidate in every election for decades, leading to controversy both inside and outside the newsroom. Vance said he’d like to see Bezos move the paper in a more neutral, truth-seeking direction on the news side.
“If they don’t do that, to me, this is just window dressing,” he said.
Vance jokes that Biden wants Trump to win
Returning to the “garbage” comment controversy and some of Biden’s other gaffes, Vance wondered aloud if the president wants his former nemesis to win and joked that he’d like to hang out with first son Hunter Biden.
“I would bet $100 that Hunter Biden is voting Donald Trump for president,” Vance said. “I might bet $20 on his dad voting for Donald Trump for president, especially after the garbage comment. That guy is trying to help Donald Trump.”
Vance brought up the time the president briefly donned a Trump MAGA hat, and Rogan agreed, speculating that Joe Biden is upset he was ousted from the race in a “coup.”
Vance outlines three issues he says elites don’t want discussed
Vance has argued that Democratic politicians are trying to silence ordinary people and gave a few examples at the end of the episode.
“There are three issues where you are not allowed to challenge the establishment,” he said. “One is trade. You have to be pro-free trade. Everything is good. Let as many Chinese slave labor-made products into your country as possible even if it destroys native industries … Number two most important issue is immigration, and the number three most important issue is foreign policy.”
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He said people such as former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, are still trying to rework the world in America’s image, a project he said should have ended with the Iraq war.
“I think we should’ve learned that Iraq that we can’t turn to everybody into the United States of America, nor should we want to,” he said. “But these guys can’t quite give up on it. It’s just a powerful psychological motivation.”