WATCH: JD Vance ‘Utterly Embarrasses’ CBS’s Margaret Brennan on Immigration, Security, and Economy

Vice President JD Vance “utterly embarrassed” CBS News’s Margaret Brennan during an interview where she attempted to press him on immigration, national security, and economic issues, Republican lawmakers and strategists said after the discussion went viral.

In an episode of Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan that aired Sunday, Vance expertly fired back at her claims that all the people who came into the U.S. as “refugees” under former President Joe Biden were properly “vetted”:

“I want to ask you about refugee admissions, which were just suspended by the president… Refugee screening takes 18 to 24 months to go through. They are heavily vetted,” Brennan said, referring to the cancellations of refugee flights accomplished by one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders last week. 

“When you talked to us in August, you said, ‘I don’t think we should abandon anybody who’s been properly vetted and helped us,'” the CBS anchor said. “Do you stand by that?”

Vance quickly responded, saying that he simply does not “agree that all these immigrants, or all these refugees, have been properly vetted.”

He then brought up Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, the 27-year-old Afghan man who entered the U.S. on a “special immigrant visa” shortly after the botched Biden-Harris administration military pullout of Afghanistan led to the Taliban takeover of the country.

Tawhedi, who had been living in Oklahoma after obtaining a special visa to flee to the U.S., “conspired and attempted to provide material support to ISIS and obtained firearms and ammunition to conduct a violent attack” in the U.S., federal prosecutors announced in October 2024.

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The attack was to be carried out on Election Day, the Department of Justice (DOJ) press release stated.

Tawhedi was charged with “conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS” and with “receiving a firearm to be used to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism.” He faces decades in prison if convicted.

Vance said, “We know that there are cases of people who allegedly were properly vetted and then were literally planning terrorist attacks in our country. That happened during the campaign if you may remember. So clearly, not all of these foreign nationals have been properly vetted —”

Brennan cut the vice president off, with “No, but there are 30,000 people in the pipeline — Afghan refugees. Do you stand by it —”

The two continued to go back and forth, with Vance doubling down on his opinion that not all of these refugees are “properly vetted.”

“These people are vetted,” Brennan insisted, before Vance jabbed, “Just like the guy who planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma a few months ago?”

“He was allegedly properly vetted, and many people in the media and the Democratic Party said that he was properly vetted. Clearly, he wasn’t,” the vice president said.

“I don’t want my children to share a neighborhood with people who are not properly vetted, and because I don’t want it for my kids, I’m not going to force any other American citizens’ kids to do that either,” he continued. 

While Brennan attempted to brush off Vance’s example as a “very particular case” in which it was possible that Tawhedi was “radicalized” after moving to the U.S., Vance shut her down once again.

“I don’t really care, Margaret. I don’t want that person in my country, and I think most Americans agree with me,” he stated plainly.

According to Republican strategist Andrew Surabian, Vance “utterly embarrassed” the CBS host.

“At what point will these leftwing media hacks figure out that they’re no match for JD?” Donald Trump Jr. asked in response to the interview clip:

Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) called out CBS and Brennan for the line of questioning against the vice president:

“Great to see VP @JDVance delivering some commonsense, but why does the Dem-media always seem to care more about the plight of illegals than American citizens? If your worldview leads you to finding excuses for unvetted migrant terrorists, then maybe it’s time to rethink things,” Banks, who just entered the Senate this month, wrote. 

Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) appeared to agree, saying that while he “loves” watching Vance “spar with the media,” he could not believe how Brennan argued “with a straight face that the Biden Administration did a good job of vetting refugees”:

“The Afghanistan withdrawal was utter chaos because of Biden’s incompetence,” Sheehy, who also entered office this month, added.
Rumored Kentucky Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Nate Morris, also chimed in to support Vance’s argument:

“We need to put America First. That means not letting unvetted migrants flood into our country and deporting every single illegal immigrant currently here,” said Morris, who recently slammed incumbent Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for voting against the confirmation of new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“No exceptions. No carveouts. Zero tolerance,” Morris, a Lexington-based entrepreneur, added.

When Brennan argued that “this is a country founded by immigrants,” Vance shot back with that “doesn’t mean that 240 years later that we have to have the dumbest immigration policy in the world”:

“This is a very unique country, and it was founded by some immigrants and some settlers. But just because we were founded by immigrants, doesn’t mean that 240 years later that we have to have the dumbest immigration policy in the world,” the vice president said. “No country says that temporary visitors — their children will be given complete access to the benefits and blessings of American citizenship.”

Vance, a practicing Catholic, also called out the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ recent statement against the Trump administration’s recent action to rescind policies that prevented immigration enforcement officials from making arrests at churches and schools:

“I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Are they actually worried about their bottom line?” Vance asked. “We’re going to enforce immigration law, we’re going to protect the American people.”

When Brennan asked Vance how Hegseth, who was confirmed by a narrow 51-50 margin in the Senate, will lead the Department of Defense (DOD), Vance said he will enact much-needed “change” in the military:

Well, look, I think Pete is a disrupter, and a lot of people don’t like that disruption, but Margaret, that disruption is incredibly necessary. If you think about all of those bipartisan, massive votes, we have to ask ourselves, what did they get us? They got us a country where we fought many wars over the last 40 years, but haven’t won a war about as long as I’ve been alive. They’ve got us a military with a major recruitment crisis, a procurement price crisis that’s totally dysfunctional, where we buy airplanes for billions and billions of dollars, terrible cost overruns, the delivery dates are always delayed. So we need a big change. Now, admittedly, there are people who don’t like that big change, but it is necessary, and it’s explicitly what Donald J. Trump ran on and I think part of the reason why the American people elected him their 47th president. 

Speaking on when Americans will feel the impact of Trump-Vance economic policies at the grocery store, the vice president argued that farmers need “lower energy prices” to lower the costs of food:

“Those things- when do consumers actually get to touch and feel a difference in their lives?” Brennan asked.

“Well, but Margaret, how does bacon get to the grocery store? It comes on trucks that are fueled by diesel fuel,” Vance explained. “If the diesel is way too expensive, the bacon is going to become more expensive. How do we grow the bacon? Our farmers need energy to produce it.”

“So if we lower energy prices, we are going to see lower prices for consumers, and that is what we’re trying to fight for,” he added.

Continuing to press him about another Trump cabinet pick, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) nominee Tulsi Gabbard, Brennan cited the National Review’s hard stance against her.

In a Friday piece from the conservative outlet’s editors, titled “No to Tulsi Gabbard,” the National Review called the former Hawaii congresswoman “an atrocious nominee who deserves to be defeated.”

“Does any of this give you pause putting her in charge of the U.S. intelligence community? Yes or no?” Brennan asked:

Vance replied, “No, Margaret, look — these are publications that attacked Donald J. Trump obsessively, but those publications don’t determine who the president is, the American people do.”

“Donald J. Trump is the person who determines who his cabinet is, not these publications that I think, frankly, have lost relevance,” the former Ohio senator added, before praising Gabbard’s military service and track record:

Well, the Senate will provide advice and consent, as is its constitutional obligation, but I feel confident that Tulsi Gabbard will ultimately get through. Two things that are important to know about Tulsi. First of all, she is a career military servant who’s had a classification at the highest levels for nearly two decades. She has impeccable character, impeccable record of service, and she also is a person who I think is going to bring some trust back to the intelligence services. The bureaucrats at our intelligence services have gotten completely out of control. They’ve been part of the weaponization of our political system, the weaponization of our justice system. We need to have good intelligence services who keep us safe, but part of that is restoring trust in those services, and we think Tulsi is the right person to do it.

Political commentator and Trump Hispanic outreach campaign coordinator Steve Cortes commended Vance’s skill at “deconstructing the false premises of corporate media accusations — and doing so with a convincing and pleasant calmness”:

Former Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler suggested that Vance’s media prowess should be used “in sit-down interviews 24/7 explaining policy & White House actions,” while Trump should be out “on the road” doing “off cuff interviews, big rallies and small round tables with failed state/local officials”:

Filmmaker Mike Cernovich called the interview “embarrassing” for CBS, and Human Events senior editor Jack Posobiec referred to Vance as “48” to follow Trump’s presidency after the Sunday episode aired: