Vice President-elect JD Vance recently sounded off on the mainstream media while sharing positive news about Trump’s Secretary of Defense nominee, Pete Hegseth. Vance delivered the remarks while speaking to a crowd of reporters after visiting Western North Carolina, which is still working to rebuild its communities after Hurricane Helene’s devastation.
Broaching the topic which has dominated headlines throughout the media, Vance said, “I’ll answer one question about Pete Hegseth, because I know that’s what people are focused on.” Vance emphasized that Hegseth would receive a proper hearing before Congress rather than the legacy media. “Look importantly, Pete Hegeth is going to get his appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, not a sham hearing before the American media,” he said.
Vance continued, maintaining the incoming administration’s confidence behind Hegeseth. “We believe that Pete Hegseth is the right guy to lead the Department of Defense. That’s why President Trump nominated him,” he said. “We’re not abandoning this nomination … Donald J Trump, who just won an election by a very significant consent of the United States Senate, that’s who determines who the Secretary of Defense is. I fully support Pete. I think Pete’s going to get confirmed, and we are completely behind him.”
Furthermore, Vance emphasized that Americans should allow the Senate confirmation process to play out instead of trusting the media reporting of anonymous, unverified attacks on Hegseth. “I have talked to Joni. I’ve talked to a number of my colleagues about this nomination and about other nominations, all I’m asking is that people actually allow the Senate process to work,” he said.
Building on this, Vance maintained that anonymous claims cannot determine important nominations of government officials. “We do not determine important government officials based on anonymous sourcing from the American media. We determine who our officials are through the nomination process, the advice and consent process of the United States Senate. That’s how it should happen, and that’s how the President’s nominees are going to work through this process,” he said.
In another part of the press conference, Vance also expressed confidence in the nomination of Kash Patel as FBI director. “Look, we’re fully behind Kash’s nomination … we’re fully supportive of Kash’s nomination. I actually think he’s in a very good spot for his nomination,” Vance said, defending the other highly-contested pick.
Vance also made a point to speak about the relief efforts in North Carolina, addressing frustrations residents have with the help, or lack thereof, from the federal government. “Look to me, the question, ma’am, is not whether I feel that the government has left the people of Western North Carolina behind it’s what are the people of Western North Carolina feel and to a person, every single person I’ve talked to today, from local officials to the people who used to live in this house, feel like their government isn’t paying attention to their concerns. Sometimes that’s just a matter of showing up, which is why I’m here today,” he said.
Watch Vance below:
The vice president-elect added, “Sometimes that means granting the request of two senators who are really trying to do their job for the people of the state, sometimes it means something else. But yeah, I think the government could be and should be doing a lot more to make the people of Western North Carolina feel like their president and their leadership cares about them. I certainly care about them, and we’re going to keep the pressure on as much as we can over the next 45 days.”
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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