Vice President JD Vance said that the nation needs to trust him in high-stakes negotiations with Iran—because he survived a grilling on The View.
Vance made the crack during his White House briefing Thursday, where he answered questions about the 14-point peace agreement between the United States and Iran, signed this week.
The vice president referred to his appearance on the daytime television show, where he was promoting his new book, in response to what he called “progressive criticisms” of his ability to negotiate with Iran.
“I have seen some progressive criticisms of me personally saying, ‘What experience does the Vice President of the United States have with hostile, high-stakes negotiations?’” Vance said. “And I would point those progressives to the fact that just two days ago I spent over an hour on The View … so I actually have a great experience in very hostile negotiations.”
The joke appeared to fall flat in the room.
“Look, Joy Behar is way tougher than the Iranians, and she and I are best friends now,” Vance quipped about the 83-year-old co-host, prompting some laughter from the press.
A clip of Vance’s joke was circulated on social media by journalist Aaron Rupar, where some followers said it was “cringe.”
“Can somebody please get this man off the stage, I can’t handle the cringe,” one account responded.
“JD’s writers thought they cooked with this slop,” one person said.
“Vance wants to be as good as Trump at riffing with the press. He could never,” said another.
“I would love to see the polling about how well Vance’s jokes are going over,” someone else posted.
Vance faced questions on Tuesday’s The View about the Trump administration’s botched handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, deportations, inflation, and President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom.
Behar grilled Vance about why Trump had called affordability a “hoax,” and why he was spending millions of dollars on projects such as the ballroom, the 250-foot archway in Washington, D.C. and the UFC cage match on the South Lawn while “Americans are struggling.”
Vance failed to directly answer the question, attempting to deflect onto the Biden administration, and said, “There’s a lot more work to do,” without offering specifics.
The co-host followed up by retorting that Trump “said he loves the inflation,” to which Vance claimed the president said, “he loves that inflation is gonna come down.”
