Jake Tapper and JD Vance entered into a fiery back-and-forth about Donald Trump’s continued insistence that the military should be deployed to fight the “enemy within” — namely, Trump’s political opponents like Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff.
“This is what he said to Joe Rogan on Friday, the enemy within, that he wants the
military to go after —” Tapper said before he and Vance began to speak over one another on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Tapper quoted Trump as saying, “We have to — we have people that are really bad people that I really think want to make this country unsuccessful. That’s what that enemy within—” before Vance cut in, “Did he say that he wants to use the military against those people?”
“He wants to use the military to go after the enemy within,” Tapper answered.
“No, no, no,” Vance said. “Let me — can I answer the question, please? He said that he wanted to use the military to go after far-left lunatics who were rioting. And he also called them — he also called them the enemy within.”
Vance insisted that Trump “separately” described Pelosi and Schiff “in a totally different context” as “threats to this country.” After Tapper pointed out that Trump has also specifically described both Pelosi and Schiff as the “enemy within” Vance replied, “So, every time he uses the exact same phrase, we assumed that he uses the military?”
The two engaged in crosstalk again before Vance fired off, “And you’re asking his vice president, but you won’t let me answer the question. I’m telling you that Donald Trump has said, and I agree with him, that we should use the U.S. military to go after Americans. People who riot, who burned down our cities. We should follow the National Guard.”
“This was what John Kelly was alarmed by, the idea of using the U.S. military to go after Americans. That’s what he said,” Tapper answered.
Vance accused Tapper of playing a “game” with his words, to which Tapper snapped back, “I’m not playing a game” as the CNN anchor forcefully tried to pin down Vance despite the running mate’s desire to walk back Trump’s comments.
In an interview on Fox News’ “MediaBuzz” on Oct. 20, Trump said, “These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at ‘Shifty Schiff’ and some of the others, yeah, they are, to me, the enemy from within.” After host Howard Kurtz asked if Trump specifically meant Schiff was “an enemy” Trump replied, “Of course he’s an enemy, he’s an enemy.”
In the same interview, Trump added, “I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within. She was supposed to protect the Capitol.”
Watch the full interview below.
