Vice President JD Vance said Republicans need to “be honest” with voters about the economy, pushing back on what he called “tone-deaf Republicans” after Jack Posobiec pressed him on the party’s struggles with young men.
Posobiec sat down with Vance aboard Air Force 2 for an interview that aired Thursday on Real America’s Voice.
“We see the numbers among young men,” Posobiec said. “It seems like the support there has gotten a bit tenuous from where it was two years ago.”
“Yep,” Vance agreed.
Posobiec went on to raise concerns about how some on the right have responded to young men.
“It seems like there are members of our own movement that seem almost hostile to young men when they bring up some of these issues,” Posobiec said. “How do we account for that — number one? And then number two — how do you go and get that group to come out and vote for you when they’re feeling this hostility?”
Vance said the answer starts with honesty.
“First of all, you just have to be honest with people, right?” the vice president said.
He then laid out the economic challenges he said the administration inherited.
“As I say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. We inherited the worst inflation crisis in 48 years,” Vance said. “We inherited 40 years — not just [former President] Joe Biden, as much as I don’t like Joe Biden — but 40 years of presidents, with the exception of [President] Donald Trump, who were offshoring jobs, offshoring jobs, importing cheap foreign labor.”
Vance argued that reversing decades of policy will not happen overnight.
“Like, I just think you have to level with people that if you’re trying to undo 40 years of bad policy, of globalization, of shipping American jobs overseas, it’s gonna take a little bit of time to fix that,” he said.
The vice president said the administration has made major strides, but stressed the need for candor about the road ahead.
“Now, do I think we’ve made incredible progress? Absolutely, but I think we just have to be honest with people that, look, we’re trying to fix what was broken over 40 years. Everything is not gonna be fixed in 18 months,” Vance said.
Vance said the administration is addressing voters’ concerns from more than one angle, with the president highlighting new building across the country and Vance himself acknowledging that rebuilding the American middle class will take a long time.
“But you can’t ignore people’s concerns,” he said.
The vice president then took aim at members of his own party who have dismissed voters’ frustrations.
“On the other hand, you have a few tone-deaf Republicans who say, ‘Shut up if you’re p—ed off about a $22 burrito,'” Vance said.
He made clear he rejects that approach.
“Well, my response to those people is, ‘No. Listen to people who are upset with the state of the economy,'” Vance said.
The vice president warned that failing to listen to voters could cost the movement its identity.
“If we don’t listen to people, we will turn into the very thing that we hate, the very thing that we ran against, the very thing that we beat,” he said.
Vance’s remarks signal that he sees honest talk about the economy as key to winning back young men whose support for the GOP has softened over the past two years.
