‘That’s Not What He Said!’ Jake Tapper and JD Vance Drop the Gloves in Fiery Brawl About Trump’s ‘Enemy Within’ Rhetoric and John Kelly’s Claims Against Trump

Jake Tapper and Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) battled Sunday morning in a marathon brawl about former President Donald Trump’s “enemy within” rhetoric, the claims of Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly, and a host of other topics.

In a heated confrontation on CNN’s State of the Union, Tapper — right out of the box — grilled the Republican VP candidate about what Kelly has said about Trump. The former Trump chief of staff told The Atlantic that Trump praised Adolf Hitler, and told The New York Times that Trump meets the definition of a fascist.

Vance argued that Kelly’s criticism of Trump is rooted in an unspoken agenda.

“If you actually look at John Kelly, at folks like Liz Cheney, the fundamental disagreement they have with Donald Trump is even though they say that they’re conservative, they’re conservative in the sense that they want America to get involved in a ton of ridiculous military conflicts,” Vance said. “They want America to police the world. And Donald Trump doesn’t.”

Tapper pointed out that Kelly had a son killed in combat in Afghanistan and has never voiced his opinion about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“You’re acting as if he is pro-war,” Tapper said. He added, “He was a general carrying out orders.”

“I know John Kelly’s worldview and I know the people who have attacked Donald Trump the most vociferously on foreign policy,” Vance said. “They’ll say, ‘well, he’s a dictator’ when what they really mean is they won’t listen. Donald Trump wouldn’t listen to the leadership of the military when they wanted him to start ridiculous conflicts. That is a consistent theme.”

Tapper went on to press Vance’s claim that Kelly colluded with the Kamala Harris campaign ahead of his latest interview.

“I’ve spoken with people in John Kelly’s circle, and I’ve spoken with people in the Kamala Harris campaign,” Tapper said. They say there’s been no communication the entire time. So where did that come from?”

“I’m highly skeptical of that, Jake,” Vance replied. “You know the way that these attacks work. You know the way that these people are often vetted by a campaign before something goes out there.”

“So you made it up,” Tapper said.

“No,” Vance responded. “I said that the American media and the American Democratic Party apparatus works a certain way.”

Vance went on to lump Kelly in with other Trump critics who take issue with his foreign policy positions. But Tapper made clear he was asking about criticism from other ex-Trump officials like former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and former Vice President Mike Pence.

“One reason why Kamala Harris doesn’t have as many people criticizing her is because she doesn’t fire people who fail,” Vance said — leaving out that Harris does not presently have the authority to hire and fire cabinet officials. The senator added, “Kamala Harris protects failures in government. Donald Trump fires them. And I’d much rather have the president who fires people who screw up.”

“He did not fire Mike Pence!” Tapper said. “He did not fire Mark Milley!”

“He fired a lot of those people,” Vance said. He added, “We’ve now spent five minutes talking about people in Donald Trump’s staff who—”

“Think he’s not fit for office,” Tapper said, interjecting.

“They didn’t think he was unfit for office until they had a falling out with them because he fired them,” Vance said. “And we’re not talking about the public policy.”

From there, Tapper shifted gears to Trump’s “enemy within” rhetoric. The CNN anchor quoted Trump’s comments to Joe Rogan Friday when he said, “we have people that are really bad, people that I really think want to make this country unsuccessful. That’s the enemy within.” Vance argued Tapper was taking Trump out of context.

“That’s the game that you’re playing?” Vance said.

“I’m not playing a game!” Tapper shot back.

“He said that he wanted to use the military to go after far left lunatics who are rioting,” Vance said. “And he also called them. He also called them the enemy within. He separately, in a totally different context and a totally different conversation, said that Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff were threats to this country.”

“Were the enemy within!” Tapper clarified. “He said they were the enemy within!”

The two went back-and-forth over the context of Trump’s comments — and Tapper called Vance out for trying to give a very “narrow definition” of the remarks.

“Now you’re giving a very narrow definition of what he said, which is not what he said!” Tapper told Vance. “That’s not what he said.”

We’ll have further coverage of this stunning marathon interview. But you can watch the first part above, via CNN.