Kristen Welker Grills JD Vance Over DOJ’s Prosecution of Trump’s Enemies

Isaac SchorrOct 12th, 2025, 1:03 pm

NBC’S Kristen Welker grilled Vice President JD Vance over the Department of Justice’s targeting of President Donald Trump’s political enemies on Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press.

Here’s a transcript of their exchange:

KRISTEN WELKER: Mr. Vice President, we are almost out of time, about 30 seconds left. Of course, NBC News is covering and has confirmed that President Trump’s social media post last month calling for his attorney general Pam Bondi to prosecute his political opponents, James Comey, Letitia James, and Adam Schiff, was actually meant to be a private message. Both Comey and James have now been indicted. Is the Department of Justice acting on orders from the president to prosecute his political opponents? With the final 30 seconds we have left.

VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: No, we’re driven by the law and the facts of the case. I think if you look at the case, the facts that a far left grand jury in a far left area indicted Letitia James and James Comey. If you look at the fact that James Comey obviously lied under oath. Letitia James obviously committed mortgage fraud. What we’re doing is letting the law drive the prosecution decisions in the Department of Justice. You know who we haven’t prosecuted? Joe Biden, or Barack Obama, or Hillary Clinton. Unlike the Biden Department of Justice, Kristen–

WELKER: Let’s–

VANCE: –which actually went after Donald Trump in the midst of an election, we are not doing that. We are letting the law drive these decisions. That’s exactly as it should be.

WELKER: Mr. Vice President, just staying on this president though, my question for you: Is the appearance of pressure a problem? The fact that he has publicly called for these indictments and now they have happened. Does that not blur the lines?

VANCE: No, Kristen, I think that we continue to allow the law to drive these decisions. If the law didn’t necessitate an investigation and a prosecution in this case, it wouldn’t happen. Of course, the president is allowed to have opinions about the law enforcement of the federal government. He is the chief executive officer of the federal government. Him having opinions doesn’t mean that we prosecute people unless we have the legal justification to do so. That is the guiding light of the Trump administration’s Department of Justice. Did somebody break the law? If so, we’re going to prosecute them.