In a shocking revelation, Senator JD Vance said that he was almost at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally where former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated in July.
During a three-hour podcast chat with Spotify’s Joe Rogan, Vance discussed meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lago about possibly joining him as the vice-presidential candidate.
Vance recalled Trump saying, “Wouldn’t it really set the world ablaze if we just made the decision today?”
Trump proposed that he come with to the Butler rally where they would make the announcement, before deciding against it, as preparations needed to be made first.
JD Vance tells Joe Rogan that Trump was going to announce him as his running mate at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he survived the first assassination attempt, but decided last minute to wait until a later date.
Wow. pic.twitter.com/GVbd6z4mqF
— Alana Mastrangelo (@ARmastrangelo) October 31, 2024
Vance noted that had Trump not changed his mind, both he and his family could have been endangered.
Instead, the senator returned to Ohio, taking his children mini-golfing before hearing about the assassination attempt.
“I actually thought they had killed him,” Vance said, reflecting on the video showing Trump grabbing his ear and falling.
Joe Rogan and JD Vance talk about the mystery surrounding would be Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks
Vance: “When there’s a school shooter we have the person’s manifesto a day or two later. We know nothing about the motive here. It is weird.” pic.twitter.com/PvBk7M6RET
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 31, 2024
After viewing the clip on his phone, he went into “fight or flight” mode, rushing his children home and preparing his firearms while standing guard at his door.
Vance noted his astonishment about the shooter’s ability to get that close to Trump unnoticed by Secret Service.
He stated, “People were yelling and saying, ‘This guy’s got a gun. He’s on the roof,’” adding that another person was recorded alerting police of the man on a nearby building’s roof.
“And nobody responded to it,” Vance continued. “And the whole thing is very fishy to me. And I hope that we win and then get to the bottom of it.”
The Ohio senator questioned how the shooter got so close, saying, “I’m a pretty good shot. I served in the Marine Corps for four years. An AR-15 from 140 yards away is a pot shot,” he remarked. “It’s shocking that he’s alive.”
Vance also criticized law enforcement for failing to identify a motive, highlighting the absence of a manifesto.
“You know, I’m obviously he’s motivated because he hates Donald Trump, but you don’t know anything about the secondary motive,” he pointed out. “Man, it is weird.”
The first time senator found it peculiar that investigators couldn’t access data on Matthew Crooks’ phone, noting, “I’ve read a fair amount about it and it’s pretty bizarre. They haven’t been able to get into his phone,” he alluded to encrypted apps on Crooks’ device.
Elsewhere in the interview, Vance criticized Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party for allegedly censoring dissenting voices.
He asserted that the “biggest difference between” Trump and Harris is her inclination towards censorship.
“We’re not silencing fellow Americans.” Vance remarked. “We’ll attack Kamala on her policies or her ideas, but we’re not trying to say, ‘You should be silenced because you disagree with us.”
He also took a jab at Harris’ speaking style, saying, “I give a lot of speeches, so there’s actually a skill to this. I think she is the Michael Jordan of using as many words as possible to say as little as possible.”
“There’s actually a certain gift that she has,” Vance quipped. “You’re 500 words into it and you’re like, ‘What the hell did she just say?’ She didn’t say anything.”
Rogan, who attempted to secure an interview with Harris, laughed and mimicked her rambling.
He asked Vance, “Do you think she wears an earpiece?” to which Vance replied, “I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Later, Trump’s VP pick lambasted President Biden’s remark labeling Trump supporters as “garbage.”
Vance suggested Biden, who had been seemingly kept from aiding Harris’ campaign, might be trying to help Trump.
He speculated, “We’re gonna win, but after we win, I’m going to be convinced that Joe Biden was trying to help us the whole time,” observing that Biden wore a MAGA hat during a September visit to a Shanksville, PA fire station.
Vance criticized the media’s lack of coverage on Biden’s comment, drawing parallels to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” remark.
He noted that Tony Hinchcliffe’s controversial Puerto Rico joke was mentioned 143 times on CNN, 101 times on MSNBC, and more than 100 times across various other liberal networks.
“Do you think that the word ‘garbage’ is going to appear on CNN 141 times over the next few days, I would bet no,” Vance questioned.
“Now what’s the difference? Well, one difference is it’s a comedian telling a joke, and it’s the president of the United States telling what he actually thinks.”
Watch the full episode of Vance’s appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” here: