Vice President JD Vance is heading to Ground Zero next week for the 25th anniversary of 9/11, where he expects to spend time with former President Joe Biden and several other former commanders in chief.
Vance made the plan sound like it might require very little intellectual stamina.
“I’m really looking forward to hanging out with Joe Biden,” Vance said during a White House press briefing Thursday. “I’m sure that we’ll have many, many intense intellectual conversations and, you know, it’ll be great.”
Vance added that he expected “a great time” with Biden and the other presidents attending the New York City remembrance.
JD Vance on the 25th anniversary of 9/11: "As you guys can probably guess, I'm really looking forward to hanging out with Joe Biden. I'm sure we'll have many many intense intellectual conversations. We'll have a great time." pic.twitter.com/oxX0lwb6iz
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 3, 2026
The vice president will join former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at Ground Zero on Sept. 11. Former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush will also attend the ceremony.
President Donald Trump is expected to mark the anniversary at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., while other administration officials will represent the White House in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The three appearances cover each location targeted or affected by the attacks.
Vance said the split itinerary came from a White House decision, not any concern about Trump traveling to New York.
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“We just decided as a team that I would go to New York for 9/11 and the president would stay here in D.C.,” Vance said. “Of course, to commemorate what happened at the Pentagon, because that was a critical part of the tragedy of 9/11 as well.”
For Vance, the visit carries a personal memory from the 2024 campaign. He said parents can make the names of those killed more real for children who were too young to remember the attacks, recalling a visit with his own family.
“It’s one of the most amazing experiences of my life,” Vance said. “I encourage every American, particularly the people who are young enough to not really remember that day, just to tune in for a couple of hours and see what it meant.”
Vance said 9/11 can give Americans a “sense of commonality and common purpose.”
The briefing was Vance’s first after former press secretary Karoline Leavitt left the White House in August, and the vice president also fielded a lighter question from Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy about his recent weight loss.
“So, when you’re the vice president of the United States and one of the first questions at a press conference in the White House is how much weight you’ve lost, you must have gotten very fat,” Vance said.
🔥 LMAO! VP Vance says he's lost a TON of weight organically, WITHOUT the "fat shot, because RFK Jr. is running his diet regimen
"If you want to lose weight, call Bobby Kennedy. BUT if you want to ENJOY what you eat, do NOT call Bobby Kennedy." 🤣 pic.twitter.com/fXDiqY3diz
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 3, 2026
He credited Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with giving him a more demanding plan than simply giving up sugar for Lent in February. Vance said he called Kennedy about cutting sugar, only to be offered a different regimen built around high-protein foods and sauerkraut.
“Bobby Kennedy says, ‘No, no, no, no, I’ve got something that’s way better than that and way more intense,’” Vance said. “And basically … I eat a lot of high protein stuff, and I eat a lot of sauerkraut.”
Vance then gave his own assessment of the result.
“So, my advice to you is that if you want to lose weight, call Bobby Kennedy,” he said. “And if you want to enjoy what you eat, do not call Bobby Kennedy.”
Kennedy discussed his own eating habits during a January appearance on USA Today’s “The Excerpt” podcast, where he said he followed a “carnivore diet.” Vance said that approach might not suit everyone but said he lost 40% of his visceral fat in a month. Visceral fat surrounds internal organs and is tied to greater cardiovascular-disease risks.
Vance’s mother, Beverly Vance Aikins, had her own eventful week after taking issue with comments by Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed about Vance’s wife, Usha, and their children.
Aikins, 65, told OutKick’s Tomi Lahren that El-Sayed was “an idiot” and said she would be furious if she encountered him.
“Those are my babies,” Aikins said of her grandchildren. “I love those babies and would do anything for any of them.”
She also praised Usha Vance, calling her “one of the best, most genuine people I’ve ever met” and saying she loves Vance and is a good mother.
“I mean, it makes me mad, honestly, because he doesn’t know JD and he doesn’t know, you know, what type of person he is, and I do,” Aikins said.
Still, she said, “I’m not going to do anything about it.”
“I mean, you know, I’d probably punch the guy if I ever seen him, and then that would get me in trouble,” Aikins said. “So, I’ll just go with the flow.”
El-Sayed made the comments months earlier on “The Allen Analysis Show,” where he referred to Usha Vance and the couple’s four children, Ewan, 9, Vivek, 6, Mirabel, 4, and Alec, 6 weeks.
“What do you think is going through Usha’s head when [the vice president] talks?” El-Sayed said on the April 17 episode. “She’s like, ‘Damn, I have to sleep with him.’”
“I guess she’s pregnant so something is happening,” he continued. “Can you imagine, he’s got brown kids, at some point he’s going to have a really awkward conversation with his kids, like, you made your career hating people who are different.”
Vance had previously accused El-Sayed of supporting sharia law, an allegation El-Sayed disputes. Speaking at an Ohio rally last month, Vance invoked his late grandfather while criticizing El-Sayed’s alleged position.
“I would love to go back in time and tell my papaw that there is a man who claims to stand for working people, who says not only should we have sharia law, but if you criticize it, you are a white supremacist,” Vance said.
El-Sayed clapped back on X on Aug. 21 by asking, “So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…”
Vance answered at a rally Monday, Aug. 31.
“Whatever you want to talk about, Abdul, keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth because she’s way out of your league,” Vance said.