U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance speaks at a midterm election rally at the Level Up Training Complex on October 15, 2026 in Monroe, Michigan.
Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
In a CBS News town hall that aired Saturday night, Vice President J.D. Vance faced tough questions from voters about the Trump administration’s policies on data centers, high costs, immigration and his own rhetoric.
The series of pointed questions from voters who say they have supported him and President Donald Trump foreshadowed the rocky road he could face if he runs for president in 2028 and must answer for his administration’s record.
Vance, who said at the town hall that there was “certainly” a chance he would not run for president, faced particularly pointed questions about the “failure of leadership” posted by the widow of one of the six U.S. soldiers killed in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait the day after President Trump launched a war with Iran.
“Literally, this is the first time I’ve heard this,” Vance replied.
Continuing, he said, “This job is a great honor, but when you live in a little bubble, sometimes information doesn’t filter through.”
Iran war strategy and its costs
After telling the vice president about his late wife, Nicole Amor, and Joey Amor, who were killed on March 1, the sergeant asked about the mistakes and fundamental failures that led to the deaths of those soldiers and how leaders are held accountable.
Vance seemed surprised by Amor’s question, saying, “This is literally the first time I’ve heard about this,” and then said he wanted to talk to Amor to find out more.
But Vance went on to acknowledge that mistakes had been made, saying, “We had a problem with where our troops were located, and we realized that was a big mistake and that we could make it better, so we changed it.”
A Michigan man who said he voted for Trump and Vance in 2024 but now plans to vote for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed pressed Vance about rising gas prices due to the war. In response, Vance said he recognizes that gas prices are too high: “I think it’s important to be honest about why they’re so high.”
He said the reason was “what’s happening in the Middle East” and the administration’s steps to lower prices.
Vance denied that the situation was caused by a war started by President Trump, saying, “We’ve never seen a situation like this before, where we have the largest state sponsor of terrorism who is effectively cutting off the world’s energy supply.”
He also blamed former President Joe Biden, saying that U.S. refining capacity declined during his tenure.
But when Vance asked whether the Trump administration was in charge of the current situation, the vice president suggested it was not a good idea to shift the blame backwards.
“Fundamentally, we are where we are and we need to be, in my opinion, and I want to know what Abdul El-Sayed’s solution is to the problems we have right now,” Vance said. “It’s easy to criticize something that happened seven months ago.”
Immigration enforcement tactics and rhetoric
One nun who spoke to Vance about their shared Catholic faith questioned how that aligned with their values and the administration’s hard-line immigration policy, which includes children being separated from their parents when adults are caught cleaning up.
“We’re trying to strike the right balance,” Vance said. When moderator Tony Dokoupil asked Vance if he thought the administration wasn’t striking that balance, Vance replied, “I think it’s always a work in progress.”
He acknowledged that “sometimes people make mistakes. Sometimes they really do.”
When Dokoupil asked for specific examples, Vance said the government is investigating several cases that could lead to further training or discipline for immigration enforcement officers, but has not publicly advertised them to move forward with the investigation.
Another voter, who immigrated five years ago and voted for Mr. Vance after becoming a U.S. citizen, grilled him about his recent comments in which he referred to H1-B visa holders as “alien indentured servants,” accusing him of “using immigration as a scapegoat for a problem that needs to be solved.”
“To the extent that my rhetoric here is incomplete, that’s on me,” Vance said, explaining that he was trying to criticize the companies that host the workers, not the immigrant workers themselves.
Selling access to the White House ‘disgusting and despicable’
According to federal filings, Mr. Dokoupil questioned Mr. Vance about whether Mr. Trump or others in his administration had profited from his presidency, including about $1.2 billion the president made last year from his cryptocurrency ventures. Asked if he had seen anything frustrating in the White House, Vance said, “I’ve never seen anything like that from the president.”
He said there is evidence of corruption in Washington, but not from the president or his administration.
Vance said he had read articles about the allegations, but when he investigated the claims himself, he found them to be untrue.
Dokoupil asked Vance about the president’s cryptocurrency interests and the recent resignation of Kimberly Guilfoyle, the ambassador to Greece, over allegations she denied using her position for profit.
“If someone is selling access to the White House, it is a disgusting and despicable act, and they should suffer the consequences,” Vance said.
