He tried to make it personal, but CNN's Kaitlan Collins wasn't having it.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) on Wednesday appearing on "The Source" was asked about whether he was keen to be considered for vice president on the 2024 GOP ticket with former President Donald Trump (the presumptive GOP nominee) given the gallows mockup and chants of death to former Vice President Mike Pence during the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
"The last time I checked President Biden wasn't approving of the chants to hang his vice president and didn't not call his vice president when they're life was in danger on Capitol hill, something that Mike Pence himself has testified to," Collins said. "So my question is: Does it give you any pause to be [Trump's] vice president given how he is treated, Mike Pence?"
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Vance appeared agitated.
"Kaitlan, I'm extremely skeptical that Mike Pence's life was ever in danger," he told her. "I think it's politics and in politics, people like to really exaggerate things from time to time a lot of —
Collins cut him off.
She said, "I think Mike Pence would disagree with that part, senator."
Appearing unfazed, Vance continued.
"A lot of folks in the Democratic party, Kaitlan, act as if January the 6th was the scariest moment of their lives," he said. "I think look, January 6 was a bad day. It was a riot, but the idea that Donald Trump endangered anyone's lives when he told them to protest peacefully — it's just absurd."
Collins corrected Vance: "But they were chanting that they wanted to hang him."
"Look, Kaitlan, did a few people say some bad things? Sure."
"But do we blame Donald Trump for every bad thing that's ever been said by a participant in American democracy? I think that's an absurd standard."
He then questioned Collins' motives in her questioning.
"And look, Kaitlan, I know you're worried," he told her. "And look, I think justifiably so."
Collins clarified this statement.
"This isn't about me; I'm asking questions about you and how you feel about this."
Even if he is considered for the 2024 ticket to run with Trump (and he told her he hadn't spoken to the former president about this) the bigger issue for Vance is to not let President Joe Biden get a second term.
He said, "I think the biggest threat to American democracy Kaitlan, is that the Biden administration is trying to prevent Donald Trump from campaigning and taking his case to the American people."
But even this didn't seem to land.
"It's a judge in New York that's presiding over that case," Collins said, denouncing Trump's claim that the criminal prosecution of him in New York City is somehow being orchestrated from Biden's DOJ. "And the Biden administration is not preventing Donald Trump from campaigning."
"He just did two events tonight."
