The Republican vice presidential nominee noted the many changes that have occurred for his family since he became a candidate.
Podcaster Joe Rogan on Oct. 31 released a roughly three-and-a-half-hour interview with Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), former President Donald Trump’s running mate.
During the interview, Rogan and Vance touched on a variety of topics related both to politics and Vance’s personal life. Here are the biggest takeaways from the podcast.
How Trump Chose Him
Near the start of the interview, Vance discussed how he was selected to be Trump’s running mate—and how it’s changed his and his family’s life.
Vance said he didn’t learn that Trump had picked him until July 15, the first day of the Republican National Convention. That day, he said he missed Trump’s first effort to call him as he was playing with his children.
A few minutes later, he realized that he had missed the call and called Trump back.
“Hey, sir, what’s going on?” Vance recalled saying.
He said Trump replied: “JD, you’ve just missed a very important phone call. I’m gonna have to pick someone else.”
Vance said he began to panic, only for Trump to say: “No, I’m just kidding. Obviously, I want you to be my vice president.”
Vance said the call wasn’t a total surprise; by that point, he believed he had about a 60 percent chance of being picked for the No. 2 job.
Though Vance has been a U.S. Senator since 2023, he said he was able to remain somewhat anonymous most of the time—people often had no idea who he was.
“It’s definitely weird just not being anonymous at all anymore,” Vance said.
He noted the many changes that have occurred for his family since he became a candidate: his child’s schoolmates have started a game called “boss man” where they pretend to be Secret Service agents; Vance can’t drive his family around anymore; and he receives both praise and condemnation from people in public.
“There are a lot of benefits to it. There’s a lot of downsides to it,” Vance said. “It’s what I asked for. I don’t have to think too much about it or complain too much about it. I just try to accept it.”
Vance Skeptical of Money in Politics
Vance described how the Republican Party was changing under Trump—particularly in relation to its attitude toward corporations and money in politics.
Vance and Rogan discussed a variety of controversial social issues—transgenderism, environmentalism, Big Tech, and the pharmaceutical industry—that Vance said are all influenced by money.
Vance has often outlined a unique position on economic issues that aligns more closely with populism than with 20th-century Republican positions. He’s expressed support for unions in principle; he’s often critical of corporate and elite institutions; he’s pushed for state policies to incentivize the creation of families.
Once, Vance said, Republicans were openly the party of corporations. Since Trump’s entry into the party in 2016, however, Vance said that Republicans are now more willing to ask “Is this corporation’s interest in the American people’s interest?”
When evaluating other social movements, Vance said that people need to apply more scrutiny to their potential hidden motives.
For instance, he noted that transgender drugs and operations are profitable to the pharmaceutical industry, as were COVID-19 vaccines—particularly because pharmaceutical companies are given broad immunity from liability for adverse reactions.
“We should just ask ourselves, ‘Who’s getting rich from this stuff?’ Maybe we should be skeptical of people getting rich from this stuff,” Vance said.
“The whole conduit of money into politics is fundamentally broken, we have to fix that.”
Vance Confirms Chinese Cellphone Hack
Reports citing anonymous sources last week suggested that hackers linked to the Chinese Communist Party may have targeted Trump and Vance, although the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) could only confirm the hackers’ origin, not the victims.
The senator confirmed on Thursday that his and Trump’s cellphones had likely been compromised.
The exchange followed a question from Rogan about the United States’s vulnerability to cyber attacks.
“We do have a real problem … my phone was allegedly hacked by Chinese hackers,” Vance said.
Rogan asked the senator if the hack exposed anything critical on his phone, but Vance said he would have to wait and find out, although he uses message encryption, which prevented the hackers from seeing his private messages.
Vance said he learned that his and Trump’s phones were hacked due to telecommunications infrastructure that was implemented following the Patriot Act.
“What I’ve been told is that that infrastructure was used by this Chinese hacker organization called Salt Typhoon, and that’s how they got into the Verizon network, and that’s how they got into the AT&T network,” Vance said.
Vance’s claims could not be independently verified by The Epoch Times.
The CISA declined to comment on the matter.
The Epoch Times also requested comment from the FBI and Justice Department and received no response by publication time.
Abortion
The two also discussed abortion. Vance said he and Trump want to make it a state issue—so California can make its own laws while Alabama can do the same. Trump recently said he would veto a national abortion ban if Congress sent one to his desk. Vice President Kamala Harris has accused Trump of lying and has used the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision to mobilize women voters.
Rogan said he worries that some states with strict bans could put women in “very vulnerable positions” if they seek care across state lines, and face potential legal consequences when they return home. The host also said the “life begins at conception” position is rooted in religion, and is concerned about that dictating “whether or not a person can legally travel to another state.”
Vance said he is not aware of laws that could do that, but nonetheless disagrees with arresting women seeking abortions.
“I think I’m trying to be fair to both sides here [and] balance the interest in life against the interest in autonomy,” Vance said, adding that “pro-life” people need to be “pro-family” beyond just being “pro-birth.”
During a Pennsylvania rally on Oct. 30, Vance said that he had sat down with Rogan for four hours earlier the same day. He used the opportunity to criticize Vice President Kamala Harris for not taking part in more interviews.
Harris has also been in communication with Rogan about joining his program, though her campaign has made demands Rogan is currently unwilling to accommodate. Rogan has left the door open to a later interview.
Austin Alonzo contributed to this report.