JD Vance's Oscar-Worthy Question Dodge About Trump On CNN Has Everyone Saying The Same Thing

Vice presidential candidate JD Vance seems to have dodged questions regarding his running mate Donald Trump's stance on abortion. It stems from a proposed amendment to Florida's constitution that would change the state's rule that abortions are banned after six weeks. Presidential candidate Donald Trump told NBC News six weeks was not enough time. "I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks," Trump said, since he votes in Florida. However, Trump's team walked that statement back. Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NPR, "President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short."

Vance was later put on the spot in a CNN interview when John Berman asked him to elaborate on Trump's abortion views. Vance said Trump would announce if he was voting for the amendment himself. Vance also said Trump is somewhere in the middle of the two sides and thinks abortion is a state issue, before bringing up other policies.

Berman mentioned how Trump said he would vote for the amendment, and Vance repeated that Trump would later confirm how he was voting. In a deleted clip from the interview uploaded to X, formerly known as Twitter, Berman asked Vance, "So it's a grammar thing?" Vance simply stared into the camera without responding. After a few long seconds, Vance asked Berman to repeat his question and fussed with his ear. Berman deduced something was wrong with the audio causing Vance not to hear him, but critics on X felt it was all an act on Vance's part to avoid answering the tough question.

One person commented on the X clip of JD Vance being unable to hear and quipped, "You know he heard him clearly, right?" Another said, "Classic" with a clown emoji. They continued, "Pretend you can't hear the question when you're afraid of answering the question." Another X user said, "Maybe never seen a clip of real life that looked and felt more like satire than this." One commenter wasn't so convinced. "How is their audio issue JD's fault?" they said, prompting others to double down on their belief that Vance was being dishonest about technical difficulties. Eventually, Vance and John Berman's interview got back on track — but not without the men talking over each other for another awkward moment.

The irony of Vance's possibly faked audio trouble is that many Republicans had previously called out Vice President Kamala Harris for doing her first interview as a presidential candidate with her running mate Tim Walz by her side. Abigail Jackson, the communications director for Republican senator of Missouri Josh Hawley, said on X that Harris should do a press conference live and without anyone else. "She wants to be commander-in-chief and she's too scared to do an interview without Tim Walz by her side?" Jackson said. "Girl power, amirite."

The same criticisms of cowardice could be lobbed back in Vance's direction if the speculation is true that being unable to hear Berman's questions was an unconvincing performance. Is that less awkward than Vance seemingly admitting Trump doesn't want to be seen with him?