Inside The Drama Between JD Vance And CNN's Jake Tapper

Sparks flew in an interview between Jake Tapper and JD Vance on Tapper's "State of the Union" broadcast. The two got into a heated exchange over Donald Trump's quotes and former staff members of Trump's White House. The pleasantries lasted only seconds beyond Tapper welcoming Vance to the stage. It was as if the pair couldn't let the other finish a sentence at times, with Tapper interjecting into Vance's answers almost constantly. Tapper seemed unable to let go of allies who turned against Donald Trump, no matter which way the conversation went. There was also some major shade thrown during the interview, with Tapper making statements like, " I think it's interesting that you think that — that a magazine writer lied the American people into war." Jake Tapper didn't hold back throughout the time they had together.

Vance, to his credit, attempted to discuss policy rather than former staff members like Donald Trump's Former Chief of Staff who flipped on him. But while he was on the back foot early, he took the fight to Jake Tapper later on, pressing him for CNN's coverage of Donald Trump being investigated for Russian collusion and giving credence to anonymous sources. This continued the trend of high emotions and drama that ran throughout the entire interview and culminated in Tapper all but laughing in Vance's face.

At one point, JD Vance was forced to discuss why so many people from Trump's staff are against him, which seemed to be the angle of the entire line of questioning. In the CNN interview, Vance described Trump's former staffers as having a damaged worldview and an axe to grind with Trump. Jake Tapper was confounded, asking "That's what — that's really your argument?." Near the end, Vance revealed that the reason Mike Pence and the others mentioned in the CNN interview came out against Trump was because "they came into office thinking that they could control Donald Trump." Tapper pushed the issue, asking, "Mike Pence thought he could control Donald Trump." After Vance affirmed the question, Tapper said "Ha! Really?" 

After this, higher-ups got in Tapper's ear to tell him to wrap up the interview, and their final exchange was one of only a couple of times during the entire sit-down that they let each other finish multiple sentences. At no point was the interview a good look for either man and began what will likely be a longstanding drama between the two regardless of the outcome of the election.