{"id":62544,"date":"2025-12-16T18:31:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/62544\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T18:31:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T18:31:06","slug":"jd-vance-embraces-conspiracy-theorist-label-i-only-believe-the-ones-that-are-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/62544\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance embraces \u2018conspiracy theorist\u2019 label: I only believe the ones that are true"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBURTIS, Pa. – Vice President JD Vance responded Tuesday to explosive remarks by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who described him as \u201ca conspiracy theorist for a decade\u201d in a series of interviews<\/a> with Vanity Fair.<\/p>\n

Rather than denying the characterization, the Cincinnati Republican embraced it\u2014claiming his so-called conspiracy theories were simply truths the media took months to acknowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true,\u201d Vance told reporters at an appearance outside Allentown, Pennsylvania, when asked about Wiles\u2019 comments.<\/p>\n

The vice president then rattled off examples he described as vindicated conspiracy theories, starting with COVID-19 policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it was stupid to mask three-year-olds at the height of the COVID pandemic, that we should actually let them develop some language skills,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n

His claim appears to reference debates over mask mandates for young children during the pandemic. However, major health organizations including the World Health Organization recommended <\/a>that children aged 5 years and under generally did not need to wear masks, while the American Academy of Pediatrics<\/a> recommended masks only for children 2 years and older. <\/p>\n

Vance then turned to President Joe Biden\u2019s fitness for office. \u201cI believed in this crazy conspiracy theory that the media and the government were covering up the fact that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After Biden\u2019s poor debate performance in June 2024, some White House reporters acknowledged<\/a> they wished they had pushed harder to tell the story about Biden\u2019s age and limitations. Following the debate, media outlets reported on efforts that had been made to manage and conceal Biden\u2019s age- and health-related limitations during his presidency, and Biden ultimately withdrew from the race in July 2024. <\/p>\n

Finally, Vance claimed: \u201cI believed in the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was trying to throw his political opponents in jail rather than win an argument against his political opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n

The claim oversimplifies a complex situation. <\/p>\n

While Trump made numerous suggestions, requests and demand<\/a>s to jail, arrest, investigate or prosecute his political opponents after returning to office, and used the Justice Department to punish enemies<\/a> while making unfounded claims of prior \u201cweaponization\u201d against him, the prosecutions of Trump during Biden\u2019s presidency were led by independent prosecutors. <\/p>\n

Attorney General Merrick Garland emphasized maintaining the DOJ\u2019s independence<\/a> from politicians and political considerations and elevating post-Watergate rules and norms. Biden himself stated publicly<\/a> that subjects of the Jan. 6 Select Committee\u2019s investigation should face prosecution for defying subpoenas, later saying<\/a> that comment was \u201cinappropriate,\u201d but there\u2019s no evidence that Biden directed the federal cases against Trump.<\/p>\n

Vance concluded his response with a quip: \u201cAt least on some of these conspiracy theories, it turns out that a conspiracy theory is just something that was true six months before the media admitted it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vice president also defended Wiles despite her critical comments, praising her loyalty to President Trump. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen Susie Wiles say something to the President and then go and counteract him or subvert HIS WILL behind the scenes,\u201d Vance said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what you wanted, a staffer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiles\u2019 Vanity Fair interviews included other pointed remarks about Trump administration figures. She said Trump \u201chas an alcoholic\u2019s personality,\u201d described Elon Musk as \u201can odd, odd duck\u201d and \u201can avowed ketamine\u201d user, and said Attorney General Pam Bondi \u201ccompletely whiffed\u201d the handling of the Epstein files.<\/p>\n

Vance ended his remarks with a lesson learned: \u201cIf any of us have learned a lesson from that Vanity Fair article. I hope that the lesson is we should be giving fewer interviews to mainstream media outlets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBURTIS, Pa. – Vice President JD Vance responded Tuesday to explosive remarks by White House Chief of Staff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-62544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}