{"id":886288,"date":"2026-10-18T05:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T05:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/886288\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T05:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T05:24:08","slug":"vance-faces-tough-questions-on-iran-war-immigration-and-more-in-cbs-town-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/886288\/","title":{"rendered":"Vance faces tough questions on Iran war, immigration and more in CBS town hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Vice President JD Vance<\/a> faced tough questions from voters about the Trump administration\u2019s policies on data centers, high costs, immigration and his own rhetoric in a town hall on CBS News that aired Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The string of sharp queries, some from voters who said they had supported him and President Donald Trump<\/a>, previewed the rocky path he may face trying to answer for the administration\u2019s record if he runs for president himself in 2028<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Vance, who said during the town hall there’s \u201cof course\u201d a chance he doesn’t run for president, faced an especially pointed question about \u201ca failure of leadership\u201d posted by the widow of one of six U.S. soldiers killed by an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait, which occurred the day after Trump started the war with Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis literally is the first time I\u2019ve heard of this,\u201d Vance said in response.<\/p>\n

As he went on, he said, \u201cThis job is an amazing honor, but you live in a bit of a bubble and sometimes information doesn\u2019t filter up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions about Iran war strategy and costs<\/p>\n

After telling the vice president about his late wife, Master Sgt. Nicole Amor, who was killed on March 1, Joey Amor asked about mistakes and fundamental failures that led up to the deaths of those soldiers and how leaders would be held accountable.<\/p>\n

Vance seemed taken aback by Amor\u2019s questions, saying, \u201cThis literally is the first time I\u2019ve heard of this,\u201d and said he wanted to talk with Amor to learn more after.<\/p>\n

But as Vance went on, he acknowledged mistakes were made and said, \u201cthere were issues with where troops were located that we realized was a huge mistake that we could do better on, and we have changed that.”<\/p>\n

A Michigan man who said he voted for Trump and Vance in 2024 but now plans to vote for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed pressed Vance about the high gasoline prices resulting from the war. In response, Vance said he recognized that gas prices were too high, and said, \u201cI think it\u2019s important to be honest about why they\u2019re so elevated.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was because of \u201cwhat\u2019s happening in the Middle East\u201d and said the administration was taking steps to try to lower prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never had a situation like this where you have effectively, the largest state sponsor of terrorism that\u2019s trying to choke off world energy supply,\u201d Vance said, without acknowledging that situation occurred because of the war Trump launched.<\/p>\n

He also blamed former President Joe Biden, saying that during his tenure, America\u2019s refining capacity was diminished.<\/p>\n

But when Vance was pressed on the Trump administration owning the current situation, the vice president suggested that looking backward for blame was not the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, we are where we are, and you have to, in my view, I\u2019d like to know what is Abdul El-Sayed\u2019s solution for the problem that we have right now,\u201d Vance said. “It\u2019s easy to criticize something that happened seven months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immigration enforcement tactics and the rhetoric around immigrants<\/p>\n

A nun who spoke to Vance about their shared Catholic faith questioned the administration\u2019s hardline immigration enforcement tactics, including children who are separated from their parents when the adults are swept up in sweeps, and how that squared with their values.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to strike the right balance,\u201d Vance said. When moderator Tony Dokoupil asked Vance if the administration is not striking that balance, Vance replied, \u201cI think that is constantly a work in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

He admitted that, \u201cSometimes you have some people who made mistakes. Sometimes you have some people who really screw up.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Dokoupil asked for specific examples, Vance said there are a number of cases the administration has investigated that resulted in further training or discipline for immigration enforcement officers, but said they don\u2019t advertise it publicly in order to let investigations play out.<\/p>\n

Another voter, who said she became an immigrant five years ago and voted for Vance after becoming a U.S. citizen, asked him pointedly about his recent remarks referring to H1-B visa holders as, \u201cforeign indentured servants,\u201d and accused him of \u201cscapegoating immigrants for the issues you\u2019re supposed to be solving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the extent that my rhetoric has been imperfect here, that\u2019s on me,\u201d Vance said, before explaining that he was trying to criticize the companies that bring in the workers, not the immigrant workers themselves.<\/p>\n

Selling access to the White House is \u2018disgusting and despicable\u2019<\/p>\n

Dokoupil pressed Vance on whether Trump and others in his administration were profiting off the presidency, including the nearly $1.2 billion the president took in from his crypto businesses last year, according to a federal filing. When asked if he’d seen anything in the White House that made him squeamish, Vance said, \u201cI’ve never seen anything like that from the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, though, that there is evidence of corruption in Washington, but he doesn’t see evidence of it from the president or the administration.<\/p>\n

Vance said he’s read articles about allegations, but said he goes to investigate claims himself and finds that they are not true. <\/p>\n

Dokoupil asked Vance about the president’s crypto profits, along with the recent resignation of his ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, over allegations she denies that she was leveraging her position for benefits. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody’s selling access to the White House, that’s disgusting and despicable and they should suffer consequences,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Vice President JD Vance faced tough questions from voters about the Trump administration\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21491,4,450,12,451,6009,3319,229278,369773,3,229279,149597,452,453,800],"class_list":["post-886288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-abdul-el-sayed","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-jd-vance","tag-joe-biden","tag-joey-amor","tag-kimberly-guilfoyle","tag-news","tag-nicole-amor","tag-tony-dokoupil","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}