Oh, this was ugly. Dare I say it was over before it began?

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance appeared on Sunday's "Meet the Press" this week to make a fool out of moderator Kristen Welker. Lemme rephrase that: to lead Welker into making a fool out of herself. 

At issue in the segment were Trump's promised blanket tariffs — which are probably a bad idea that I'll write about in a future article. (Hint: exporters don't pay tariffs, as Trump claims; importers pay tariffs.)

Welker asked Vance: "How do you respond to that charge that Trump's tariffs would hurt the middle class?" 

JD was ready with an answer — and more than eager to respond:

If you sit back a little bit, Kristen, there's this whole thing that Kamala Harris did at the convention where she made a bunch of claims about what would happen, and not enough ... reflection on what already happened, because Donald Trump already was president; he used tariffs to bring manufacturing jobs back to our country and I' think he'll do it again. He did it while keeping prices extremely low. 

[I]f you go back to the Trump presidency, we had 12,000 factories that were built during Donald Trump's presidency, inflation never really ticked above two percent during his entire administration ... and was about one-have percent, most of the time. So when Kamala Harris says, 'If we do the thing that Trump already did, it's gonna be way worse than it was last time.' I just don't think that makes a lot of sense.  

Welp, that was easy.  

WATCH: @JDVance DESTROYS NBC on Trump's successful economic record🔥

"We had 12,000 factories that were built during Donald Trump's presidency, inflation never really ticked about 2% his entire administration." pic.twitter.com/mO7XCvLKSm

— Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) August 25, 2024

Moreover, facts and statistics are to Democrats and their liberal media sock puppets what crucifixes and holy water are to vampires.  

Vance Believes the 2024 Election Will Be 'Free and Fair'

On another hot topic, Vance told Welker he thinks the election will be "free and fair."

Welker: "Let's move on to something that Donald Trump said in North Carolina, and yet again, Friday night."

Here was Trump on Friday night (which is contained in the video, below):

Our primary focus is not to get out the vote, it's to make sure they don't cheat. 'Cause we have all the votes you need. You can see it... .

Far be it from me to disagree with Donald, but getting out the vote should always be the top priority, particularly if you suspect the other side is going to cheat. Does it not stand to reason that the more votes you get, the harder it makes for the other side to sufficiently cheat? 

"Why is Donald Trump casting doubt on the election before it's even happened," Welker asked. 

Regardless of which argument you buy, Vance spoke his own mind. After first saying, "I don't think that's what Donald Trump's doing," Vance continued:

I think what he's saying is we wanna pursue a set of public policies in the Republican Party that make it easier for every legal ballot to be cast and counted, but make it harder for illegally cast ballots to be counted. 

Now, we can disagree about how many of those there are —a few hundred, a few thousand, maybe more — but just in the last week... once in Arizona and once in Pennsylvania, there were major court wins that make our ballot process more secure and more effective. I think that's what Donald Trump is talking about. 

We have to pursue, sometimes through litigation, sometimes through better policy at the state or national level, a set of rules that make sure every ballot is legally counted.   

Welker pushed back: "Well, it's (Trump's comments) very different from your message, which... was "We have to work as hard as possible to persuade Americans to vote for us..." 

"Are you on the same page as Donald Trump?" Welker asked, adding: "Again, he seems to be casting doubts on the results of the election before it's even happened." 

Vance laughed, then responded.

Of course we're on the same page, Kristen. We talk all the time, and I guarantee if you sat here and said, "Mr. President, do you believe that your campaign needs to persuade voters, as much as possible, of course he's gonna say yes. That's not inconsistent with thinking that we need to pursue a set of approaches that make sure that legal ballots get counted, [and] illegal ballots don't get counted.

Welker took it to the hoop, one more time. "Do you have faith that the 2024 election will be free and fair?"

Vance responded: 

I do, Kristen. I do believe that it's gonna be free and fair, and we're gonna do everything we can to make sure that happens. We're gonna pursue every pathway to make sure, again, legal ballots get counted. I feel very good about where we are. I think we're gonna win this race — and I think we're gonna win a very good election.

A bit of political navigation between two different sets of beliefs, in my not-so-humble opinion, which I think Vance pulled off extremely well. 

What say you?

Also Read:

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JD Vance Says Media's Fake Polls Create Dissension Among GOP Voters. One Pollster Shows People Agree