Joe Rogan Experience #2221 - JD Vance

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. NANarrator0:00

      (drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. The Joe Rogan Experience. (energetic music)

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. How's it going? All right. How are you, sir?

   4. JVJD Vance0:13

      Good, man. How are you doing?

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      Very nice to meet you.

   6. JVJD Vance0:15

      Yeah. Nice to meet you, too.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:16

      What is it like, uh, running for Vice President of the United States?

   8. JVJD Vance0:19

      (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:20

      How, how crazy is this experience?

   10. JVJD Vance0:22

       Uh, it's pretty weird. It's pretty weird. Uh, you know, I, I was just telling, you heard this earlier, but the first time that I've been in a public spot without Secret Service in the room is right now.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:31

       (laughs)

   12. JVJD Vance0:31

       So I'm, like, looking around for these guys-

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:33

       How long has it been?

   14. JVJD Vance0:33

       ... because I'm used to just having them... It's three months, right? So he, he asked me the Monday of the RNC convention, which I think was June 15th. And I really didn't know that morning. I thought that he was probably gonna pick me, but I didn't know for sure, probably 60/40 basically. And so I had no idea. I get the call around 1:00 at Milwaukee time at the RNC convention. I'm hanging out with my kid. Another one of my kids is in the other room asleep 'cause, you know, our kids are young so they nap still. And, uh, he makes this call and he's like, "Hey, do you wanna be my vice president?" I was like, "Oh."

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:05

       Was it literally just like that?

   16. JVJD Vance1:07

       Well, actually what, what happened is I get a text message from a staff member on his team that says, "You just missed a very important phone call." (laughs) And I don't know, you know, 'cause there's so much inbound traffic that I think it just went straight to voicemail.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:20

       (laughs)

   18. JVJD Vance1:20

       So I call him back and I'm like, "Hey, sir, what's going on?" He said, "J.D., you just missed a very important phone call. I'm gonna have to pick somebody else now." (laughs)

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:29

       (laughs)

   20. JVJD Vance1:29

       You know, so I'm about to shit a brick here. And then he says, "No. No. I'm just kidding obviously. Want you to be my vice president." And the, the funny thing is, you know, my seven-year-old is in the background and he has no idea what's going on. And I love that, right? It's one of the good things about this. He has no clue what's going on. He's like, "Dad, who are you talking to?" He's talking about Pokemon cards, right? And, um, I... You know, Trump hears my son in the background and he says, "Well, uh, who's that?" And I said, "That's my seven-year-old son, Ewan." He's like, "Put him on the phone." (laughs)

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:58

       (laughs)

   22. JVJD Vance2:01

       And I'm just thankful for the- for him to get this statement out.

   23. JRJoe Rogan2:03

       Right.

   24. JVJD Vance2:03

       'Cause in my mind, it's not final until the statement is actually out. And he, he, he talks to my son and, and he reads the statement that he is gonna put out on Truth Social announcing that I'm the VP nominee of the Republican Party. And he's like, "What do you think about that, Ewan?" And my son Ewan is like, "Oh, that's, that, that's pretty good. That's pretty good." (laughs)

   25. JRJoe Rogan2:21

       (laughs)

   26. JVJD Vance2:21

       And then he gives the phone back to me. He's like, "I have no idea what the hell's going on." And it's funny-

   27. JRJoe Rogan2:25

       He doesn't even know what that means.

   28. JVJD Vance2:26

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan2:26

       That's crazy.

   30. JVJD Vance2:26

       He has no idea. And, and of course I remember this story because i- i- in particular at the Madison Square Garden rally of a few days ago was the first time that my son actually met Donald Trump. So we'd spoken to him on the phone, but hadn't actually met him until the rally at MSG. And my seven-year-old really wanted to tell him a joke.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Who else was in…

   1. JVJD Vance15:00

      that was a Saturday. Just think, thinking about it, I guess it was probably June 13th, 'cause I think the convention started June 15th. I go down to Mar-a-Lago that morning, Saturday morning, and I'm talking to him for the first time. 'Cause the media had already a- asked me, I was like one of the rumored shortlist candidates. I kept on getting these questions from reporters, "Have you ever been, have you ever had this conversation with Trump?" And the honest answer was no. Well, Saturday morning that changed, 'cause I go down there and he's like, "What do you," you know, "what do you think? Why, why, why should I choose you? Um, why should I not choose these other guys?" Like, we just had a conversation about it.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:29

      Who else was in the running?

   3. JVJD Vance15:30

      You know, I don't really know, actually.

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:33

      Don't lie.

   5. JVJD Vance15:33

      I, I really don't know.

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:33

      Tell the truth. Come on, man. (laughs)

   7. JVJD Vance15:34

      I, look, I, I, I, I, I think, I think that there were a couple of senators that were being considered, a couple of governors, a couple of former cabinet secretaries. But you don't really know because when Donald Trump sat me down, I mean, he talked about ten different people-

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:45

      Right.

   9. JVJD Vance15:45

      ... that he was thinking about naming. And this was two days before he made the selection.

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:49

       So he's playing like a little, like, "Let's see how JD thinks" game.

   11. JVJD Vance15:52

       Yeah, I think so. And-

   12. JRJoe Rogan15:55

       Okay.

   13. JVJD Vance15:55

       You know, he, he told me that the g- he was talking to the gardener at Mar-a-Lago about who the, who the vice presidential nominee should be. And that's one of, I think, Trump's sort of political genius is, is he talks to everybody about everything. And I was like, "Well, what did the g- (laughs) what did the gardener at Mar-a-Lago have to say about this conversation?" (laughs) Because this really directly im- impacts my life. And, you know, he, he basically said, "Well, I think I'm gonna, probably gonna pick you, but I don't know and I'm not ready to make a decision." And then he looks at one of his staff members who's in the room and he's like, "Actually, wouldn't it really set the world ablaze if we just made the decision today? And so why don't you come up with me and we'll just do the announcement in Butler, Pennsylvania?"

   14. JRJoe Rogan16:35

       Whoa.

   15. JVJD Vance16:35

       And, and I said, a- and of course not knowing at the time what was gonna happen, I was like, "Absolutely, let's get this over with, 'cause I'm sick of not knowing. Let's just get this thing over with." And then he's like, "Ah, no, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do it up there. We need to prepare for it better. So, look, I'm not saying it's gonna be you, but I'm thinking very seriously about it. Have fun. We'll see you after Butler, PA." And then of course, I go back home to Ohio.

   16. JRJoe Rogan16:55

       Oh, boy.

   17. JVJD Vance16:55

       He gets shot. You know, the initial reaction is I actually thought they had killed him, because when you first see the video, he grabs his ear and then he goes down. And I'm like, "Oh my God, they just killed him." And I was so, I mean, first I was so pissed, but then I go into, like, fight or flight mode with my kids. I'm like, "You know, all right, kids." You know, we were at a, (blows air through closed lips) we were at a mini golf place in Cincinnati, Ohio. I grab my kids up, throw them in the car, go home and load all my guns, and basically stand like a sentry at our front door. (laughs)

   18. JRJoe Rogan17:26

       Holy shit.

   19. JVJD Vance17:26

       And that was my, that was sort of my reaction to it. But anyway, I really didn't know it was gonna happen till Monday morning. I didn't know who else was being selected. I think it was all the names that people sort of see out there, right? All good guys. Like, nobody I have any, any personal animosity towards. But obviously, you know, here we are.

   20. JRJoe Rogan17:45

       How much did you study the story of the, the assassin, the attempted assassin? How much have you paid attention to it?

   21. JVJD Vance17:53

       You know what, Crooks or Cooks or whatever-

   22. JRJoe Rogan17:54

       Yeah.

   23. JVJD Vance17:54

       ... the guy's name is in Pennsylvania? I mean, I, I've read a fair amount about it and it's pretty bizarre.

   24. JRJoe Rogan17:58

       It's very bizarre.

   25. JVJD Vance18:00

       It's bizarre they haven't been able to get into his phone. It's just-

   26. JRJoe Rogan18:03

       Well, they got, they got into his phone. Um-... didn't they?

   27. JVJD Vance18:06

       Have they? I, I, I thought they've-

   28. JRJoe Rogan18:07

       I thought they said they did.

   29. JVJD Vance18:08

       Well-

   30. JRJoe Rogan18:09

       Maybe you know better than me.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   (laughs) …

   1. JVJD Vance30:00

      publishing studies that suggest that gender transition craziness has reached the boiling, boiling point. I mean, m- uh, you know, you have, you've had, you have, you have kids. I have a four-year-old and two-year-old. Every single day, my four-year-old or two-year-old will come to me and say something that is batshit insane-

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:17

      (laughs)

   3. JVJD Vance30:17

      ... because they're four and two.

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:18

      Yeah.

   5. JVJD Vance30:18

      Like, my four-year-old will come and say, "Daddy, I'm a dinosaur."... right? I mean, they've take them to, like, the dinosaur transition clinic-

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:24

      Right.

   7. JVJD Vance30:24

      ... and put scales on them and-

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:26

      Well, the other thing is, like, if you were-

   9. JVJD Vance30:27

      No, this is crazy.

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:27

       ... encouraging them, and some parents, it's just the- I'm just gonna say it, even though it sounds gross, they want their kid to be a part of the LGBTQ thing because it looks like a flag of virtue that they can post in their front lawn, "Oh, look, we have a queer child." Like-

   11. JVJD Vance30:44

       Mm-hmm.

   12. JRJoe Rogan30:44

       ... "Oh, you're amazing." There's a weird thing about it with some of these nutty parents where you-

   13. JVJD Vance30:50

       Oh.

   14. JRJoe Rogan30:50

       ... could imagine them encour- there, uh, there has to be some reason why this enormous percentage of Hollywood kids are trans. Like, how many celebrities have trans kids? It's new. It's not-

   15. JVJD Vance31:02

       It's-

   16. JRJoe Rogan31:02

       ... a thing that was going on-

   17. JVJD Vance31:03

       That's right.

   18. JRJoe Rogan31:03

       ... just a few- it was rare in the past.

   19. JVJD Vance31:05

       That's right. It becomes a social signifier-

   20. JRJoe Rogan31:07

       Yes.

   21. JVJD Vance31:07

       ... for a lot of parents, and we have to be honest about that fact. And if you look at, you know, look at where the gender craziness is the most common, it's most common among upper middle class to lower middle class white progressives.

   22. JRJoe Rogan31:22

       100%.

   23. JVJD Vance31:23

       Now, you could believe, okay, that there's just, like, something genetic going on in the mind of a wealthy white progressive or you could believe that this is a cultural trend that we should be questioning a lot more than we are right now. And unfortunately, uh, I mean, h- here's one thing that I really worry about is, okay, think about the incentives. People are very good at rationalizing things. If you are a, you know, middle class or upper middle class white parent and the only thing that you care about is whether your child goes into Harvard or Yale, like, obviously, that pathway has become a lot harder for a lot of upper middle class kids, but the one way that those people can participate in the DEI bureaucracy in this country is to be trans. And is there a dynamic that's going on where if you become trans, that is the way to reject your white privilege, right? That's the social signifier-

   24. JRJoe Rogan32:24

       Hmm. Yeah.

   25. JVJD Vance32:25

       ... the only one that's available in the hyperwoke mindset is if you become gender non-binary. And I think-

   26. JRJoe Rogan32:32

       Non-binary is the best one because you don't even-

   27. JVJD Vance32:35

       (laughs)

   28. JRJoe Rogan32:35

       ... have to do anything. You can just say I'm non, I can say I'm non-binary and, like, you don't have to do anything, but all of a sudden you're a part of the group.

   29. JVJD Vance32:41

       Yeah. Well, that's right. And, again, I, I think it's important to, sort of, you know... Most people are not saying, "Oh, I'm white privileged. How do I become part of the privilege set?"

   30. JRJoe Rogan32:51

       Right.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Yeah. …

   1. JVJD Vance45:00

      true self?" And maybe we should be asking ourself, this is sort of more of a Bobby Kennedy point, but why are we putting all this weird crap into our food, into our water? Maybe we should be a little bit more skeptical, like-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:12

      Yeah.

   3. JVJD Vance45:12

      ... "My body is a temple," rather than, "I'm gonna welcome even more pharmaceutical intervention-"

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:18

      Yeah.

   5. JVJD Vance45:18

      ... "into the human body." It's very interesting how some religions view the body as a temple, and some religions almost invite the pollution. I think the woke thing is inviting the pollution.

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:28

      Well, they're also inviting ... See, one, one of the weirdest things is if you are on the wrong side of their ideology, like if you're aligned with Trump, like RFK Jr. is, now all a sudden I've seen, like, people on the left that are trying to dismiss a lot of the things that he says about additives in food, about atrazine, fluoride in the wa- all these different things, because now they're connecting not having toxins in your food with a right-wing idea.

   7. JVJD Vance45:59

      (laughs) It's crazy. (laughs) It's mind-blowing.

   8. JRJoe Rogan46:03

      It's so bananas. Like, even being healthy, fitness, fitness, they're connecting fitness with a right-wing idea.

   9. JVJD Vance46:09

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan46:09

       Like ...

   11. JVJD Vance46:10

       Yeah. Well, and it, it raises ... One of my sort of core political beliefs is that our politics is focused on fake shit and distractions to distract us from the real stuff, right?

   12. JRJoe Rogan46:21

       Yes.

   13. JVJD Vance46:21

       And so if I'm looking at the environmental movement in the United States of America, and I don't even have, like, strong views on the, you know, what the carbon footprint ultimately does. I'm sort of skeptical of the experts here, but I'm also skeptical of, you know, the other side. I, I just don't really know what I think about this. I think it's insane to try to eliminate fossil fuels. That's kind of a, a belief that I have. But it's interesting that the environmental movement in America, the only thing that it talks about is g- c- the carbon footprint, and it never talks about, like, "Oh, why do we have the highest rates of obesity in the world right now?" Right? "Why, why is it that American kids spend less time outdoors in nature than they ever have in the history of our 250-year civilization?" There's this weird way in which we get distracted by the fake stuff instead of focusing on the real stuff, and I think there is a really ...... very important environmental conversation to be had. It was interesting when, one of the first things that happened when I was a senator is, we had this terrible train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Got a lot of headlines. And it was a mistake at the time that it wasn't obvious, they basically set off a few of the chemical cars, which, I, I mean, if you see the images, it looks like a nuclear bomb went off in East Palestine, Ohio. But it's putting vinyl chloride and all these other pollutants into the water, into the air, into the soil. And it was amazing, the environmental movement almost could not have cared less about a chemical explosion in rural Ohio that is potentially poisoning thousands of people. But they were really, really concerned about the carbon footprint of those same people. I- I- I- I- I'm sick of the distraction. I think we should focus on the real stuff. And unfortunately, it's true of the environmental policy, but it's true of a lot of other stuff, we just don't talk about the real thing.

   14. JRJoe Rogan48:06

       The carbon footprint thing is very concerning to me, because I'm, I'm seeing this concept being pushed out of having an app that monitors your carbon footprint and limiting the amount of travel you can do and limiting the amount of thing-

   15. JVJD Vance48:21

       I know where that's gonna go.

   16. JRJoe Rogan48:22

       Yeah, just control. It's just control of people.

   17. JVJD Vance48:24

       It's absolutely about control.

   18. JRJoe Rogan48:25

       And if you can do that, then you can get away with a lot of things. You can get a lot of, away with a lot of policy-

   19. JVJD Vance48:30

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan48:30

       ... and get away with a lot of decisions that are made that people wouldn't agree with because you're gonna limit so many things about their life, they're gonna become accustomed to being governed-

   21. JVJD Vance48:40

       That's right.

   22. JRJoe Rogan48:40

       ... in that way. It just, it's disturbing to me that there's also profit that's being made off the green movement. There's a lot of people-

   23. JVJD Vance48:47

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan48:47

       ... like Bill Gates, who have like-

   25. JVJD Vance48:48

       (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan48:48

       ... making a lot of money off of these environmentally conscious things.

   27. JVJD Vance48:53

       Yeah. $50 million to Kamala Harris, by the way.

   28. JRJoe Rogan48:55

       All of those-

   29. JVJD Vance48:56

       (laughs)

   30. JRJoe Rogan48:56

       ... bullshit fake food, that fake meat, which is not good for anybody.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:09:33

   Ugh. …

   1. JVJD Vance1:00:00

      the opioid problem. Uh, my mom struggled with opioids for a very long time. She's been clean and sober for a while, but I'm, I'm very proud of her. I love you, Mom. I know you're watching this. But I was running into this guy in the street in DC, and he's, he'd just quit his job (laughs) for this pharmaceutical lobbying organization, or he was talking about quitting. And I was like, "Why?" He's like, "Man, we just did something that's very dark." And basically, what they had figured out is, because American Indian tribes, Native Americans, have tribal sovereignty, and so they figured out, I guess, that if they gave some Native American tribe some fraction of a fraction of a penny of the royalties from the sale of opioids, that they could actually insulate themselves from litigation around the prescription opioid epidemic. And I guess this guy (laughs) was just like s- he thought it was so dirty that he was like, "I can't, I can't work for this organization anymore." And I was like, "Holy shit."

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:56

      Ugh.

   3. JVJD Vance1:00:56

      "That is some pretty dark stuff. So you guys are giving some Native American tribe, like, pennies t- so that you can insulate yourself from pharmaceutical litigation." I, I'd be very curious. I should follow up on this to see if that actually happened. But again, just to be clear, if the media tries to fact-check me, this is what I heard from a friend.

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:01:15

      Well, this is a Jamie fact-checker right now.

   5. JVJD Vance1:01:16

      Yeah. Well, Jamie, I'm very curious if this actually happened.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:01:18

      (laughs) Uh, look at, look into it. Becau- but, but I, I think it did happen because I saw the look on this guy's face, and he was like, "Man, this is some pretty dark stuff." That's crazy.

   7. JVJD Vance1:01:26

      Yeah. (laughs) I mean, it's-

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:01:27

      But that's how corporations-

   9. JVJD Vance1:01:29

      It's wild. (laughs)

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:01:29

       ... behave. You know, we were just, uh, the trigonometry guys were on here yesterday, and we were talking about it, that corporations behave like psychopaths. Like, that's, there's a book about it.

   11. JVJD Vance1:01:38

       (laughs)

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:01:39

       It's like, they, they describe how this endless pursuit of- Oh, it's cut off again. It really- You know what it is, Jamie? Whenever I move the mic. Tell me when it's back. You just hit it and it made a noise. It must be the cable. Let's just do it. Sorry. Oh, this is it, dude.

   13. JVJD Vance1:01:54

       Oh, was that-

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:01:54

       We got it.

   15. JVJD Vance1:01:54

       Oh, you got it. Okay. (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:01:55

       This one's loose. Try it now. Tell me now. Yeah.

   17. JVJD Vance1:02:00

       I mean, I heard that click. I bet that's what it was.

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:02:01

       Yeah. Is that it? We're good?

   19. JVJD Vance1:02:02

       Yeah. Okay.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:02:03

       Yeah, yeah. What was that thing you wanted me to check real quick? Sorry. Um- Corporate, for the someone in particular?

   21. JVJD Vance1:02:06

       The pharmaceutical companies using, um, giving royalty streams to Native American tribes-

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:02:13

       Okay, that one-

   23. JVJD Vance1:02:13

       ... to insulate themselves from lawsuits. Anyway, yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:02:16

       It's very scary stuff. Uh-

   25. JVJD Vance1:02:18

       Well, yeah, it's, and it's ... This is like one of the things that I think is genuinely different about ... And I don't wanna get too, too partisan political here, but about Donald Trump's Republican Party, is, is, like, I mean, y- yeah, obviously, like, there are corporations that were more pro-certain businesses, and were, we tend to be more anti-certain businesses, like for example, Big Tech. I hate Big Tech. We can get into that later. But fundamentally, I think President Trump has changed the mindset of the Republican Party to where it was like instinctively always pro-corporate. We're now sometimes willing to ask, "Well, is this corporation's interest in the American interest?" Like, there was this famous quote, I believe, from the leadership of GM back in the 1950s that General Motors' interest is America's interest. And I'm probably butchering the quote, but it's sort of paraphrased. Can anybody really in 2024 say that Google's interest is America's interest? Or Apple, which employs thousands of slaves in Shenzhen, is Apple's interest is America's interest? Like, I, I just don't ... That's ridiculous. And the fact that we're at least somewhat skeptical of corporate power in the Republican Party I think is a very good trend for us.

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:03:24

       It is kinda weird that one of the wokest companies, if you thought about, like, woke companies and, like, super progressive and, like, on the right side of everything-

   27. JVJD Vance1:03:32

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:03:33

       ... Apple. Apple's like one of the best ones.

   29. JVJD Vance1:03:35

       (laughs) Apple.

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:03:35

       And they have phones that are made by slaves.

Episode duration: 3:17:20