What To Know
- JD Vance appeared on The View, where Sara Haines questioned how his Catholic faith aligns with his support for Donald Trump.
- On the Behind the Table podcast, Haines expressed disappointment that Vance’s answers lacked depth.
- Haines emphasized that her question about faith and complicity came from a personal place.
On Tuesday, June 17, Vice President JD Vance stopped by The View and sat behind the table for the grilling of his life. Among the topics discussed was his Catholic faith and how it squares with some of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and policies.
When cohost Sara Haines asked the VP about his faith, a central theme of his memoir, and how he reconciles it with some of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric that critics argue conflicts with Christian teachings. And in response, Vance said, “I would say fundamentally that one of the things I underappreciated about Donald Trump is that so many of the things that people said about him weren’t actually true.”
On the podcast Behind the Table, hosted by executive producer Brian Teta, Haines got the opportunity to expand her thoughts on the question and Vance’s seemingly non-answer.
“So, I read the book, and he showed up the way I thought he would. I mean, I don’t know how to answer it any better. He’s a good politician,” said Haines.
“For anyone who has thoughts about him, he’s very kind in person; he carries himself a certain way…all those things,” explained Haines. “I don’t know how much I learned in that interview or even had clarification in that interview. I kind of think the answers made sense for who he is. The explanations didn’t live up to what you hoped for, and the thing I wanted to know the most, I didn’t really hear.”
Teta went on to explain that even though they received a lot of negative criticism from non-fans of the show regarding the segment and how everyone was just “reading what producers gave them,” Haines invested quite a bit of time and energy on the segment. And her question on faith “came from her heart.”
“I’m not a political pundit. I don’t come from a political world. I’m kind of a little nerdy on what I seek out to read or care about, so it’s not necessarily the best stuff to produce on TV,” said Haines. “I say that because I always ask myself before an interview, ‘If I had one question with this person, what would I want to know?’”
“For me, JD Vance and a book on faith, the question came to me early about reconciling his participation and decisions and the things he’s complicit in with a Christian faith in general. But the book spoke at length at how deeply faith-based he is. More so, the impact he wants to have on his kids. And I think anyone who is a parent can relate to loving your children,” said Haines.
“That has been a lot of the problem that comes home to me in questions, and I was just curious how JD Vance, for what he himself had said and done, but even more so, as he stands next to President Trump, what he’s either not spoken up about or said, because you can’t get a more pure human than Jesus Christ,” said Haines. “And as someone who really tries to act and speak in a way that honors that example, as a Christian, as a mother, as a daughter, all the things, I don’t know how he does what he does. And writes what he writes.”
“Something is missing. It doesn’t track,” said Haines.
The View, Weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
