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We're joined now by Vice President.

J.D. Vance, Mr. Vice President, thank you for joining us.

us this morning. Let's start with the Middle East.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Hamas has confirmed they are holding 20 living hostages and that those hostages are going to be released in the next 24 hours, early as today perhaps. Have 20 living hostages been confirmed? When do you expect to see them?

Well, they've been confirmed, George. Of course, you don't know until you see these people alive, but thank God we expect to see them alive here in the next 24 hours, probably early tomorrow morning U.S. time, which will be later in the day, of course, in Israel. But look, George, we have to remember, this is a remarkable achievement from an administration that really chose a nonconventional path to diplomacy, and I think that's the major takeaway. The President of the United States instructed Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner, Steve Whitcoff, he said, get a deal done, talk to the Gulf Arab states, talk to Israel, find where there's common ground here, and actually let's go and find a way to get it done. And because of that, we are on the cusp of true peace in the Middle East, really for the first time in my lifetime. Certainly, these 20 hostages are going to come home to their families, George. I think this is a great moment for our country. Our country should be proud of our diplomats who made this happen. It's really a great moment for the world, too, which is why the President's going to go over there and celebrate with these hostages. It's a great thing, and I'm very excited about it.

U.S. troops are being sent to Israel to monitor the agreement. What exactly will they be doing? Will they actually go into Gaza? And are you concerned they could get caught in some crossfire?

Thank you.

George, so that story is actually misreported. We already have troops at central command. We've had them for decades in this country. They're going to monitor the terms of the ceasefire. That's everything from ensuring that the Israeli troops are at the agreed upon line, ensuring that Hamas is not attacking innocent Israelis, doing everything that they can to ensure the peace that we've created actually sustains and endures. But the idea that we're going to have troops on the ground in Gaza, in Israel, that is not our intention. That is not our plan. There was a bit of a misreporting there, but we are going to monitor this peace to ensure that it endures. The other piece of good news that's been underreported, I think, George, is that Indonesia and a number of other majority Muslim states, they've actually offered to send ground troops to Gaza to ensure the necessary peacekeeping takes place. That's not something the United States is going to be expected to do. That's something the Muslim world is going to step up and do, and that, again, is because of the Trump administration's diplomacy. The President's diplomacy is not going to stop. It's going to continue.

in several American cities, as you know. That's been questioned by several federal judges, including Trump appointees, also the Republican governor of Oklahoma and chairman of the National Governors Association, Kevin Stitt. Here's what Governor Stitt said. We believe in the federalist system that states rights. Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker and Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration. How do you respond to Governor Stitt?

you

Well, I'd say the governor, you have to look at what's happening on the ground in Chicago. And the reason why Illinois is a different case from Chicago is because Chicago has been given over to lawlessness and gangs for too long, George. If you look at the murder rates in Chicago, the violent crime rates, you have women who have young families. They're terrified their kids are going to get killed in a drive-by shooting. We have accepted this for far too long in the United States of America and some of our biggest cities. And Chicago, unfortunately, is the worst. It's a beautiful city. It's got great people. We know the gross majority of the violent crime in that city is committed by a very tiny fraction of the population. Why shouldn't federal troops empower the people in Chicago to live safe lives when the governor and the local mayor just simply refuse to do their job? But as you know...

Well, George, we're obviously going to litigate this as much as we can. We think that we have the authority to provide proper safety to our citizens all over the United States, but particularly in Chicago. But I think for any federal judge or anybody else to look at the situation and say, is it tolerable? And I think the obvious answer, George, is no. The president looks at the situation. He sees the fact that you have multiple people dying of murders every weekend in the city of Chicago. And he says, this is intolerable. It's not just the people who live in Chicago. It's the law enforcement in Chicago, federal, state, and local, who are trying to keep us safe. George, you've seen ICE agents being teed off on in suburban Chicago, in places all over the state of Illinois, and other places, too. You see a 1,000% increase in violence against our ICE agents. They're being assaulted. They're being beaten. They're being shot at. I think all Americans, Democrat or Republican, we look at this scenario. We say, this is not acceptable. We want people to be safe. We want our law enforcement officials to be empowered to keep us safe. We can do this. And that's exactly what the Trump administration has committed to doing.

next guest. President Trump has said that he should be in jail. Do you think Governor Pritzker has committed a crime?

Well, I think Governor Pritzker has certainly failed to keep the people of Illinois safe. And it's interesting to me, you know, Governor Pritzker will talk a lot, I'm sure, about how bad Donald Trump is, about how bad I am, and about how bad the administration is. He is the governor of a state that where its biggest city has murder rates that rival the most violent places in the third world, George. Why is he so mad at Donald Trump for trying to keep Chicagoans safe? He should be mad at the criminals that he has failed to keep at bay. We're trying to help him, and we're trying to help the residents of his biggest city. I wish that he would let us, because he certainly isn't doing the job himself.

if you agree with President Trump that Governor Pritzker has committed a crime.

Well, I think that Governor Pritzker has allowed a lot of people to be killed in the city of Chicago and elsewhere, George. I think that it's disgraceful, and I think that he absolutely should suffer some consequences for the fact that there are thousands of innocent Chicagoans who are dead because he failed to do his job.

George, you're going to keep on asking this question. I'm going to keep on telling you that Governor Pritzker has failed to do his job. He should suffer some consequences. Whether he's violated a crime, ultimately, I would leave to the courts, but I certainly think that he has violated his fundamental oath of office. That seems pretty criminal to me. I'd leave it to a judge and jury to decide whether he's actually violated a crime.

Let me also ask you, as we saw the indictment this week of Letitia James on questions of mortgage fraud. Also, Lisa Cook has been accused by the Trump administration of committing mortgage fraud as well. The journalism outlet ProPublica has actually published a story, and I want to show it up on the screen right now, that says that several members of the Trump administration have faced similar questions. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Durham entered into two primary residence mortgages in quick succession. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has primary residence mortgages in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has one primary residence mortgage in Long Island and another in Washington, D.C. How do you respond to critics who say that the Trump administration is engaging in a

and a double standard here.

Well, I'd say two things, George. First of all, ProPublica is basically a left-wing blog. I'm not shocked that you found a left-wing blog that can attack members of the Trump administration. But second, and this is the most important, is what does the law say? Letitia James was indicted in a left-leaning part of our country, a part that voted very heavily against Donald J. Trump for the crime of mortgage fraud. When I read the indictment, when I read the facts in the case, I see a person who committed mortgage fraud. Of course, the jury is going to decide whether she ultimately committed a crime. We don't try her. The administration doesn't try her. A judge tries the case, and a jury decides whether she's ultimately guilty. That is what is going to determine whether she goes to prison. I think we let the facts drive this, and George, that's what we've tried to do in the administration's Department of Justice. We've asked ourselves, has a person violated the law? And if that person has violated the law, then we decide to prosecute them. That's what the Department of Justice should do. It didn't do that under Joe Biden's administration. It does under Donald Trump's.

Do I dispute a far-left blog that I haven't read that you brought up in this interview? I have no idea, George. I have no idea what they actually said. But I certainly question the source, I question their credibility, and most importantly, I'm not worried about what they said about members of our administration. I ask the question, what does the law say? And if the law says that you engage in mortgage fraud, and a local prosecutor, a local grand jury, and finally a jury convicts you of that crime, then that is how the justice system is meant to work in the United States of America.

are Tom Holman was recorded on an FBI surveillance tape in September 2024 accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money or give it back?

George, you've covered the story ad nauseum. Tom Homan did not take a bribe. It's a ridiculous smear, and the reason you guys are going after Tom Homan so aggressively is because he's doing the job of enforcing the law. I think it's really preposterous. I know Tom, I think that he's a good man. He gets death threats, he gets attacked, he gets constantly threatened by people because he has the audacity to want to enforce the country's immigration laws. I think that it would be a much more interesting story about why is it that Tom Homan, who is simply enforcing America's immigration laws, is getting constantly harassed and threatened to the point of death threats. That's a much more interesting question that I think journalists should focus on. We can agree to disagree on that question.

He didn't take a bribe, but I'm not sure you answered the question. Are you saying that he did not accept the $50,000?

Thank you.

which is why he's working in the administration. I'm asking you, did he accept the $50,000 that was caught on the surveillance? Did he accept that $50,000 or not?

George, I don't know what you're talking about. Did he accept $50,000 for what? He was recorded.

on an audio tape in September 2024, an FBI surveillance tape accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money?

Accepting $50,000 for doing what, George? I'm not even sure I understand the question. Is it illegal to take a payment for doing services? The FBI has not prosecuted him. I've never seen any evidence that he's engaged in criminal wrongdoing. Nobody has accused Tom of violating a crime, even the far-left media like yourself. So I'm actually not sure what the precise question is. Did he accept $50,000? Honestly, George, I don't know the answer to that question. What I do know is that he didn't violate a crime.

I don't know what tape you're referring to, George. I saw media reports that Tom Homan accepted a bribe. There's no evidence of that. And here's, George, why fewer and fewer people watch your program and why you're losing credibility. Because you're talking for now five minutes with the Vice President of the United States about this story regarding Tom Homan, a story that I've read about, but I don't even know the video that you're talking about. Meanwhile, low-income women can't get food because the Democrats and Chuck Schumer have shut down the government. Right now, we're trying to figure out how to pay our troops because Chuck Schumer has shut down the government. You are focused on a bogus story. You're insinuating criminal wrongdoing against a guy who has done nothing wrong instead of focusing on the fact that our country is struggling because our government's shut down. Let's talk about the real issues, George. I think the American people would benefit much more from that than from you going down some weird left-wing rabbit hole where the facts clearly show that Tom Homan didn't engage in any criminal wrongdoing. It's not a weird left-wing rabbit hole. I didn't insinuate it.

I asked you whether Tom Holman accepted $50,000 as was her

I said that I don't have next we'll be right back