'ASTONISHING': JD Vance calls out Democrats' hypocrisy

This is a Fox News alert right now. The US government shut down after a last ditch Senate vote failed to keep it funded.

Vice President JD Vance joins us now. Mr. Vice President, thanks for joining Fox and Friends

this morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, guys.

Good to be with you.

So y'all been going back and forth. Y'all had the leadership over. What are they asking for? Because you guys made it very clear, you just want a clean CR. What do they want in return?

Yeah, so Lawrence, I want to answer that, but let's step back for a second because I think it's important for the American people to realize that the far left faction of Senate Democrats shut down the government because we wouldn't give them hundreds of billions of dollars for healthcare benefits for illegal aliens. It's actually not even all Senate Democrats. I was really gratified to see that a few of the moderate Senate Democrats voted with Senate

Republicans last night to keep the government open. This is basically Chuck Schumer. Chuck Schumer, he's worried he's going to get a primary challenge from AOC, and so he's shutting down the people's government to give in to sort of the left wing coalition and their party, and it's craziness. And people are going to suffer because of it. I mean, people who benefit from low income food programs are going to suffer because of this.

If you're flying today, I hope, of course, you arrive safely and on time, but you may not arrive on time because the TSA and the air traffic controllers are not getting paid today. Our military is not getting paid today, starting today. And obviously the longer this drags on, the worse that it is for the American people. So we are where we are. And to your point, what does Senate Democrats ask for?

Well, initially they said that they wanted to shut down the government because Donald Trump was a dictator. Okay, that's absurd. Then they said they wanted to shut down the government because they wanted hundreds of billions of dollars for healthcare benefits for illegal aliens. That of course is also absurd.

And now they're saying they just want to work on ensuring that Americans have low cost healthcare. Well, I agree with them. Of course we all want to ensure that Americans have low cost healthcare. So let's work together on that. You don't shut the government down. You don't take the government as a hostage because you want to engage in a negotiation

about healthcare costs. Let's do that negotiation, but let's do it in the context of actually opening the government and ensuring those

essential services are actually provided to the American people. Speaker Johnson has a video running continuously outside of his office, and he also posted it on social media because the Democrats, when you go in the way back machine, they were always the one that thought that these shutdowns were reckless. Listen to this, Mr. Vice President.

It is not normal to shut down the government when we don't get what we want.

If the government shuts down, it will be average Americans who suffer most.

A government shutdown means seniors who rely on social security could be thrown into chaos. Families will be hurt. Farmers will be hurt.

It's the service members who will work without a paycheck. It's the firefighters who will be furloughed. This shutdown, you know who's going to feel the pain? You know who it hurts?

You.

Everyday people. And the most vulnerable.

Seniors, veterans, working families, hungry kids, y'all.

Well then why didn't they vote to continue the funding?

That's such a good point. And I see that Mike Johnson has apparently learned from the trolling master, President Donald Trump, by putting that video outside of his office, just throwing the Democrats' words right back at him. But it's actually such an important point. You don't shut the government down because you have a policy disagreement.

These are two separate questions. There are essential services that have already been appropriated, where we've already agreed, you know, we want our military to have a certain amount of payment. We want air traffic control to have a certain amount. We want to ensure that a certain number of people are able to access food benefits. You don't shut down the government because you have a policy disagreement

about a totally separate issue, and that's what the Democrats have done. And it really is astonishing to go back 20 years, I mean, pretty much the entire time, guys, that I've paid attention to American politics, I have seen Democrats stand before the American people

and say, you don't shut down the government because you're not getting what you want. And here they are last night, the far left faction of Senate Democrats. They shut down the government. Why?

Because they're not getting what they want. And what makes it extra preposterous, guys, if you actually listen to what they say, they say that they want to ensure that it's a premium support program under Obamacare that they want to keep going. Well, that premium support program doesn't even expire until next year.

So why are you shutting down the government on October the 1st because of a program that doesn't even expire for another few months? Let's talk about it. Let's negotiate. Let's do what you do in Washington, D.C. Don't shut down the government because you don't get what you want.

That's exactly what Senate Democrats have done in this case.

So let's just put up a full screen. You mentioned some of it of the potential effects of the government shutdown. Mass furloughs, federal employees and active duty military members don't get paychecks. We have travel delays, you mentioned TSA, Social Security and SNAP and WII and WIC applications, delays in Medicare and Medicaid payments, some V.A. services and career counseling.

So these are some of the things that will happen. Smithsonian could be closed. National Zoo, I hope someone feeds the animals, but we're not going to be able to see the animals. Can we talk about another thing that could be happening? Could Democrats begin to crack?

Now Rand Paul is on his own planet for some reason, doesn't want to vote for anything. But Fetterman, Masto, Cortez Masto, as well as Angus King all voted with the Republicans in the Senate where he used to work. Could there, are you hearing there could be other Democrats who don't want to go through this before the weekend and vote with you?

Yeah, yeah, Brian, I think that there will be. And if you look, frankly, when I talked to the president and our legislative team yesterday afternoon, I thought we would get 53, 54 votes. We got 55 votes because, again, that moderate faction of the Senate Democrats recognizes this is just an unreasonable position. You're not going to shut down the government because you disagree about a funding program

that doesn't even expire for another few months. So I think what's gonna happen is that as the political pressure builds and as we continue to have these negotiations, you're gonna see more and more Democrats come to the side of reason and reopen the government. But look, I'd offer right now to the Senate Democrats,

I'm happy, I will go to the Capitol right now to talk to Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats about premium support for the Affordable Care Act, but only after they've reopened the government. You can't reward this exercise in hostage-taking, which is what we would be doing if we allowed the government opening to be contentional on the Democrats' policy disagreements.

So we're going to negotiate with them. We of course want to lower health care costs for the American people. Look, we came in, we inherited this economy from the Biden administration. We know that healthcare costs were way too high under the Biden administration.

By the way, it's one of the reasons why the president announced yesterday that we're lowering prescription drug costs for all Americans by forcing Europeans and other countries to pay their fair share so that Americans can pay lower costs.

So we obviously care a lot about lowering health care costs for Americans, but we're not going to engage in negotiation with hostage-shakers, which is exactly what the Democrats have done. Now, I think, Brian, it was you who listed off some of the problems that come along with the shutdown. Let me add another one. This is October.

We are entering hurricane season all across the southeastern part of our country. Flood insurance for a lot of the people who are suffering from hurricanes or could suffer from hurricanes is going to disappear because the government is shut down. Let's reopen the government. Let's fix some of the core issues that exist for our country. And then let's negotiate about the Democrats health care policy ideas

Which we're happy to do but only when the government is open

Well, mr. Vice president one of the the lies that continues to be told is that they're not giving funding to Illegals health care. Can you explain to our audience why that's not true.

Yeah, so this is a Democrat talking point. They say we're not actually trying to give healthcare benefits to illegal aliens and here's why it's not true. There are two Biden era programs that explicitly gave the taxpayer healthcare money to illegal aliens that we turned off when President Trump took over in January. Program number one is there's a lot of emergency health care at hospitals that are provided

to illegal aliens. That was funded by the federal government. We turned off that funding because, of course, we want American citizens to benefit from those hospital services, not to be taxed and then to have those hospital services go to illegal aliens. The second of which is the Biden administration gave mass parole to millions upon millions

of illegal aliens, and then they simultaneously made those parolees eligible for healthcare benefits funded by taxpayers. In the one big beautiful bill, President Trump and congressional Republicans turned off that money to healthcare funding for illegal aliens. The Democrats want to turn it back on. And in their initial proposal, the first thing that they put out to reopen the government,

they actually turned that money for health care benefits for illegal aliens back on. So it's not something that we made up. It's not a talking point. It is in the text of the bill that they initially gave to us to reopen the government. It's preposterous for them to run away from it now, but look, let's set that all to the side.

Let's open up the government. Let's negotiate on all of these healthcare policy issues. Obviously, we're not gonna support healthcare benefits for illegal aliens, but we will work with them to lower healthcare costs for American citizens if they're willing to do so.

President Trump, he shared some pictures from the Oval Office meeting with Chuck Schumer and with Hakeem Jeffries, with Speaker Johnson and with Thune. And we wanted to ask you about any insight into that meeting, because the last shutdown, Mr. Vice President, was 35 days.

Americans can't go – here are the pictures – Americans cannot go that long without getting a paycheck or being furloughed. So can you give us some insight into what they talked about? Maybe how we can come to a compromise? And the hats? The Trump, Trump trolling

them with 28 hats. Yeah, thank you, Lawrence. That's the most important part. They're also the Trump 2028 hats, which I think made the majority or the minority leader in both the House and the Senate very uncomfortable. But look, it was the four of them plus me and the president, and we were having a very good conversation about healthcare policy. But the president finally sort of threw up his hands and said, guys, let's absolutely

work on this healthcare policy disagreement. We want to fix this issue for the American people, but we're not going to be taken hostage. We're not going to shut down the government and then give you everything that you want. Let's negotiate, but we're not going to reward this behavior. You have to remember, their first proposal about a week ago was to give a bunch of health care money to illegal aliens, and then they came back to us and said, okay, no, we don't have to do that. Let's do this other thing. You don't do a negotiation like that. You don't take the American economy hostage and then tell the President of the United States, give

us everything that we want or we're going to shut down the people's government. It's ridiculous. And look, we had, again, a good conversation, but a conversation where I think they still refuse to acknowledge that their negotiating tactic was unreasonable. That if you take Hakeem Jeffries' words or you take Chuck Schumer's words, what they have said for literally, in Chuck Schumer's case, decades, is that you don't shut the government down over a policy disagreement.

Now that's exactly what they've done. Let's get back to rationality, open up the government, and then we can sit down and talk.

All right. You've talked to us enough. Your team says you have to go, and you have to listen to your team. Mr. Vice President, thanks so much for your time.

And thank you for your beautiful message at Charlie's memorial service. Millions of people watched that. It was beautiful. We're sorry for your loss. I know he was your good friend.

Thank you. He was a very good guy, a very tragic thing for our country, but we appreciate you guys. It's good to see you.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate it.

I'm Steve Doocy. I'm Brian Kilmeade. And I'm Ainsley Earhart. And click here to subscribe to the Fox News YouTube page to catch our hottest interviews And click here to subscribe to the Fox News YouTube page to catch our hottest interviews and most compelling analysis.