Vance faces tough questions on Iran war, immigration and more in CBS town hall

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Vice President JD Vance faced tough questions from voters about the Trump administration’s policies on data centers, high costs, immigration and his own rhetoric in a town hall on CBS News that aired Saturday night.

The string of sharp queries, some from voters who said they had supported him and President Donald Trump, previewed the rocky path he may face trying to answer for the administration’s record if he runs for president himself in 2028.

Vance, who said during the town hall there’s “of course” a chance he doesn’t run for president, faced an especially pointed question about “a failure of leadership” posted by the widow of one of six U.S. soldiers killed by an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait, which occurred the day after Trump started the war with Iran.

“This literally is the first time I’ve heard of this,” Vance said in response.

As he went on, he said, “This job is an amazing honor, but you live in a bit of a bubble and sometimes information doesn’t filter up.”

Questions about Iran war strategy and costs

After telling the vice president about his late wife, Master Sgt. Nicole Amor, who was killed on March 1, Joey Amor asked about mistakes and fundamental failures that led up to the deaths of those soldiers and how leaders would be held accountable.

Vance seemed taken aback by Amor’s questions, saying, “This literally is the first time I’ve heard of this,” and said he wanted to talk with Amor to learn more after.

But as Vance went on, he acknowledged mistakes were made and said, “there were issues with where troops were located that we realized was a huge mistake that we could do better on, and we have changed that.”

A Michigan man who said he voted for Trump and Vance in 2024 but now plans to vote for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed pressed Vance about the high gasoline prices resulting from the war. In response, Vance said he recognized that gas prices were too high, and said, “I think it’s important to be honest about why they’re so elevated.”

He said it was because of “what’s happening in the Middle East” and said the administration was taking steps to try to lower prices.

“We’ve never had a situation like this where you have effectively, the largest state sponsor of terrorism that’s trying to choke off world energy supply,” Vance said, without acknowledging that situation occurred because of the war Trump launched.

He also blamed former President Joe Biden, saying that during his tenure, America’s refining capacity was diminished.

But when Vance was pressed on the Trump administration owning the current situation, the vice president suggested that looking backward for blame was not the way.

“Fundamentally, we are where we are, and you have to, in my view, I’d like to know what is Abdul El-Sayed’s solution for the problem that we have right now,” Vance said. “It’s easy to criticize something that happened seven months ago.”

Immigration enforcement tactics and the rhetoric around immigrants

A nun who spoke to Vance about their shared Catholic faith questioned the administration’s hardline immigration enforcement tactics, including children who are separated from their parents when the adults are swept up in sweeps, and how that squared with their values.

“We’re trying to strike the right balance,” Vance said. When moderator Tony Dokoupil asked Vance if the administration is not striking that balance, Vance replied, “I think that is constantly a work in progress.”

He admitted that, “Sometimes you have some people who made mistakes. Sometimes you have some people who really screw up.”

When Dokoupil asked for specific examples, Vance said there are a number of cases the administration has investigated that resulted in further training or discipline for immigration enforcement officers, but said they don’t advertise it publicly in order to let investigations play out.

Another voter, who said she became an immigrant five years ago and voted for Vance after becoming a U.S. citizen, asked him pointedly about his recent remarks referring to H1-B visa holders as, “foreign indentured servants,” and accused him of “scapegoating immigrants for the issues you’re supposed to be solving.”

“To the extent that my rhetoric has been imperfect here, that’s on me,” Vance said, before explaining that he was trying to criticize the companies that bring in the workers, not the immigrant workers themselves.

Selling access to the White House is ‘disgusting and despicable’

Dokoupil pressed Vance on whether Trump and others in his administration were profiting off the presidency, including the nearly $1.2 billion the president took in from his crypto businesses last year, according to a federal filing. When asked if he’d seen anything in the White House that made him squeamish, Vance said, “I’ve never seen anything like that from the president.”

He said, though, that there is evidence of corruption in Washington, but he doesn’t see evidence of it from the president or the administration.

Vance said he’s read articles about allegations, but said he goes to investigate claims himself and finds that they are not true.

Dokoupil asked Vance about the president’s crypto profits, along with the recent resignation of his ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, over allegations she denies that she was leveraging her position for benefits.

“If somebody’s selling access to the White House, that’s disgusting and despicable and they should suffer consequences,” Vance said.