Press Gaggle: JD Vance Speaks to Reporters After Air Force Two Arrival - November 2, 2026

Hey guys, we had a great day, obviously, in New York and Ohio. I feel good about tomorrow, but obviously it's in the hands of voters. So, all I'd say is to remind the voters, particularly in Ohio, that Sherrod Brown is a career politician who's spent 50 years in Washington delivering for Chuck Schumer. Jon Husted has delivered for the people of Ohio.

I think they're going to re-elect him, but it's up to the voters now.

Is that race personal to you? I mean, it is your former Senate seat that's on the ballot.

Oh, sure. Sure, well, it's personal to me because I'm electing my Senator, right? And I cast my ballot a couple of weeks in the state of Ohio, and I think Jon's a good guy. I know him, you know, more than I know most Senators, even though I know most of them pretty well. So, it's definitely personal; it's definitely personal to me and hopefully he's going to pull it out.

I feel good about it.

In Minnesota, you've got El-Sayed being -- his former primary opponent endorsing his -- Mike Rogers and that situation there. What's your reaction to that? And do you think that that's going to push any voters toward the right in Minnesota?

Well, I certainly think it helps. I mean, the message is whether you're a reasonable Democrat, a Republican, a conservative, an independent, or just a liberal who loves the United States of America. El-Sayed is a crazy person, and Mike Rogers is a patriot. So, I do think it drives home the message; maybe gives certain voters who, you know, wouldn't normally vote for a Republican a permission.

Knowing that the Democratic Congresswoman of Michigan is going to support Mike Rogers, I think a lot of people from across the political spectrum can, too. He's a good guy; he's going to be good for the state of Michigan. And I think a lot of Michiganders are saying, let's keep the crazy guy out of the United States Senate.

Back to Iran and the letter that you sent last week.

Well, we've had a number of good conversations with the Iranians. I actually just spoke with the president of United States about an hour ago about this. Look, the president and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement. We're going to keep on working at it. You never know; of course, the Iranians are always a little unpredictable and, as the president always says, he retains kinetic options, he retains non-kinetic options.

But we've certainly made some progress. We'll see if we can make some more.

Have you offered them any sort of a deadline to make a deal before the president resumes strikes?

No, we haven't set deadlines. I mean, look, we've said here's what we want. And what we want is, having destroyed their nuclear program, we want to make sure they don't rebuild it or try to rebuild it. That's what matters most to the United States. I think, you know, the thing I picked up is they care a lot, obviously, about their sovereignty; they care a lot about economically rebuilding.

We do think that there is a pathway there, but it really does require a firm commitment and a verifiable commitment that they don't rebuild that nuclear program.

You were supposed to be in Minnesota last Friday; you ended up not going on that trip. Talk to me about how fraud has impacted the midterms if that's an issue that's resonating with voters. And what do you expect to see more of out of Minnesota?

Yeah. So, Scott and Andrew Ferguson went up there to talk about fraud. Unfortunately, we just had some stuff at the White House that we had to take care of. Look, you know, the story in Minnesota is that a community -- that Minnesotans welcomed into their community with open arms. Far too many of those people have committed fraud against the people of Minnesota.

They've set up fraudulent daycares; they've taken advantage of the welfare system in Minnesota. And I think that the basic message is we actually want to preserve the programs that allow us to be generous to our fellow citizens, but in order to do that we have to penalize fraudsters. We've been taking that especially seriously.

I think Michele Tafoya in Minnesota, she's not a partisan person; I think she wants to represent all Minnesotans. I hope -- hopefully they elect her. We'll see what happens.

The president said he'll become Mr. Veto if the Democrats take over Congress. Do you anticipate being more involved on the Hill after the midterms potentially?

He said what? I'm sorry.

He said he'll become Mr. Veto if the Democrats take over Congress. Do you anticipate being more involved in the Hill after the midterms?

Well, obviously, the president has the power of veto, not me. We cast a fair number of tie breaking votes and, obviously, we're involved in a lot of legislation. I think the president is hopeful that we can actually work on positive pieces of legislation for the American people, regardless of what party the Senators or Congressmen come from.

I think the reason why we feel optimistic about Republicans doing well tomorrow, and the reason we obviously want them to win tomorrow, is because we do think that we can work a lot more effectively with reasonable Republicans and a few reasonable Democrats, not with a lot of the crazy people who are on the ballot tomorrow in America's midterm elections.

We'll see how it goes. One more. Yeah.

One more question. Your approval rating is currently underwater. Do you think you have enough time in the administration to turn that around?

I don't think that much about that stuff. First of all, that stuff is all based on polling that we found a number of times in the past have been untrue. But I just try to do my job and, obviously, the American people can make the judgments they're going to make. We just need to do good things for the American people and, if we do that, I think the politics will work itself out.

See you guys. Have a good night.