JD Vance Cooks George Stephanopoulos for Refusing to Talk About the Schumer Shutdwon – RedState
The host of ABC’s This Week, old Clintonite muppet George Stephanopoulos, found himself playing the role of a roast chicken as he tried to talk about everything but Schumer’s shutdown with Vice President JD Vance.
You would think that shutting down the government would be a major move for Stephanopoulos, but the administration refuses to break ranks and appears to be turning the lack of funds crisis into an opportunity to downsize government.
Stephanopoulos began with an absurd claim that American troops are peacekeepers in Gaza. From there it went to National Guard deployment and flabby resistance from a federal judge and the morbidly obese Illinois governor, JB Pritzker. There has been some opposition between the indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James by a federal grand jury and a wild article in ProPublica, a “left-wing blog” Vance said claimed some Republican officials had done the same thing. Stephanopoulos attempted to conclude the segment with a no-good story about Tom Homan allegedly collecting a $50,000 fee to negotiate business deals with people who appear to have been FBI agents. Vance wasn’t having it.
This is the setup.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: White House border czar Tom Homan was recorded on FBI surveillance tape in September 2024 accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep the money or did he give it back?
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: George, you’ve covered the story ad nauseum. Tom Homan did not accept a bribe. This is a ridiculous slander. And the reason you’re going after Tom Homan so aggressively is because he does the job of enforcing the law. I think it’s really absurd. I know Tom, I think he’s a good man. He gets death threats, he gets attacked, he’s constantly threatened by people because he has the audacity to want to enforce the country’s immigration laws. I think it would be a much more interesting story to know why Tom Homan, who does nothing but enforce US immigration laws, is constantly harassed and threatened to the point of death threats? This is a much more interesting question that I think journalists should focus on. We can agree and disagree on this.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, wait, you said he didn’t take a bribe, but I’m not sure you answered the question. Are you saying he didn’t accept the $50,000?
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: George, this story has been covered ad nauseum. He did not accept a bribe. Did he accept $50,000? I’m sure that over the course of his life, Tom Homan received over $50,000 for his services. The question is: did he do something illegal? And there is absolutely no evidence that Tom Homan ever took a bribe.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: No, I’m asking a different question. I ask you if he accepted —
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: — or does something illegal, which is why he works in government.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I ask you: did he accept the $50,000 that was caught on the surveillance tape? Did he accept this $50,000 or not?
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: George, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Did he accept $50,000 for what?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: He was recorded on audio in September 2024, an FBI surveillance tape, accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep this money?
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Accepting $50,000 to do what, George? I’m not even sure I understand the question. Is it illegal to accept payment for services? The FBI did not pursue him. I have never seen any evidence that he is involved in any criminal acts. No one has accused Tom of committing a crime, even far-left media like you. So I’m not sure what the specific question is. Did he accept $50,000? Honestly, George, I don’t know the answer to that question. What I know is that he didn’t commit any crime.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So you don’t know — what was captured on the tape, you’re saying right now you don’t know if he kept that money or not?
As an aside, I haven’t been following Homan’s story very closely, because my instinct is that if Homan had broken the law, Biden’s FBI would have arrested him before leaving office. As former RedStater Bill Shipley says:
It was not a bribe at the time, as Homan had nothing to offer them in return.
In the legal field, we call this a “warrant.” https://t.co/HQUVkWMVBu
– Shipwrecked Crew (@shipwreckedcrew) September 21, 2025
Either way, Vance wasn’t having it.
.@VP attacks George Slopidopolous for obsessing over made-up fake news without asking a single question about Democrats shutting down: “Here, George, is why fewer and fewer people are watching your show…”
George gets angry, cuts @VP turns off and goes to commercial 🤣 pic.twitter.com/VVm2FV5ujd
– Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 12, 2025
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: I don’t know which tape you’re referring to, George. I saw media reports that Tom Homan took a bribe. There is no evidence of this. And here’s George, why are fewer and fewer people watching your show and why you’re losing credibility: because you’ve been talking for five minutes with the Vice President of the United States about this story about Tom Homan, a story that I read, but I don’t even know the video that you’re talking about. Meanwhile, low-income women can’t get food because Democrats and Chuck Schumer shut down the government. Right now we’re trying to figure out how to pay our troops because Chuck Schumer shut down the government. You are focused on a false story. You are insinuating criminal acts against someone who did nothing wrong instead of focusing on the fact that our country is in trouble because our government is shut down. Let’s talk about the real issues, George. I think the American people would benefit far more than if you went down some weird left-wing rabbit hole where the facts clearly show that Tom Homan did not commit any criminal acts.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: This is not some weird left-wing rabbit hole. I didn’t insinuate anything. I asked you if Tom Homan accepted $50,000, as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. And you didn’t answer the question. Thank you for your time this morning.
As Vance attempts to respond, Stephanopoulos does a fantastic imitation of Monty Python’s “Brave Sir Robin” and runs away. He cuts Vance’s microphone and moves on to another topic.
The entire interview was an object lesson in the toxicity of the shutdown for Democrats, conditioned to hope to win the public relations battle. Reuters reports that people blame both sides almost equally. A Harvard/Harris poll is even worse for Democrats.
The wording on this is a bit boring, but in this recent poll, two-thirds of respondents said Democrats should stop holding out and just accept the current deal to end the shutdown. pic.twitter.com/8CbaL8aO9z
– Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) October 7, 2025
The fact that Stephanopoulos doesn’t even touch on the “Obamacare subsidies” nonsense and Vance indulges in a fight over “low-income women can’t get food because Democrats and Chuck Schumer shut down the government” shows how bad the internal polling is.
Editor’s note: The Schumer ruling is here. Rather than putting the American people first, Chuck Schumer and radical Democrats forced a government shutdown on health care for illegal immigrants. They own that. Help us continue reporting the truth about Schumer’s shutdown. Use promo code POTUS47 to get 74% off your VIP membership.
