JD Vance faces tough questions on Iran war, immigration and gas prices in town hall

In an hour-long town hall hosted by CBS News, Vice President JD Vance argued the Trump administration's handling of the economy and Iran strategy will pay dividends in the future.

He was also pressed on the Trump administration's controversial immigration tactics, widespread discontent about the cost of living and his own political future during "Things That Matter: A Town Hall With Vice President JD Vance," which aired Saturday evening and was hosted by "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil.

Vance took questions from voters in Michigan, a swing state that helped propel Vance and President Trump to victory in 2024 — and is the host of a tight Senate race that could help determine which party wins control of the upper chamber in next month's midterm elections.

Vance says he hasn't decided if he'll run for president

If he decides to run for president in 2028, the vice president is widely viewed as an early frontrunner in the Republican primaries and a possible heir to Mr. Trump's political movement. Mr. Trump has called Vance his "most likely" GOP successor and has joked about a potential contest between Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Asked by Dokoupil if there's any chance he won't run, Vance said: "Of course there's a chance."

"The way that I think about life, big life decisions — my wife will tell you this — is I'm a procrastinator. I hate thinking about it," said Vance, adding that he'll "have to think about it."

He also noted that he and his wife, Usha Vance, have four young children, and the second lady "has never loved politics," though "she loves public service."

On economy, Vance says "we're turning the ship around" but it will take time

Several town hall attendees asked Vance about cost-of-living issues.

The topic weighs heavily in the midterms, and has demonstrated it's a liability for Republicans based on CBS News polling. Voter dissatisfaction with inflation and the state of the economy under the Biden administration helped bring Mr. Trump and Vance to power, but polls indicate that most voters are still unhappy with the economy and hold the Trump administration responsible.

Sandy Johnson said the family entertainment center she owns is "barely making ends meet," and asked when she can expect changes "so that the normal American has money to spend on small businesses."

The vice president argued it could take some time.

"What broke the United States, as much as I might like to criticize Joe Biden, but it was a bipartisan, multi-generational failure to under-invest in American workers, to under-invest in American manufacturing, to ship all of our good jobs overseas," Vance said. "If all the good jobs are overseas, then people here in Michigan can't spend money at your family business."

He pointed to promises of new foreign investment in the United States, and growth plans by the three major Detroit-area automakers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler parent Stellantis.

"We are turning the tide on this," Vance said, referring to the decline in U.S. manufacturing. "And I think there are all these things I pointed to that show signs of progress. But Sandy, I'll be the first person to tell you that, just as this country wasn't broken in one presidential term, it's gonna take more than 18 months to fix things and turn them around."

Since Mr. Trump returned to office last year, the unemployment rate has remained low, but inflation has remained stubbornly higher than the Federal Reserve's 2%-per-year target, eating into Americans' wages. The number of manufacturing jobs has also remained roughly flat.

Asked by Dokoupil about Mr. Trump's assessment of an "A+" economy, Vance said the president was referring to new investments, "but he would be the first person to tell you that you gotta build the factories first before you can employ the workers working in those factories."

Vance later said: "I think what we're doing is, we're turning the ship around."

Iran and energy: "I recognize that gas prices are too high right now"

One of the biggest pressure points on Americans' wallets is the Iran war, which has kept oil prices high even as the U.S. and Iran have refrained from active fighting in recent weeks.

Keshon Wheatley, a barber from Detroit, told Vance that he voted for Mr. Trump in 2020 and 2024, in large part because he gave the president credit for low gas prices during his first term. Now, gas prices are far higher — and he said he plans to vote for Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, not Republican Mike Rogers.

Vance pointed to Iran's attacks on oil tankers.

"We've never had a situation like this, where you have effectively the largest state sponsor of terrorism that's trying to completely choke off world energy supply," the vice president said, arguing that "if we just … left, and we let the Iranians control shipping out of the Strait of Hormuz, what that would mean is you would pay a lot more for gasoline."

Asked how long it will take for prices to ease, Vance said, "When this conflict is over, we are going to see gas prices come down." He said oil is still being exported from the Middle East because of efforts by the U.S. military to allow ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

On the competitive Michigan Senate race, he argued El-Sayed — a frequent critic of the Iran war — has not offered a solution to the problem, and gave Rogers credit for calling for the war to end. "He's been remarkably independent about this," Vance said of Rogers.

Dokoupil asked Vance why the U.S. hasn't decisively won the Iran war, which has dragged on for longer than Mr. Trump initially expected.

Vance argued that "in some ways we have won decisively," but "the enemy gets a vote here."

The vice president — who participated in negotiations with Iran over the summer — defended the president's Iran strategy, and said the Trump administration is looking for a "final firm commitment from the Iranians that they're not going to rebuild their nuclear program."

Man whose wife died in Iranian strike decries "fundamental failures"

The Iran war has also imposed human costs, with 21 U.S. service members killed and hundreds injured since the conflict began in late February.

In the war's early hours, six U.S. Army Reserve soldiers were killed in an Iranian strike on a site in Kuwait, including Master Sgt. Nicole Amor. Her husband, Joey Amor, asked Vance about reports that the facility in Kuwait was not adequately secured.

"Though the Iranian drone was the weapon that killed my wife, there were a lot of mistakes and a lot of fundamental failures that led up to that," Amor said, asking Vance "how this administration is gonna start holding those leaders accountable."

Vance said he didn't doubt there were failures, but "sometimes information doesn't filter up to me." He vowed to "take every single failure extremely seriously."

He also noted that cheap drones have changed warfare, and "we have changed a lot of our tactics to try to suppress that drone fire, to try to protect our troops to make it so that more people don't have to pay the ultimate sacrifice."

Vance also said: "I know that there are some issues with, for example … where troops were located that we realized was a huge mistake and that we could do better on. And we have changed that."

Nun presses Vance on immigration tactics

Sister Nancy Sylvester, a member of the Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, asked Vance about the Trump administration's approach to immigration enforcement.

She asked Vance, a fellow Catholic, "how you would justify [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics] to people of faith," and "what policies would you advocate to try to promote more compassionate and [respectful] behavior toward our immigrant sisters and brothers."

Vance responded, "We're trying to strike a balance between: How do we do law enforcement, but how do we also do it humanely, and how do we not do so little law enforcement that you actually empower some of the worst people in the world."

Vance later said most ICE agents are "amazing people who are patriots," but some of them "make mistakes" or "really screw up." He added that "obviously, we have a responsibility to prosecute, investigate when people do screw up."

Asked if any major mistakes by ICE come to mind, Vance responded that "there are a number of cases where we've investigated and either provided further training, or sometimes even provided disciplinary situations within ICE."

Another town hall attendee pressed Vance on some of the administration's rhetoric around immigration, including Vance's own comments that likened some holders of employment-based H-1B visas to "foreign indentured servants."

Vance responded, "To the extent that my rhetoric has been imperfect here, that's on me."

He said his comments were "not a criticism of the H-1B holder."

"That's a criticism of a company who brings a person in, who sometimes will literally lay off an American worker, bring somebody else in, and knows that person, if they complain, if they get too uppity at work, if they have a disagreement with their boss, they couldn't just lose their job, … they can be shipped back to their country of origin," Vance said. "And I think that gives employers way too much power."

He said, "My goal here is not to dehumanize any immigrant." But he said he is seeking "to make it so that we can have a country with some baseline of social cohesion and sense of community, because what happens when too many people come to the United States, even if they're very good people, … [is] it changes the country in very profound ways."

"D.C. is a corrupt town," but Vance says no evidence Trump is participating in it

Dokoupil asked Vance about polling that indicates many voters are concerned about corruption and believe Mr. Trump is prioritizing his own personal business interests while in office.

Vance said, "I've never seen anything like that from the president."

"Yes, D.C. is a corrupt town," Vance said, but "I have not seen a single shred of evidence that he participates or sanctions in that corruption."

Dokoupil also asked about a string of recent reports, including Mr. Trump's cryptocurrency earnings and U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle's ouster over allegations that she asked a person seeking help from the Trump administration to wire her $100,000. Guilfoyle has denied all wrongdoing. Mr. Trump has denied any conflicts of interest.

Vance responded: "If somebody's selling access to the White House, that's disgusting and despicable and they should suffer consequences."

The vice president also said he will "follow the law" if a Democratic Congress launches investigations and subpoenas the Trump administration.

Data centers need to be "good community citizens"

A major point of tension in many communities across the country is the explosion in data center development, as the artificial intelligence boom leads to insatiable demand for computing power.

Mr. Trump has enthusiastically backed the AI industry, casting it as an engine of economic growth and a key area of competition with China. He has also argued data center construction can be beneficial to local communities, bringing jobs and investments in crucial technology. But many voters have raised concerns about noise, disruption and pressure on the electrical grid, leading to calls for development to slow down.

Vance took a question from one Michigan resident who lives across the street from a data center and said the constant buzzing has made "opening our windows to let in a breeze … a luxury that we could no longer enjoy."

The vice president said "data centers can be good" and can also "cause real problems." He said his view is that data centers should be "good community citizens," offering more tax revenue to local governments. The data centers should also not lead to higher residential utility bills, Vance said.

"Some of the economic benefits they're generating, they can't just go to a few tech billionaires," he said. "It has to go to the community writ large."

Watch the full episode of "Things That Matter: A Town Hall With Vice President JD Vance" streaming on Paramount+, YouTube, CBS News 24/7 and CBSNews.com.

This article originally appeared on CBS News at https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/7-highlights-jd-vances-cbs-010109516.html