Former President Trump phoned into NewsNation’s town hall featuring his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) Thursday night to ask what he called “quite an interesting” question.
“The answer should be easy. How brilliant is Donald J. Trump?” the former president asked Vance and NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo.
Vance immediately responded with laughter before telling the Republican nominee that he is “very brilliant.”
“Well, first of all sir, you’re very brilliant. We both agree that it’s important to have very smart people running our government,” the vice presidential nominee said.
He went on to tell a story about his wife, Usha Vance, and Trump.
One of my favorite moments with President Trump is, we were hosting an event forum near our home in Cincinnati a few months ago and, of course, my wife was a little bit nervous to really talk to the president of the United States, and he asked her, ‘what do you think about your husband being in public service?'” the Ohio Republican said.
“She gives, if you know my wife, a very diplomatic answer,” he continued, before giving Trump’s punchline: “Yeah, my wife hates it, too.”
Both Vance and Cuomo erupted in laughter as Usha was caught on camera smiling.
The Ohio senator praised the conversation, which he said, “broke the barrier.”
“It wasn’t the former president, it was just a person talking to my wife,” Vance said.
“That ability to relate to anybody in any environment, I think that’s the true brilliance of Donald J. Trump,” he added.
Trump thanked his running mate and immediately pivoted to ask about Vice President Harris’s town hall on CNN earlier this week.
“How brilliant is Kamala?” the GOP presidential nominee asked, which was met with laughter from Vance.
“That’s a very tough one, sir” Vance said, before the former president interjected to talk about the election, now just over a week away.
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