Sen.JD Vance said the right to free speech and thought is the biggest issue at stake this election, as the GOP vice presidential nominee blasted Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party for “silencing people who disagree with them” in a wide-ranging and candid sit-down with podcast king Joe Rogan.The pair also dissected the Democratic presidential nominee’s mind-boggling “word salads” and how President Biden is actually helping former President Donald Trump during the three-hour thought-provoking chat just days before the polls officially open.Vance, 40, argued that the “biggest difference” between Trump, 78, and Harris, 60, is censorship.“We’re not trying to censor our fellow Americans,” the Ohio senator explained during the freewheeling exchange on “The Joe Rogan Experience” released Thursday.
“We’ll attack Kamala on her policies or her ideas, but we’re not trying to say, ‘You should be silenced because you disagree with us,” he continued.“That is anathema to everything that I believe in — and that is what’s happened in the modern Democratic Party, at least at the leadership level, is they’ve gotten really comfortable with the idea of silencing people who disagree with them.”Vance’s strong rebuke of censorship comes as Harris has sought to convey a message of “joy” and unity throughout her campaign — while casting her opponent as a threat to democracy.The pre-election rallying call struck a chord with the mega-podcaster, whose show has some 15 million followers on Spotify.
Rogan, 57, who is a staunch proponent of free speech, drew particular attention to Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz’s suggestion over the summer that there’s “no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech” — explaining that he “was very upset” with that.Vance called Walz’s remark “totally nuts” and contended that that “hate speech” is often “in the eye of the beholder.”The Ohio junior sen...