Vice President JD Vance was criticized after he said during a Turning Point USA event that he hopes his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, who is the daughter of Telugu-speaking Indian Hindu immigrants who hail from Andhra Pradesh, will convert to Christianity someday and "see things the same way" that he does.
A woman in the audience had the opportunity to ask Vance how he squares having a Hindu wife and mixed-race children with his anti-immigration rhetoric, a nod to the Trump administration's ongoing immigration crackdown that is tearing families across the country apart.
She asked how he is making sure not to put his Christian faith ahead of his wife's Hindu faith when teaching his kids and not to put his "kind" ahead of his wife's "kind" simply because his family has been in the U.S. longer compared to his wife's immigrant family.
She added:
"When you talk about too many immigrants, when did you guys decide that number? Why did you sell us a dream? You made us spend our youth, our wealth in this country and gave us a dream. You don't owe us anything. We have worked hard for it."
"How can you as a vice president stand there and say that we have too many of them now and we are going to take them out to people who are here rightfully so by paying the money that you guys asked us? You gave us the path and now how can you stop it and tell us we don't belong here anymore?" ...
"I'm not even Christian and I'm here standing here to show support: Why are we making Christianity one of the major things to have in common to be one of you guys, to show I love I love America as much as you do? Why is that still a question? Why do I have to be a Christian?"
In response, Vance insisted that the U.S. "has to honor that promise" made to immigrants already in the country and that he is only "talking about people who violated the laws." However, the woman pointed out that the Trump administration "is pushing out policies that hurt us and these policies are not even solving the problem."
Vance replied that just because there are immigrants here in the U.S. already "doesn't mean we have to let in a million, 10 million, or a 100 million a year in the future," stressing that he is interested in representing "the interests of the United States" as opposed to the rest of the world.
You can see their exchange in the video below.
But then things got touchier when he addressed the woman's question about the Second Lady and her faith, saying:
"Everybody has to come to their own arrangement. The way we've come to our arrangement is she's my best friend, we talk to each other about this stuff. We decided to raise our kids Christian ... but everyone has to have their own conversations when they're in a marriage." ...
"The only advice I can give is you've got to talk to the person God has put you with. Most Sundays, Usha has come with me to church. As I've told her and as I've said publicly, and I'll say now in front of 10,000 of my closest friends: Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing I was moved by in church?"
"Yeah, I honestly do wish that because I believe in the Christian gospel, and I hope eventually, my wife comes to see it the same way. But if she doesn’t, then God says, everybody has free will, so that doesn’t cause a problem for me. That’s something you work out." ...
"Usha's closer to the priest who baptized me than maybe I am."
You can see his response below.
Many were appalled by Vance's reply, pointing out that it doesn't sound like he respect's his wife's free will at all—and does see her as beneath him and his own faith.
Vance's comments sting as well because his wife is not accepted by the MAGA faithful; there was significant backlash after Vance was named President Donald Trump's running mate because, as one GOP critic put it, he is married to "a brown."
Recently, podcaster Jennifer Welch criticized Vance for not defending his own family in the wake of the Young Republicans group text scandal, in which members of the conservative group shared racist, misogynistic and antisemitic commentary that would later be leaked online and reported by Politico.
Vance dismissed these messages as "stupid" jokes made by "kids" even though the Young Republicans are a group comprising actual adult men and women in their 20s and above. Welch, addressing MAGA voters directly, said "if this man will not defend his wife, and will not defend his kids, do you think he gives a crap about you?"
Vance has not walked back his remarks or responded to criticisms that he did not defend his wife or his mixed-race children.
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