Vice President JD Vance hyped the Bengals’ Super Bowl chances, called for more police in Cincinnati and even weighed in on a viral controversy involving Sydney Sweeney.
The Middletown native who currently owns a home in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills neighborhood appeared on an episode of the conservative “Ruthless” podcast released Aug. 1.
Vance on the downtown Cincinnati fight
Sitting with the podcast’s four hosts in the Eisenhower Executive Building in Washington D.C., Vance said the “terrible brawl” in Cincinnati came down to a shortage of police.
“The most important thing that states and cities can do is to actually solve the law enforcement recruitment challenge that we have,” he said.
He specifically called for leadership in “blue cities” to better support police officers to help curb crime and counter the “hangover” of the movement to defund law enforcement, largely popularized after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Vance said in a city like Cincinnati, crime will go unchecked without a fully staffed police force.
“The way to fix it is to get good people back into law enforcement,” he said.
Vance on the Bengals
When describing his role as Donald Trump’s vice president, Vance called himself Tom Brady’s backup. But that wasn’t the only time he talked about football on the podcast.
Vance spoke on his love of the Cincinnati Bengals, saying it’s the only NFL team he follows. He has high hopes for the team this year – at one point he mentioned wanting a Super Bowl win this season.
“This is our year. We fixed the O-line this year,” he said. “I think Burrow is at the perfect stage of maturity. The wide reciever corps is excellent. I think our defense is solid.”
Vance on Sydney Sweeney controversy
Vance also weighed in on a controversial American Eagle advertisement featuring actress Sydney Sweeney. Critics have argued that the ad campaign promoted eugenics, as it used wordplay to describe Sweeney as having “good genes” to advertise the brand’s denim jeans.
Vance said complaints that the campaign glorified whiteness or Nazi ideology are an overreaction from the “left.” He said instances like these are what lost the Democrats the 2024 presidential election.
“(Democrats) have managed to so unhinge themsleves over this thing, and it’s like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election? I actually thought that one of the lessons (Democrats) might take is ‘we’re going to be less crazy.’ And the lesson they have apparently taken is ‘we’re going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sydney Sweeney is beautiful,'” he said. “Great strategy, guys. That’s how you’re going to win the midterm, especially young American men.”