Senator JD Vance said the right to free speech and thought is the biggest issue in this election, as the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee blasted Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party for ” silences people who disagree with them” in a broad and frank manner. sit down with podcast king Joe Rogan.

The two also dissected the Democratic presidential nominee’s mind-boggling “word salads” and how President Biden actually helps former President Donald Trump during a thought-provoking three-hour discussion, just days before voting officially opened.

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 open discussion on “The Joe Rogan Experience” published Thursday.

“We will attack Kamala on her policies or her ideas, but we are not trying to say, ‘You should be silenced because you disagree with us,’” he continued.

“It’s anathema to everything I believe in — and that’s what’s happened in the modern Democratic Party, at least at the leadership level, is that they’ve become 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 portraying 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, a staunch defender of free speech, has drawn particular attention to the Democratic vice-presidential candidate. Tim Walz’s suggestion this summer that there is “no guarantee of free speech when it comes to misinformation or hate speech” – explaining that he “was very upset” by it.

Vance called Walz’s remark “totally crazy” and argued that this “hate speech” is often “in the eye of the beholder.”

The junior senator from Ohio also ridiculed Harris for the way she spoke.

“I do a lot of speeches, so there’s actually a skill in that. I think she’s the Michael Jordan who uses as many words as possible to say as little as possible,” Vance said.

“She actually has a certain gift,” he joked.

“You spend 500 words on it and you’re like, ‘What did she just say?’ She didn’t say anything.

Rogan, who tried to negotiate an interview with Harris, burst out laughing and imitated Harris by confusing his message.

“Do you think she’s wearing an earpiece?” asked Rogan, prompting Vance to respond, “I wouldn’t be surprised.” »

Later in the interview, Vance echoed President Biden’s recent suggestion that Trump supporters are “trash” — a potentially campaign-altering comment that the White House has been quick to clean up.

The GOP hopeful suggested that Biden — who has been largely sidelined from Harris’ campaign — is “trying to help Donald Trump.”

“We are going to win, but after we win, I will be convinced that Joe Biden was trying to help us the whole time,” he said of the 81-year-old commander in chief, noting that Biden also “put the hat on MAGA” during a stop at a Shanksville, Pa., fire station in September.

The Ohio senator also called out the distinct lack of media coverage Biden received after insulting half the country — a moment that quickly drew comparisons to Hillary Clinton’s late-election remark when she described Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”

“The number of mentions on CNN about the (Tony Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico) joke in the last 48 hours: 143,” Vance said.

“On MSNBC: 101, on ABC: 53, on NBC: 32 and on CBS: 31,” he continued.

“Do you think the word ‘trash’ is going to appear 141 times on CNN over the next few days, I’d bet no,” he added.

“Now what’s the difference?” Well, the difference is that it’s a comedian telling a joke, and it’s the President of the United States saying what he really thinks. »

In a more serious moment, Vance insisted that allegations that second gentleman Doug Emhoff slapped a former flame should be fully investigated.

“If you’re a domestic abuser, it usually doesn’t stop at one person,” police said.

“Is it in the public interest to investigate whether the president might share the White House with someone involved in domestic violence? » he asked rhetorically.

The two rival presidential campaigns sought to stake their claim to freedom in the high-stakes 2024 cycle — Harris and Walz focusing on abortion and saving democracy while Trump and Vance focused on censorship.

Earlier this week, Harris, who once called for Twitter account will be suspended, I tried to turn the situation around his rival – returning to his 2022 call to end parts of the Constitution.

“When he says he wants to end the Constitution of the United States? Do you know what that would mean? she said in an interview with the Club Shay Shay podcast. “The First Amendment, the Second Amendment.”

Trump and Vance, meanwhile, complained about the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to combat social media posts about COVID-19 that they considered “misinformation” and suppression by Big Tech other content such as the Post’s explosive story on the Hunter Biden laptop.

“Joe Biden has basically traded his political influence for money,” Vance pointed out. “This was the real Hunter Biden laptop scandal. Again, it wasn’t Hunter Biden doing cocaine with a stripper.

The post office revelations have recently emerged from a House subcommittee on the militarization of government showing evidence that Facebook executives made their decision to strangle the explosive laptop story based, in part, on the assumption that There would likely be a new Biden-Harris administration.

But despite the Republican Party’s long-running feud with the scandal-ridden first son, Vance thought he would actually like to “spend time” with him.

“I want to date Hunter,” Vance confessed. “I may be the only Republican. This guy, this guy knows how to have a good time.

“I would bet $100 that Hunter Biden votes for Donald Trump for president,” he joked.

Vance also mused that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — who reportedly always wanted to stay out of politics as much as possible — is now the Trump-supporting secretary.

“My secret theory is that Zuck is now a secret Trump supporter, but he can’t say it publicly,” Vance insisted.

Over the summer, Zuckerberg called Trump’s response to the July 13 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, “bada-” and the former president claims they spoke on the phone. a little recently.

Vance revealed to Rogan that at one point Trump raised the possibility of unveiling him as vice president at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Ultimately, Trump abandoned the idea, but Vance recounted the moment he learned of the assassination attempt.

“I actually thought they killed him because when you first see the video, he grabs his ear and he falls, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they just killed him.'” , Vance told Rogan about his first message. reaction.

“I was so pissed,” he added, noting that he thought he would have to “grab my kids, throw them in the car, go home and load all my guns, and basically stand like a sentry at our door.”

The Ohio senator credited Trump’s survival as a “true miracle.”

Trump made his debut on Rogan’s podcast last week in a highly anticipated interview that garnered more than 41 million views on YouTube and quickly became one of his most popular episodes.

Rogan revealed that he was in talks with the Harris-Walz campaign for an interview with the vice president which ended in failure because he refused to respond to their demands that the interview take place at distance and would only last about an hour, much less than is usual. for his podcast.