JD Vance's Silence on Trump Team Catastrophe Is Telling!! With Don Lemon

17 Jul 2025 · 16 min · 6 chapters

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In short

Don Lemon argues that J.D. Vance’s silence about a “Trump team catastrophe” (centered on Jeffrey Epstein files/cover-up claims) is strategic, hypocritical, and tied to MAGA loyalty and Trump succession.

Guest background

Don Lemon is a prominent media personality and former CNN host.

Key claims

Vance previously urged releasing the Epstein list/files (citing his October 2024 appearance on Theo Von) but later stayed silent; Lemon says Vance flip-flops to stay in Trump’s favor. Lemon suggests Trump may have issued “marching orders” to avoid the topic. He argues Fox News avoids Epstein coverage while mentioning Biden/“pen” and “auto pen” more.

Notable examples

Alex Jones, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, Benny Johnson, Charlie Kirk “360,” Elon Musk DoD AI contract (12 hours), Marjorie Taylor Greene voting against a transparency/pedophile-related resolution, and references to Epstein prosecution and Maxwell’s imprisonment.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

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Analyzing MAGA Fallout

0:46 to 3:28

Discussion on various right-wing figures' reactions post-Trump's controversies.

“And then he did a 180 and said, I'm going to trust my government.”

J.D. Vance's Silence and Hypocrisy

3:29 to 6:05

Exploring J.D. Vance's inconsistent stance on releasing files and his political motivations.

“Now he's the biggest racist on the planet.”

The Health and Future of Trump

6:06 to 7:35

Hosts discuss Trump's health and the implications for Vance's political ambitions.

“sort of laying in the cut to try to figure out what to do next.”

The MAGA Base's Defense of Trump

7:36 to 11:16

Analyzing how the MAGA base reacts to accountability regarding Trump and Epstein.

“whether it is shock or disbelief or anger.”

Media's Coverage of Epstein

11:17 to 13:54

Discussion on Fox News' handling of Epstein and the implications of media narratives.

“One thing I wanted to ask you about, Fox News is doing everything they can not to bring up Epstein.”

Trump's Distractions and Transparency

14:01 to 15:22

The discussion examines Trump's distractions and the need for transparency regarding serious criminal cases.

“So you don't think Trump talking about Coca-Cola and sugar, you don't think that's the distraction he hopes it is?”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:04Today we have the most beautiful man in all of media joining me today. Please welcome Don Lemon. Oh my gosh. Wait, I thought you were talking about JD Vance. Absolutely not. There's not enough eyeliner in the world for me to do that, but anyways. You don't need all the eyeliner that JD Vance does. Okay, so the MAGA fallout. You have Alex Jones crying, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, I mean, all the right wing deplorables, even Benny Johnson. You've got Benny Johnson. You've got Charlie Kirk, who's done a 360. Remember, Charlie Kirk was like when Donald Trump reportedly, allegedly, he got a call saying, knock it off.

0:49And then he did a 180 and said, I'm going to trust my government. I'm going to stop talking about it. And now he's back to criticizing him again. Well, and they bribed Elon Musk with the Department of Defense contract that lasted about 12 hours with the AI. And then he's back on it. But the person who is noticeably absent from this conversation, who has had crystal clear clarity about it is J.D. Vance. Because before the election, he was rah rah sis boom ball, let's release everything. So he goes on Theo Vaughn's podcast. And I think this was in October. Is that right? I think it's October of 2024.

1:24And that's why I said, because I was reading your mind. That's why I said, J.D. Vance, when you said the most beautiful man. I, that was sarcasm. I was just being sarcastic. No, I know. Because we all know it's you, Don. But he did. Yeah, he went on. And he was talking something, I think something about conspiracy theories or people aren't always who you think they are or something. And then Theo Vaughn said, that's why they need to release the files. And they started cracking up about it. Yeah. Seth, do you have that clip? Yes, everybody in politics has a vice that's much worse than alcoholism is the way that I put it.

1:56But we, we release the list. Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list. That is an important thing. And then nothing. We've heard nothing from J.D. Vance. So what are your thoughts on it? So we're laughing about it. I'm laughing about it because it's laughable. I don't think it's funny, though. But I think that people in that position should be consistent about their beliefs and what they stand for. So if J.D. Vance, the J.D. Vance of October of 2024, believe that the files should be released, then the J.D. Vance of, you know, the summer of 2025 should also be consistent in that. They get away with too much.

2:43Ha ha ha ha ha. Their base doesn't hold them to account on any of it. But I do believe that this time, Angie pumps Sullivan. I will tell you, I believe that this somehow breaks the spell. I don't know if it's going to be the end of Donald Trump, but I think it breaks the spell. And that certainly puts J.D. Vance in an interesting position. I don't know if it's a precarious position right now because people are like, hey, J.D. Vance, why aren't you saying anything? But if something happens were to happen with Donald Trump where he was to fall out of favor or was not in office anymore, of course, J.D.

3:17Vance would be the guy. Is that why he's not saying anything? Or is it just because of his normal hypocrite nature, his normal hypocrisy that he is just sitting there being silent because he doesn't want the heat from the MAGA faithful? See, I completely agree with you. And I think obviously he's a hypocrite. He has no conviction. He was pro-immigration. Now he's the biggest racist on the planet. So he flip-flops on everything. But I think he's sitting there going, if MAGA goes against Trump, I am the heir apparent. It's obvious he is in poor health. When you see his ankles, there's the size of my thigh.

3:55You see the way he talks, you know, he can't put a sentence together. He is running around corruption out the gazoo. And J.D. Vance is sitting there in the perfect position. If Donald Trump loses favor and they 25th Amendment him, who get who reaps the rewards from that? J.D. Vance. Yeah, I think you're right about that. But also, listen, you know, I guess maybe J.D. Vance is playing three, four, five dimensional chess because, you know, he's part of the allegedly reportedly part of the oligarchy. and his ties to Peter Thiel and all of the folks who are, you know, in Silicon Valley, which is part of his history is where he came from, right?

4:35Part of his career. But I think more than anything, Angie Pump Sullivan, I'm not going against you. I think, you know, a couple of things can be true at once. But I do believe that J.D. Vance will say and do anything to win and to stay in favor with Donald Trump. Remember, they complained about Democrats and about, you know, the people who had Trump derangement syndrome calling Donald Trump likening him to Hitler. Remember that? And the person who was the most vocal and outspoken about that comparison was the one J.D. Vance. And then when J.D. Vance found out that it was politically expedient for him to be a forever Trumper rather than a never Trumper, he all of a sudden, like many on the MAGA side or many of the grifters the uh he changes his tune he does a complete 180 he does he does or he did and they do uh what charlie kirk did let's go to the side where we can grift the most and it's politically and uh career expedient and i believe that's where jd vance is right now he no and and donald trump has said shut up don't talk about it i believe jd vance has got his marching or non-marching orders just to sit there and he is not talking about it someone will if they put him out there ask him about it in an interview whether it's meet the press or it's this week or whoever it is and jd vance will have to answer for it but right now i think he's gotten his marching orders he is a grifter of all grifters and he understands where the zeitgeist is right now and so he is just sort of laying in the cut to try to figure out what to do next.

6:12You're probably right on that because he is self-preservation seems to be what, you know, these people are able to do it on a level I've never seen. One person that I find so interesting, well, actually two, Marjorie Taylor Green. She's out there against the pedophiles, all her theories. Then she votes against the resolution. and then she says she's co-sponsoring the resolution which is not true and you could tell by her social media post she was getting a ton of shit because she's like i only follow one person my lord and you know jesus is my person blah blah blah mike johnson same thing oh i believe in transparency yet he votes against it do you think the i mean obviously taking medicaid away from these people they were willing to do that for donald trump do you think they're willing to cover for him on this issue?

7:00Because this seems to be something that the MAGA base has just latched onto. Are they willing to cover for him on Medicaid? Sure. I mean, they are, but are they willing to cover for him on this moving forward? Oh yeah, of course. At this point, what I think we're in, we're in one of the stages of grief or one of the stages of of being unbrainwashed or whatever, or cleansed from a cult, right? Once you start to, once they start to get you out of that thinking, you have to have some sort of realization, whether it is shock or disbelief or anger. And I believe we're in some of those phases right now where all of a sudden these people are realizing like, hmm, this is the one thing that we counted on.

7:49This is the thing that was handed to us on a silver platter pumps. This is the thing that was easy for the conspiracy theorists and the QAnoners among the MAGA faithful that they could glom onto whether there was evidence or not. This is the Pizzagate crowd, right? And so now they're saying, well, wait a minute. We have campaigned on this. We believed you. This was something that was just, you know, just given to us. It was a gift. And now you're going to take that gift back after you have given it to us. And not only that, promoted it and ran on it and said that it was real. And you promised us that the Democrats, it was all the Democrats and they were all behind it.

8:33When, in fact, they're starting to find out in real time, as Bill O 'Reilly did, as he was on the cable channel the other day, that Jeffrey Epstein was prosecuted, convicted, went to jail and killed himself while Donald Trump was president the first time. And so they had all of this information in these files. So then how, therefore, how can it be a Democrat, according to them, bad grammar, a Democratic conspiracy theory or hoax when Donald Trump and Bill Barr were in charge at the time when all of this went down? It just does not make sense. And so I believe that this has penetrated the armor and they realize, well, wait a minute, you know, that, that, that meme where you see the lady going and all of the equations and the calculus is in front of her like, wait a minute.

9:24Now it's starting to not make sense. And they're trying to figure out, well, how do we do this? So they're in one of the stages of grief. And I believe in the beginning stages of fuck around and find out. So you really believe this could be his stumbling block? I believe, I'm not sure if this is the thing that will take him down. I will say this. The thing that you often think is the most obvious that will take someone down is usually not the thing that does. It's always some small thing that they did not think about. So I think, I believe that this is, as I have been saying, it is breaking the spell.

10:11It is penetrating the armor. And it is shocking because January 6th did not do this. Being convicted of 34 or however many counts, 34, 35 counts. I think it's 34 counts. You know, I lose track, which is easily done. being found liable in a civil court for sexual assault and with a judge said later was akin to rape that didn't penetrate the armor making fun of a New York Times reporter making fun of a war hero John McCain being what's the word impeached twice if that didn't if none of these things broke through and this is the thing that's going to break through then I say so be it let it break through.

10:55But I think when you delve into and you operate and you swim in those murky swamps of conspiracy theory, I believe the conspiracy theory is quite logical, even though conspiracy theories are not logical, but quite logically the thing that can possibly be the beginning of the end. I hope you're right. One thing I wanted to ask you about, Fox News is doing everything they can not to bring up Epstein. They're trying to gloss over it. So how long can they hold out over there as this fever pitch keeps coming out? Do you think they'll continue to hold the line? Yeah. Remember. I mean, remember the smartmatic of it all and the dominion of it all.

11:42I mean, that's a lot of money and they're still holding the line. I mean, Fox News has said, look, back in the day, a couple of years ago when they were in court for getting into trouble, I don't know it was a dominion thing but they were in court for something and they said well they weren't bound by telling the truth in the news that that was not their thing so no i mean they are whole they're towing the line and if you look at the mentions of jeffrey epstein compared to the mentions of joe biden who's by the way off living his best life and not probably not thinking about any of this and then you know you they i mean it is multiple times more exponentially i would say that they are mentioning and talking about Joe Biden and the pen and the auto pen and all of that, rather than focusing on Jeffrey Epstein, which I think every lawmaker who is, for me, this is what I say, okay, this is my belief.

12:37Every lawmaker who is questioned by any reporter and if they are coming up, if they're asking a question about one of these Donald Trump deflections, I think that they should say, do what J.D. Vance does and do what Marco Rubio does. They say, ask me a question, Angie. Ask me a question. Don, what hat are you wearing today? Well, that's not the question. I think the real question here, Angie, is, and this is what I would do. That was my J.D. Vance voice. I think the real question here is, why are members of our government and people who are in power now and members of this administration trying to keep something this important, as important as the Epstein files from the American public.

13:20Why don't they want people to get down to the truth? America is supposed to be about transparency. And if there are people in our government right now who are implicated in doing something wrong, I think it should be brought to light. Because remember, the last cover-up we had ended with a president being removed from office and leaving the White House on a helicopter. And if anyone in our government is responsible for anything that is akin to a cover-up, I think they should deserve, they deserve that same type of treatment. Now, the hat, the hat will take care of itself. We're going to deal with that hat in legislation.

13:54But I think the big question and the real question is really about Jeffrey Epstein and this cover up that the current administration is taking part in. Boy, that's a great answer. So you don't think Trump talking about Coca-Cola and sugar, you don't think that's the distraction he hopes it is? Well, I think the real question is, is when he does that, why is he distracting from why they're not releasing the real information? And so if they just released the information and the file, and they were transparent and candid about it, we would not be having to answer questions about Coca-Cola and sugar or any of those things.

14:31The question is, I think the victims of this crime, Ghislaine Maxwell is sitting in prison. We know that it is real. It is not a hoax. And so I think that the victims of these crimes from Jeffrey Epstein and possibly others. They deserve to justice. And also the American people deserve better as well. Remember, it is the American taxpayer who's paying the salaries of all of these people who are in charge. And I think that they have forgotten that they actually work for the American public. And by working for the American public, the American public deserves transparency around this Jeffrey Epstein debacle cover-up scandal that the MAGA Republican Party and Donald Trump are taking part in.

15:16They're responsible for. Oh my gosh. You make me smarter every time I talk to you. Thank you for being on today. Please like this video. Please check out Don on his YouTube channel at Lemon Live.

15:36Thank you.

From the publisher

We are joined by  @TheDonLemonShow  to discuss the Vice President JD Vance's strategic silence in the midst of massive maga fallout.


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