“Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan sits down with Vice President J.D. Vance for an exclusive interview

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Vice President J.D. Vance spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about Pete Hegseth.

The Senate narrowly confirmed Pete Hegseth as the next Secretary of Defense, approving President Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon after a contentious battle over his nomination. He was sworn in Saturday morning.

Hegseth was confirmed in a vote mostly along party lines, with 51 voting in favor and 50 against. Three Republicans broke with their party to oppose his nomination, forcing Vice President JD Vance to cast a tie-breaking vote. At least four Republicans would have had to vote against Hegseth to sink his nomination.

When asked how Hegseth's going to lead three million people "if the nominee can't unite" the Republican Party, Vance said, "I think Pete is a disruptor, and a lot of people don't like that disruption, but..that disruption is incredibly necessary."

Vance also said, "The main thing that we want Pete Hegseth to do is to fix the problems at the Department of Defense and unfortunately, there are many. We've gotten into way too many wars that we don't have a plan for winning. We've gotten into way too many misadventures that we shouldn't have got into in the very first place, and our procurement process...is incredibly broken."

Tulsi Gabbard

During the interview, Brennan and Vance talked about Tulsi Gabbard upcoming confirmation to serve as Director of National Intelligence, with Brennan asking Vance if Gabbard's reported defense of Edward Snowden and refusal "to accept U.S. intelligence findings that Assad gassed his own people" gives him pause in putting her in charge of the U.S. intelligence community, and Vance said in part:

"No...these are publications that attacked Donald J. Trump obsessively, but those publications don't determine who the president is, the American people do...and Donald J. Trump is the person who determines who his Cabinet is, not these publications that I think, frankly, have lost relevance...but I feel confident that Tulsi Gabbard will ultimately get through. Two things that are important to know about Tulsi. First of all, she is a career military servant who's had a classification at the highest levels for nearly two decades. She has impeccable character, impeccable record of service, and she also is a person who I think is going to bring some trust back to the intelligence services. The bureaucrats at our intelligence services have gotten completely out of control. They've been part of the weaponization of our political system, the weaponization of our justice system. We need to have good intelligence services who keep us safe, but part of that is restoring trust in those services, and we think Tulsi is the right person to do it."

Executive orders

Talks then came to the executive orders the Trump administration has already put in place, with Brennan asking which executive order lowers prices since Vance "campaigned on lowering prices for consumers," and Vance said:

"First of all, we have done a lot, and there have been a number of executive orders that have caused, already, jobs to start coming back into our country, which is a core part of lowering prices. More capital investment, more job creation in our economy, is one of the things that's going to drive down prices for all consumers, but also raise wages so that people can afford to buy the things that they need."

Brennan then followed up by asking if grocery prices aren't going to come down, but Vance replied saying:

"No...prices are going to come down, but it's going to take a little bit of time, right? The president has been president for all of five days. I think that in those five days, he's accomplished more than Joe Biden did in four years. It's been an incredible breakneck pace of activity. We're going to work with Congress. We're of course going to have more executive orders, and we're going to try- the way that you lower prices is that you encourage more capital investment into our country, and you asked specifically what executive order is going to help lower prices. All of the stuff that we've done on energy, to explore more energy reserves, to develop more energy resources in the United States of America. One of the main drivers of increased prices under the Biden Administration is that we had a massive increase in energy prices. Donald Trump has already taken multiple executive actions that are going to lower energy prices, and I do believe that means consumers are going to see lower prices at the pump and at the grocery store, but it's going to take a little bit of time."

Vance also said, "We've also focused on safety, restoring public safety, ending weaponization of the Department of Justice. We've done a lot, and I think the president is to be commended for actually coming in and doing something with this incredible mandate the American people gave him. He's not sitting in the Oval Office doing nothing. He's doing the American people's business, and I think they're going to see a lot of good effects from it."

FEMA

Brennan and Vance then talked about President Donald Trump's plan for FEMA resources, with Brennan saying that the president may start sending a percentage of money to state to take care of themselves instead of sending emergency responders.

This prompted Brennan to ask Vance how will the "lower income states," like Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, "be able to do this for themselves without federal help, and Vance said in part, "Well, the president, to be clear, is not saying we're going to leave anybody behind...The president is trying to encourage us to reform the way that we deliver emergency response in a way that gets resources to people who need it."

"Before we were sworn in, people would talk about how FEMA would get resources, food, medicine, water, to a warehouse, but then would have no plan to get it from the warehouse to the people in the mountains who were literally starving and thirsting to death. We can do so much better, and under Donald Trump's leadership, we will," Vance added.

Immigration

Brennan and Vance talked about the Trump administration's immigration policies, specificially allowing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter churches and schools.

When asked if he personally supports the idea of "a raid or enforcement action in a church service" and at a school, Vance said, "Of course, if you have a person who is convicted of a violent crime, whether they're an illegal immigrant or a non-illegal immigrant, you have to go and get that person to protect the public safety."

Brennan then brought up that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned that executive order to allow ICE to enter churches, with Vance reacting to it saying:

"As a practicing Catholic, I was actually heartbroken by that statement. And I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line? We're going to enforce immigration law. We're going to protect the American people."

Vance also added, "I think the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has, frankly, not been a good partner in common sense immigration enforcement that the American people voted for, and I hope, again, as a devout Catholic, that they'll do better."

Afghan refugees

Later in the interview, Brennan and Vance talked about the Afghans who aided the American war effort in Afghanistan.

Hours after taking office, Trump enacted an indefinite pause on admissions of refugees, who are identified as people fleeing war and violence overseas and who undergo a years-long vetting process before being admitted into the U.S. legally. It will not be restarted until the president determines resuming refugee arrivals is "in the interests of the United States."

Those who help refugees said the funding pause order could hinder their ability to provide critical assistance to refugees already in the U.S., including Afghans who aided the American war effort in Afghanistan.

Refugee advocates fear the directive could affect funds resettlement agencies use to help refugees during their first 90 days in the U.S. as part of a government-overseen reception program. That assistance includes casework, childcare, food and housing aid and other key social services designed to place refugees on a path to self-sufficiency in the U.S.

Back in August, Brennan spoke with Vance, who said he doesn't think "we should abandon anybody who's been properly vetted and helped us. This prompted Brennan to ask if Vance still stands by what he said, and Vance answered:

"I don't agree that all these immigrants, or all these refugees, have been properly vetted. In fact, we know that there are cases of people who allegedly were properly vetted and then were literally planning terrorist attacks in our country. That happened during the campaign if you may remember. So clearly, not all of these foreign nationals have been properly vetted...but my primary concern as the vice president, Margaret, is to look after the American people...And now that we know that we have vetting problems with a lot of these refugee programs, we absolutely cannot unleash thousands of unvetted people into our country."

January 6 pardons and big tech seen at the inauguration

Later in the interivew, Brennan and Vance talked about the January 6 pardons that President Trump initiated almost immediately after entering office.

Vice President Vance said him and President Trump looked at 1,600 cases related to the January 6 protests and treated them as "case by case basis" situations, according to Vance.

Although Vance said violence against a police officer is not justified, he also added that "it that doesn't mean you should have Merrick Garland's weaponized department of justice expose you to incredibly unfair process, to denial of constitutional rights and frankly to a double standard that was not applied to many people including, of course, the Black Lives Matter rioters who killed over two dozen people and never had the weight of a weaponized justice system come against them."

Brennan and Vance then talked about big names in technology who were spotted at the Inauguration and the donations big tech companies have made to the current presidency.

Brennan asked Vance if he still plans to break up big tech. Vance said the administration believes fundamentally that big tech does have too much power and they're "still on notice."

To watch Brennan's full interview with Vance, click here.