Exclusive – Marco Rubio: JD Vance’s Life Story Is About ‘Putting Americans First’

Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) has lived the perfect American story to compliment the ticket as Donald Trump’s vice-presidential nominee, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the Republican National Convention.

Rubio, who has worked closely with Vance on issues relating to American workers, said Vance’s “life story, I think, is indicative of what this is all about, which is putting Americans first. Who can be outraged by that?”

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M. Perdie, J. Knudsen / Breitbart News

“I’ve been working with JD since 2017, 2018,” Rubio told Breitbart Washington bureau chief Matt Boyle. “I remember we had a meeting in my office in 2018 on public policy, I was so impressed with him.”

Rubio joked that he began questioning Vance’s intelligence after he began exploring politics. “And then he decided he’s going to run for Senate. I’m like, ‘oh, this guy’s lost his mind, he’s gonna get into politics now, you know, are you crazy? Have people have not told you what it’s around?’ And it’s one of the people I’ve worked with closely in his time there.”

Rubio provided his take on Vance’s address to the Republican National Convention.

“I think what people saw last night is a guy that, on the one hand, is incredibly intelligent, like really smart, very curious,” he said. “He likes to learn. He likes to learn about things. And I think that’s a really important attribute, to be curious. President Trump’s a curious guy. He asks a lot more questions than he does make statements.”

Boyle discussed Trump’s propensity to ask questions during their many interviews.

“If you meet with him privately, you’re gonna get nine questions for any pronouncement. And he loves to get input. It’s like a running focus group that he’s got going of American people. That’s how he got the idea on the tips,” Rubio said, referencing Trump’s proposal to eliminate taxing on tips. “It wasn’t from some think tank — it was a waitress in Las Vegas. And JD has a lot of those attributes, too. He likes to learn about stuff.”

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M. Perdie, J. Knudsen / Breitbart News

Rubio described Vance as possessing one of the rarest qualities in a politician — authenticity.

I think the one thing that came across last night, which was really important, and you really can’t fake it, he comes across as a guy that you would know, “I know a guy like that,” you know?

A lot of times people in politics feel remote, distant, like almost that maybe they’re acting a role. And what came across last night, like, “I know a guy like that.” And I think he’s got the best combination of sometimes when you’re in this for a long time and you start to lose that – even for the best people, they got to work really hard to try to keep it. And I think that came across last night, I think is going to be a huge asset for the President. Because his life story, I think is indicative of what this is all about, which is putting Americans first. Who can be outraged by that?

Boyle discussed the ongoing political realignment triggered by the failings of the political class in both parties, particularly inside the Republican Party, asking Rubio to discuss his perspective from traveling through Rust Belt States and the vision he and Vance share to restore those regions.

“So, you think about it, if you come of age in the early to mid-2000s, you’ve already inherited sort of this bipartisan consensus that we’ve reached the point where certain jobs and industries are going to be somewhere else, but even better jobs are going to be here as a result,” he said. “And that’s sort of like, frankly, that’s a bipartisan consensus on both sides, to some extent, but certainly a dominant theme in the Republican Party, that the market magically will take care of everything.

He continued, “I believe in the free enterprise system 100%. But I think what was lost in all of this is — hold on a second. If you take American jobs and factories and you move them somewhere else, yeah, it’s more efficient, it’s cheaper, maybe even cheaper prices at the store. But you’ve lost two things: jobs that sustain families and communities and industrial capacity, which you’re going to need one day.”

Rubio went on, “And the other question, what came to me over the years and what really became stark to me by 2015 and through my presidential campaign where, you know, I’m not from an industrial state. You start interacting with people that have been hurt, [and you ask] what happens when the free enterprise system reaches an outcome that’s the most efficient but that’s bad for America? Because it’s more efficient to make medicine in China, but it’s not good for America to depend on China.”

The Florida senator drilled down on the question of production versus people as a key point for politicians to understand.

“That’s the point we’ve reached now, we have to understand that economic growth is important, but you can’t just judge the health of our economy by the size of the GDP, you have to judge it by how that GDP is growing,” he insisted. “Is it creating good jobs? Is it protecting the industrial capacity to make things for your country if you need it? And you need to have stable jobs to have stable community, and that I think has returned to the Republican Party, but that was gone for 20 years. Nobody talked about it that way.”

Boyle asked Rubio what advice he would provide Trump and Vance as they communicate their vision to American workers, given the Republican Party for so long was the party of unrestricted free trade.

“I think, frankly, Donald Trump and JD Vance don’t need my advice on how to communicate,” Rubio answered. “I think we need to be learning from them about how to communicate, because they’re at the core of that message.”

Rubio discussed the Biden administration bowing to radical environmentalists to kill the Keystone Pipeline and the devastation that decision and others like it had on working Americans dependent on the jobs that were killed. He said policy makers must make decisions to protect American jobs, and that Trump and Vance will take that message to working Americans.

“I think you heard that the other night from the president of Teamsters,” he said. “Yeah, collective bargaining. The company that you work for is no longer in America, [it] has taken the job somewhere else. There is no collective bargaining. Right? The job doesn’t exist, there is nothing to collectively bargaining.”

Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.