Vice President JD Vance delivered his first public comments on the government’s reopening on “Hannity,” saying the shutdown caused Americans “massive pain for nothing” and arguing the House deal that ended it was essentially the same one top Democrats rejected weeks earlier.
“Here’s what the Democrats actually accomplished. They caused a lot of stress for our troops. They made our air traffic controllers not get paid. They caused a lot of flight cancellations. They had a lot of people thinking they weren’t going to get their food benefits. All for literally nothing,” Vance told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview. “We could have struck this exact deal 45 days ago. In fact, we met with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and said we will pass this exact deal. They said no.”
He also praised President Trump’s leadership during the 43-day standoff, saying they “knew this was going to happen.”
“The president of the United States said every day eventually the Democrats were going to realize this was an absurd position, we’ve got to reopen the government and that’s what they did,” Vance said.
President Trump signed legislation Wednesday night to reopen the government. He had signaled earlier in the week that a deal was imminent as the shutdown’s effects mounted, including missed federal paychecks and airline delays caused by air traffic controller shortages.
The bill maintains fiscal year 2025 funding levels through Jan. 30 while giving Congress more time to negotiate a full fiscal year 2026 package. It also extends SNAP benefits — relied on by more than 42 million Americans — through September, ensuring low-income households can continue purchasing groceries.
During the interview, Hannity also asked Vance what he’s learned from President Trump. Vance responded:
“You know, a few things. Number one, the president is amazing at compartmentalizing things. When something is going on-, there’s always a crisis. The very best day in the West Wing, there’s at least one crisis somewhere in the world that somebody’s putting your desk. The president has an incredible ability to sort of say, “Okay, focus on that for 15 minutes and then go and focus on something totally different for 15 minutes.” That’s not naturally how I am. If something bad is going on, I tend to want to think about that thing and solve that problem before I go on to something else. The president is incredible at that compartmentalization. I think it’s one of the reasons why he can handle ten different problems at once is because he’s able to troubleshoot and then move on to the next thing, troubleshoot and move on to the next thing. The second thing that I’ve learned from the president, Sean, and I’ve tried to absorb it as much as I can, and I think some of this is just who he is and his natural instincts is: he has better instincts about human beings than anybody that I have ever met.”
🚨 JUST IN: Vice President JD Vance sits down for an EXCLUSIVE interview with Hannity. Here’s a SNEAK PEAK
Q: “What have you learned from President Trump?”
VANCE: “The president is amazing at compartmentalizing things. When something is going on, there’s always a crisis.”… pic.twitter.com/H934FPCWe7
— The Patriot Oasis™ (@ThePatriotOasis) November 13, 2025
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
