‘Call it What You Want, Man!’ CNBC’s Joe Kernen Hits JD Vance’s Corporate Tax Pitch As Democrat ‘Industrial Policy’ in Testy Exchange

Squawk Box host Joe Kernen knocked Trump running mate Senator JD Vance’s proposal to raise taxes on US companies shifting manufacturing and jobs to other countries, telling the Republican his pitch “sounds like industrial policy that the Democrats get criticized for.”

From the outset of Vance’s appearance on CNBC , Kernen said he wasn’t interested in a “post-mortem” of the ABC presidential debate but that he did want to did in on how the senator’s “economic beliefs” had “evolved”, citing his past policy stances against former President Donald Trump’s economic agenda.

The host began: “As we now know, people’s economic beliefs can evolve, as we’ve seen maybe from former President Trump’s opponent. But I’m wondering whether yours have evolved, because then we’ll get into some of the things you said in the past.”

Rounding on the question, Kernan asked: “How much daylight right now is there between what you believe as, what would I call you, an economic populist? Is there daylight between you and President Trump right now?”

Vance replied: “No, I don’t think so. I mean, look, obviously he selected me as his running mate, and I’m trying to run to implement and win on the Trump agenda. But I think that President Trump’s economic views are actually pretty straightforward American conservatism, which is we need to manufacture things in this country.”

Vance continued to say that the Trump campaign believed in “common sense energy and regulatory policies” that “lift up workers is to promote good jobs and good wages – not to just throw everybody on welfare, which I think is in some ways the main thrust of the Kamala Harris economic policy.”

He added: “So there’s definitely some element of populism to it because, look, I do think that for 30 years in this country, we shift a lot of good manufacturing jobs to places like East Asia.”

Warning against shifting the manufacture of critical products like “prescription drugs” and “weapons” to China, Vance said: “We have to be a little bit smarter about our own self-reliance as a nation. That is one departure, I think, between President Trump’s vision and, frankly, 30 to 40 years of failed leadership in this country.”

Kernen then returned to his claim that “populism” of the kind Vance is labeled as belonging to is “almost diametrically opposed to certain aspects of capitalism.”

The host said: “There are certain groups, and I don’t even want to mention the name of it, but they claim you as a strict adherent to populism. I don’t know if you know the group I’m talking about. You have said we should raise corporate taxes in the past. The former president wants to cut the 21 percent rate down to 15 percent, I think. You said 28 percent or even higher that these big corporations deserve that.”

Defending his past remarks, seeking to align them with the Trump agenda, Vance said that he believed in “lower taxes on corporations that are creating jobs in this country and raise tariffs on corporations that are shipping jobs overseas and manufacturing overseas.”

He argued that companies “trying to take advantage of Chinese slave labor and then use American markets to make a profit” were not “investing in America” or “hiring American.”

He added: “I know Donald Trump thinks that we should try to penalize these companies”

Kernen, dismissing the point, replied: “It sounds like industrial policy that the Democrats get criticized for all the time.”

Unhappy with the take, Vance shot back: “Oh, no, it’s not. Look, whatever you want to call it, man, the problem is, look, Chinese slaves making $2 a day, and they get caned working 72 hours a week if they want to work 70 hours a week instead. You want to allow American manufacturers to benefit from that cheap labor? Not only is it going to destroy good American jobs and wages, it’s going to decimate our core manufacturing industry, which I think makes us less productive over time.”

He concluded: “The final and most important point is it makes us reliant on foreign nations to make some of our critical stuff. Now, Donald Trump does believe in trade, and I believe in trade, but we believe in trade that’s actually going to benefit American workers, not destroy American jobs.”

Watch above on CNBC.