VP pool report #2- landed, gaggle quotes

AF2 landed at Kansas City International Airport at 11:11am local time.

Quotes below from the pre-take off gaggle.

VP: “Excited to do a fraud task force event in the Kansas city area and campaign with my very dear friend Doc Marshall, who is one of the very best United States senators. Very important to get him reelected.”

Q: Concerned about development of AI? And calls over the weekend to pause development?--

VP: “It’s something that we’re concerned by but we want to make sure that we regulate smartly.”

“There are obviously risks to AI, there are benefits to AI. I have to say, personally, I feel a little bit weird about the fact that we have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of talking to the government and begging the government to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a trojan horse, so I think we just have to be careful about this.”

“The other thing the president has said pretty consistently is we know that the Chinese are engaged in this long-term AI race against the United States. We want to make sure the United States, we do things smartly but we stay ahead of the curve.”

Q: You don’t think Americans should be scared?

VP: “Any technology has risks… I think what the president has said is we want to be smart about making sure we stay on top of those risks. I don’t American should be scared of anything, I think we have to be mindful that there are risks, there are downsides to anything and that’s certainly true of AI.”

Q: On regulation, should Congress take the lead or the administration?

VP: “Obviously, the best way to do it would be consensus between both Congress and the administration. We obviously have a lot of folks on both sides of the aisle with a strong opinion. Any regulatory regime we’d like, ideally, Congress and the White House to agree on it so that we actually are able to make it stick and so that we actually get some real consensus behind it.”

Q: Are you concerned about the Houthis seizing in the Red Sea?

VP: “We’ve been in constant contract with the Emiratis and the Saudis and others… in the region, so it’s something the United States administration is very much on top of. We’ve also been engaged in direct conversation with the Houthis themselves. So we actually feel like we are on top of the situation, it’s a very fluid and dynamic thing. We want to keep on monitoring it.”

Q: Reports you were looking for unvarnished truth from military leaders, calling them directly to ask their opinion. Do you trust what you’re getting from the Pentagon?

VP: “I trust Pete and I trust Dan Caine but I found that story very weird. It’s like the vice president calls around to admirals and generals to try to understand American foreign policy, of course I do.”

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Alex Gangitano

Reporter, White House | POLITICO