Vance: Current U.S. leadership is 'a way bigger threat than any foreign threat'

Sen. JD Vance on Saturday defended former president Donald Trump's comments calling Democratic leaders "the enemy from within," saying that inflation, slowing military recruitment and the migrant crisis are a "way bigger threat than any foreign threat."

These problems, the Ohio Republican told NBC News' "Meet the Press," are "caused by broken leadership."

"Look, when I look at the biggest threats to America, Kristen, I think the fact that people can’t afford groceries, the fact that our — we can’t meet our recruitment goals in the military, the fact that Americans have a wide-open southern border, that’s a way bigger threat than any foreign threat," Vance told moderator Kristen Welker.

“And, yes, it’s caused by broken leadership,” he added.

Specifically, Vance mentioned former Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a catalyst for American decline.

"Under Nancy Pelosi’s long life in public leadership, the United States has gone from the preeminent industrial power of the world to second, next to China," Vance said. "That fundamentally belongs on Nancy Pelosi’s shoulders, and if we’re going to have a more prosperous country, we’ve got to recognize our own leadership is why we lost our industrial base to China."

Vance, who has emerged as a leading messenger who defends or explains Trump's views, on Saturday attempted to clarify Trump’s remarks, saying that “what [Trump] said is that the biggest threat we have in our country, it’s not a foreign adversary, because we can handle these guys. We can handle foreign conflicts.”

Vance's comments follow weeks of Trump asserting that Democrats, as the "enemy from within," are more dangerous to the U.S.' future than foreign adversaries.

The former president told Fox News earlier this month, "We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within and the enemy from within in my opinion is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries."

The former president also specifically named Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., as two of these "enemies from within" in separate remarks earlier this month.

"We have China. We have Russia. We have all these countries. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled. The more difficult are, you know, the Pelosis. These people, they’re so sick and they’re so evil,” Trump said during a Fox News town hall.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com