Vance’s Antisemitism Comments Deserve Scrutiny

Rich has accused critics of “ridiculous hyper-parsing” of Vice President JD Vance’s comments to the Republican Jewish Coalition. I disagree.

To start with, Vance is the sitting vice president and the front-runner to be the next nominee of the Republican Party. Tucker Carlson, the person who helped launch Vance’s political career and whom Vance has repeatedly described as a friend, has emerged as the most influential antisemite in America. Yet Vance has refused to criticize Carlson, even as Carlson regularly attacks not only Jews but also Vance’s boss, President Trump (Carlson went so far as to question whether Trump might be the anti-Christ). So given that Vance has refused to distance himself from Carlson in the face of his increasingly outrageous provocations, there are obviously a lot of questions about whether the likely future leader of the GOP shares Carlson’s worldview.

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Philip Klein

Philip Klein is the editor of National Review Online.

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Rich has accused critics of “ridiculous hyper-parsing” of Vice President JD Vance’s comments to the Republican Jewish Coalition. I disagree.

To start with, Vance is the sitting vice president and the front-runner to be the next nominee of the Republican Party. Tucker Carlson, the person who helped launch Vance’s political career and whom Vance has repeatedly described as a friend, has emerged as the most influential antisemite in America. Yet Vance has refused to criticize Carlson, even as Carlson regularly attacks not only Jews but also Vance’s boss, President Trump (Carlson went so far as to question whether Trump might be the anti-Christ). So given that Vance has refused to distance himself from Carlson in the face of his increasingly outrageous provocations, there are obviously a lot of questions about whether the likely future leader of the GOP shares Carlson’s worldview.