In First Post-Midterm Interview, Pence Rebukes Vance: GOP Lost Not Because It Took On Iran, but Because 'We Stopped Short and Didn't Finish It'
Former Vice President Mike Pence, in his first interview since the midterm elections, publicly disputed Vice President JD Vance's explanation for the Republican Party's losses and voiced deep concern over statements on Israel coming from the vice president's office. The exclusive interview was published by Fox News Digital on November 12.
Vance wrote on X on the morning after Election Day: "The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night." He also cited an unnamed pollster who, he said, found that voters who had abandoned the Republican Party wanted the administration to end the conflict, tackle inflation and the cost of living, put America first and "change our relationship with Israel."
Pence responded: "I disagree with the vice president about the reasons for the midterm election outcome. There's no question that the war in Iran became a frustration for millions of Americans, but it wasn't because President Trump started the war or took on Iran. It's because we stopped short and didn't finish it."
He argued the defeat stemmed from a broader change of direction: voters rejected protectionist tariffs, policies of appeasement toward Russia and even Iran, and the marginalizing of the right to life, among other moves, and he pointed to what he called an "air of corruption" around the administration.
On Israel, Pence said he has "great concerns about what I've heard coming out of the vice president's office with regard to Israel." He said: "If the world knows nothing else, the world should know that America stands with Israel. Israel is our most cherished ally. It is the only democracy in the Arab world." He added that he is "very troubled at the way that criticism of Israel on the left and on the right collapses too often into antisemitism and antisemitic rhetoric," saying there is no place in America for antisemitism on either side, and that some of those wringing their hands over U.S. support for Israel seem to use it as a thinly veiled excuse for antisemitism.
An ally of Vance hit back to Fox News Digital, saying Pence "had to retreat into the think tank world because his politics never developed past the Bush-era neocon warmongering that dragged us into the Middle East in the first place," and calling him "laughably out of touch with how people feel in the real world." Fox News Digital said it had sought comment from the White House and had not received a response when the story was published.
(Source: Fox News)
Source: Fox News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国前副总统 Mike Pence 官方肖像（资料图）。白宫供图，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Official portrait of former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (file photo). White House, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
