By: Cliff Kincaid
In a case of guilt-by-association, Vice President Vance is under attack because he has a friendship with Tucker Carlson, whose views can be described as conservative, wacky, or antisemitic, depending on the topic. At the same time, Marxist Muslim Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan Abdul El-Sayed has been attacking Vance’s family.
If this is all they have against him, he’s a shoo-in for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination.
What if Vance has some friends with unusual or even morally objectionable views? This is the gotcha game the liberal media always play. Now the liberals sit back and watch conservatives like Ben Shapiro play the same game with Vance.
I don’t know what motivates Carlson, whose views can be strange and bizarre, but I do know what motivates Vance – patriotic public service that includes four years in the Marines and a rags-to-riches story that should inspire every American who wants capitalism maintained as an economic model for America and the world.
I believe Vance is a “secret weapon against socialism” because while Democrats pretend to have the solution to poverty through socialism, the Republicans have a living example of how to overcome poverty—Vice President J.D. Vance—who achieved success in life with the help of family members such as his grandmother, when his mother was hooked on drugs and his father had essentially abandoned him.
Vance’s background, documented in his book Hillbilly Elegy, should replace socialist Michael Harrington’s book, The Other America, as required reading. Vance’s life story can serve as the playbook for challenging the socialist narrative. Vance is the witness to how Big Government cannot replace a coherent and stable family structure. He is a hero to those of us not born into wealth and power.
For those who aren’t readers, watch the movie Hillbilly Elegy.
The liberals hate former Ohio Senator Vance, a former Marine who used the G.I. Bill to attend Ohio State University and became a Yale Law School graduate, because they hate white working-class Americans. They hate middle America – those of us who came from other parts of the country, not Washington, D.C., New York City, or the West Coast.
That is the issue that matters most. Not the fact that one of his friends has objectionable views. Shapiro’s The Daily Signal once served as a platform for Candace Owens. It appears he had a lapse of judgment, and they later parted ways. I don’t hold it against him. He made a mistake.
But the way to deal with Owens or Carlson is to debate them and announce your own position on the issues that matter most, and let people decide. That is what Vance does, as Vice President. He does not shy away from giving his views. Remember how he destroyed Tim Walz in the vice-presidential debate?
If they want to play the guilt-by-association game, of all the attacks on Vance, the one by Washington Times columnist Anath Hartmann was the most bizarre and ill-informed. This is a supposed “conservative” publication run by Moonies, whose opinion editor is Fox News star Charles Hurt.
Her column, “Will Vance denounce Carlson? Don’t hold your breath,” goes off on a tangent and accuses Vance of misrepresenting the influence of Jeffrey Epstein by saying Epstein had connections to the upper levels of American intelligence. “There is zero evidence of this,” she said. Yet, William J. Burns, who was the Director of the CIA, appeared in documents, schedules, and communications found within the released Jeffrey Epstein files. Hartmann must have her head in the sand.
By the way, Epstein also had a well-documented association with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Is that topic off-limits?
Hartmann is the Deputy Commentary Editor for The Washington Times, a publication run by members of the “Moonie” religious cult, which publishes stories like “How the Unification Church could help reconcile the two Koreas,” by Joseph R. DeTrani, and “Family Federation leader’s prison sentence sparks widespread outcry,” about the widow of Sun Myung Moon going to prison in South Korea for bribery for 2 years.
Moon, the leader of the Unification Church, launched the paper on May 17, 1982. Moon claimed to be the Christ.
Is Hartmann a member of the cult? Is such a question guilt by association? I frankly don’t care.
Regarding El-Sayed, the more important Vance opponent, the Muslim Marxist Democrat brought up Usha Vance and their children, questioning what she might be thinking during her husband’s speeches (“She’s like, ‘Damn, I have to sleep with him'”) and remarking about their family, “Can you imagine, he’s got brown kids, at some point he’s going to have a really awkward conversation with his kids, like, you made your career hating people who are different.”
Then, after Vice President Vance invoked his late grandfather (“Papaw”) during a speech while arguing that earlier generations of Americans would find concepts like Sharia law alien, El-Sayed posted on X: “So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…”
Vance fired back, telling El-Sayed, “Whatever you want to talk about, Abdul, keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth because she’s way out of your league.”
This father and husband is a good family man who defends his wife.
At a White House press briefing, regarding his previous friendship with Tucker Carlson, he said that he would not “play the game where I throw friends under the bus because I have political disagreements with them.” He understands the political game his opponents are playing. It’s not working.
The publication Jewish Insider reported that while Vance “criticized Carlson’s attacks on President Donald Trump and his recent comments expressing support for Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed over former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) in Michigan’s Senate race, he did not mention Carlson’s extreme rhetoric and views.”
Why is Vance being required to “mention” a friend’s “rhetoric and views?”
I think Jewish publications and commentators are risking a backlash by narrowing their focus on Vance in terms of what a friend believes or says. This former Marine demonstrated through his military service his allegiance to the United States. That should be all that counts. Associating him with a friend’s views is really a low blow. It makes the critics look like cranks with no focus on the big issues facing our country.
In recent weeks, Vance has been attacked for this friendship not only by Shapiro and Hartmann, but by Joan Swirsky and Isaac Schorr, whose column appeared under the title, “JD Vance can’t outrun his Tucker Carlson problem.”
Swerving with Swirsky
I don’t know Schorr or Hartmann, but I do know Joan Swirsky, and she is wrong about Vance. Her column, “VP Vance is actually a dangerous choice for POTUS,” has appeared on various sites, and a previous column, “JD Vance’s risky fence-sitting on antisemitism and Israel,” appeared in the Jerusalem Post. She thinks Vance is too critical of Israel and too chummy with Carlson.
He is not fence-sitting.
Vance has made several positive statements about Israel, calling it “one of our most important alliances in the world.” He has also noted a deep “cultural symbiosis and harmony” between the U.S. and Israel. He defended Jewish citizens against antisemitism and declared that Jew-hatred is “corrosive to the soul.”
On the other hand, Vance has criticized Israeli leadership decisions and government policies. When some Israeli officials were quoted as being critical of President Trump’s foreign policy, he said, “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.”
I am someone who never trusted Carlson’s views, sensing when he was with Fox News that his foreign policy approach, especially toward Russia, was bizarre. I wrote several columns about this. I also didn’t think his focus on UFOs, when he was with Fox News, was reasonable. He discussed crop circles and cattle mutilations, the subject of the Mel Gibson movie, “Signs,” about space aliens. I liked the movie but regard the subject matter as fiction and not worthy of prime-time coverage.
Still, Carlson can occasionally do a good show on his new network, and I don’t throw him under the bus, either.
Personally, I like Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, but he is not above criticism from Vance or any other American.
The real issue is not support for Israel but the future of America.
The author of the socialist-oriented The Other America, Michael Harrington, was a founder of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) who abandoned his religious faith while J.D. Vance embraced it, writing a book, Communion, about the role of religion in public life. He describes how he lost his faith and rediscovered it. It is a story that motivates people to return to the Christian faith. It is exactly what people, especially young people, need to hear.
A Catholic, Vance speaks his mind, even criticizing the new American pope over his views on the war against Iran.
A debate over U.S. policy toward Israel is beside the point. It’s not what most Americans are concerned about. It’s the war in Iran that matters to them. On that issue, Vance backs up President Trump. Tucker does not back Trump. The difference is apparent to anybody who has been following their views.
Politically, Vance has the credentials to challenge the basic tenets of socialism. His approach to foreign policy is entirely defensible and based on his own service to our nation. That should be all that needs to be said. His friendships are irrelevant.
There’s nothing wrong with having friends who are cranks, left-wingers, or have strange and bizarre views on various topics. I have a few. It is a way to debate and discuss current events.
In the final analysis, however, Vance should be judged by his record and reputation. It is sterling. He is a patriot and family man. His critics have made fools of themselves.
- Cliff Kincaid is president of America’s Survival, Inc. www.usasurvival.org
