Vice President JD Vance adamantly denied that the United States had entered a war with Iran after bombers struck three Iranian nuclear facilities.
Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker opened her interview with Vance on Sunday with the question swirling after President Donald Trump announced the strike. “Is the United States now at war with Iran?” she asked.
“No, Kristen, we’re not at war with Iran,” Vance replied, an answer he also gave ABC’s This Week. “We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”
Vance praised the U.S.’ attack on the facilities, saying B-2 bombers were able to drop “30,000-pound bombs on a target the size of a washing machine and then got back home safely without ever landing in the Middle East or ever stopping other than to briefly refuel.”
Vance continued praising the U.S.’ military might, calling the operation a “testament to the power of the American military.” Still, he claimed, the U.S. sought “peace.”
“What we said to the Iranians is we do not want war with Iran; we actually want peace,” he said. “But we want peace in the context of them not having a nuclear weapons program, and that’s exactly what the president accomplished last night.”
Only Congress can declare war, according to Article I of the Constitution. The last time it declared war was in 1942, during World War II.
Vance’s comments top-lined the administration’s position after the Saturday attack, attempting to defuse criticism from the isolationist wing in the MAGA-sphere that the U.S. has drawn itself into an open-ended war with Iran. Iran has vowed a response that would have “everlasting consequences” for the U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that the U.S. was not at war with Iran. “This is not a war against Iran,” Rubio said.
Vance would not comment on whether the U.S. could guarantee that it destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities, including its underground bunker in Fordow, 20 miles north of Qom, Iran. Instead, he said, it would be “many, many years before the Iranians are able to develop a nuclear weapon.”
“I’m not going to get into sensitive intelligence about what we’ve seen on the ground there in Iran,” he said. “But we’ve seen a lot, and I feel very confident that we’ve substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon. And that was the goal of this attack. That’s why it was a success.”
Vance’s support for the mission came three days after an intense phone call with Israeli leaders in which Vance pushed back against U.S. involvement and suggested Israel was trying to goad the U.S. into war.
Conservative war hawks seized on the report, with radio host Mark Levin—who has publicly and privately urged Trump to attack Iran—questioning on Sunday whether it was accurate.
“It’s very important that we know either way at some point,” Levin wrote. He later added that a “solid source” told him the report was inaccurate.
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