Vice President JD Vance defended his approach to Israel and combating antisemitism before a closed-door gathering of Jewish conservatives in Las Vegas on Monday evening, according to audio of Mr. Vance’s private remarks obtained by The New York Times.
Mr. Vance addressed members of the Republican Jewish Coalition, an organization of conservative Jewish activists and donors, at the gathering, held at The Venetian casino and resort. Many Jewish conservatives have expressed concern about Mr. Vance’s foreign policy leanings and his longstanding ties to Tucker Carlson, who has repeatedly antagonized American Jews.
Mr. Vance was asked by Norm Coleman, a former senator from Minnesota who chairs the Republican Jewish Coalition, about the cultural influence of podcasters — including Mr. Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Joe Rogan and Nick Fuentes — whom Mr. Coleman said had “platformed antisemitism.”
Mr. Vance acknowledged that those in the audience might have differing views of those influencers, some of whose shows Mr. Vance has joined.
“A lot of people in this room are going to disagree with things that Tucker Carlson or Megyn Kelly or Joe Rogan have said,” he said. “But I think, just to hone in on Fuentes and Rogan, I think these are two very, very different categories of people, both with their reach, but also within the ideas that are in their actual head.”
Mr. Vance said he was a fan of Mr. Rogan. In general, he said, the “best approach is to actually go in there and talk to him and make the argument as best as you can.”
But when it comes to Mr. Fuentes, he said, “Obviously, I’m not going to go talk to a guy who’s attacked my wife or who said that Hitler was a good guy.”
The Times obtained video and audio of most of Mr. Vance’s approximately 40 minutes of remarks from a person in the room. Mr. Vance’s office declined to comment.
At one point, Mr. Vance mentioned one of the “obvious elephants in the room,” which he described as an increasing number of young people who express “a growing suspicion” of the American-Israeli relationship. “What we have to do is articulate why this is in the best interest of the United States of America,” Mr. Vance said.
“I think it’s very, very important to talk about the concrete alignment of interest, and to hook the relationship on that,” he said.
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