Vice President JD Vance addressed the many GOP criticisms of the newly signed Iran peace deal in a conversation with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who has found herself frequently at odds with President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on foreign policy issues.
Vance Responds to Conservative Critics
On Tuesday’s episode of her SiriusXM radio show, Kelly grilled the vice president by presenting him with some quotes from prominent conservatives, including Fox News’ Mark Levin and Marc Thiessen. Thiessen described the deal, many specifics of which have not yet been made public, as “a complete disaster.”
In response, Vance said he hoped to be “charitable to some of these concerns,” while arguing his critics were basing their opinions of the deal on “Iranian propaganda.”
“I just don’t think the people criticizing this, one, they’re not actually dealing with the reality of what’s in it,” he explained. “And number two, they don’t have an alternative.”
“If your alternative is just to drop bombs without any clear goal or any clear American interest implicated, then you’re not making the wise decisions on behalf of the American people,” he continued. “The president is, and that’s why we’re in this position.”
Further Criticism from Commentators
Kelly, however, offered Vance yet another critical take from Commentary magazine’s John Podhoretz, who accused Trump of having “chickened out” and argued the U.S. will be “in a strategically, tactically and militarily worse position than it was” under former President Joe Biden after the Iran deal.
“When President Trump uses military power, he’s not an isolationist. He’s not a Rand Paul guy, a Ron Paul guy,” Vance said. “But what he is, is a guy who says, ‘If I’m going to use American military power, I want to accomplish a discrete objective.’ And every single day — I saw it very much on the inside — he was asking: ‘Have we accomplished that objective? Can we stop this?’”
Conservative Concerns Over Economic Benefits
Much of the conservative criticism over the deal — the full text of which is expected to be released following a signing on Friday — centers on the prospective economic benefits for Iran. An Iranian source told Reuters the deal includes a $300 billion economic development fund for Iran — exactly the sort of benefit Trump and Republicans previously accused former President Barack Obama of giving Iran as part of a 2015 nuclear deal Trump terminated in his first term.
Vance Promotes New Memoir
Vance is currently on a publicity tour to promote his new memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.” The book is billed in press notes as “an intimate account of why he strayed from the Christianity of his youth and what led him back to faith” and chronicles “how his faith guides his work in public life, and how it informs his vision for the future.”
One of Vance’s most buzzed-about appearances took place Tuesday, when he turned up on ABC’s “The View,” seen by many in Trump’s MAGA base as hostile media territory.
