Vance Squirms as Reporters Press Him on Tucker’s Defense of Abdul El-Sayed
Campaigning for establishment pick Mike Rogers in Michigan, the vice president dodges on his friend Carlson — who said he wouldn’t vote for Rogers “at gunpoint.”
JD Vance flew to Michigan on Oct. 27 to campaign for Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers. Before he boarded, reporters asked about the problem following him there: his friend Tucker Carlson.
“Do you think that Tucker Carlson’s criticism of Rogers and his defense of El-Sayed is going to have an impact in the Senate race in Michigan?” a reporter asked, according to Mediaite.
“You know, look, I’m not a political prognosticator, man,” Vance replied. He called Rogers “fundamentally a decent guy” and attacked Democrat Abdul El-Sayed as someone who, “more than any Democrat running in the nation, has engaged in the kind of explicitly anti-white racial hatred that has become common in the Democratic Party.” Republicans, Vance said, should “reject that guy as conservatives.”
What Vance did not do was answer for Carlson. El-Sayed has released an ad featuring Carlson’s commentary on the race, including the line, “I wouldn’t vote for Mike Rogers at gunpoint.” Carlson, an opponent of the war in Iran and of U.S. policy toward Israel, argued on his show that El-Sayed’s foreign-policy positions were better for the country than Rogers’s.
Mediaite noted that Carlson helped lobby Trump to choose Vance as his running mate and has since become a fierce critic of the administration, calling Trump “homicidal” and saying he should be removed from office. In September, Vance refused to distance himself: “Tucker is a friend of mine,” he said. “I’m not gonna play the game where I throw friends under the bus because I have political disagreements with them.”
For America First observers, the scene sums up the Vance problem. He wants the anti-war, anti-establishment energy Carlson brings — while stumping for a hawkish establishment candidate the anti-war side openly rejects. Nick Fuentes has spent weeks arguing that Carlson’s platform is a staging ground for Vance’s 2028 messaging; days earlier, he dared Vance to denounce Carlson outright.
Michigan votes Nov. 3. Final Times/Siena polling cited by Axios showed the Democrat leading by 11 points there.
