Michael Goodwin: Vances baffling statements on Israel & Epstein should disqualify him from 2028 GOP ticket
From the moment in 2024 when Donald Trump picked JD Vance to be his running mate, I believed it was a good move.Vance, a first-term Ohio senator, was popular among Trump’s base, which is why he was given the task of concentrating on Midwest swing states during the campaign.His surgical dismantling of blowhard Tim Walz during the veep debate was a thing of beauty, and it bears remembering that Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin all flipped for Trump.While the president clearly deserves most of the credit, Vance certainly did his part.I’ve also viewed Vance as a solid vice-president.
He’s been loyal, smart, calm and persistent, making him an effective opponent for the leftist media cabal during interviews.For those and other reasons, it’s not a surprise that most early polling has him leading the GOP field to be Trump’s successor and win the 2028 nomination.The very capable and savvy Secretary of State Marco Rubio is running a close second.Alas, the appearance of smooth sailing in all things Vance came to a crashing end with his shocking interview with Joe Rogan last week.
His comments on Israel alone have me asking, “Who is this guy?”And not in a nice way.He was so bad that I entertained the wild possibility he was floating the idea of switching to the Democratic Party.That’s because his acid comments about the Jewish state echoed some antisemitic themes, and happened to come on the same day that half of House Dems took the extraordinary step of voting to end all aid to Israel, military and humanitarian.The move failed because of strong Republican support for the Jewish state.Yet at the same time, here was the Republican vice president of an administration that has twice joined Israel in a war against Iran bad mouthing our crucial ally in ways that rhyme with the conspiracy theories of the Dems’ socialist wing.Specifically, Vance accused people “within Israel’s system” of trying to manipulate American public opinion to prolong the war wit...