Vice President JD Vance has had a terrible, horrible, no good very bad week.
On a media tour for his new book about his Catholic conversion, Vance was the only administration official defending the President’s Memorandum of Understanding with Iran. And for five days straight, the Vice President gaslit, sneered, prevaricated, and straight up lied to our faces about what was in the MOU, why it wasn’t being released, and a host of other things.
It began with Vance telling Jake Tapper something that came across as wildly and dangerously credulous.
“The coolest thing about the progress we’ve made over the last few weeks is that you see people within the Iranian system, senior leadership, even IRGC officials say, ‘You know what? We may have some animosity, we may have some mistrust, but we recognize the way that we’ve done business with the United States for 47 years is a mistake. Let’s try something else.’”
Well gosh darn it, how cool is that? The Iranians want to be our friends! Let’s believe them, that’s a great idea!
Vance also contradicted himself on the crucial question of releasing funds to the Islamic Regime. In one interview, he said that Iran could have access to $300 billion, but later clarified that “not a single cent of American money goes to Iran.”
I guess it’s a little better that it’s someone else’s money, but it doesn’t quite solve the problem of Iran getting access to funds to keep being the leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Vance kept giving the same bizarre explanation for why the MOU wasn’t being released, saying at first that the Qataris and Pakistanis asked them not to release the full text, but then he changed his tune at a press conference on Thursday, saying it was Iran that wanted it held back and that the administration was complying out of some kind of cultural sensitivity.
I’m sorry but what?
What about the sensitivity to my culture as an American who is entitled to know what her government is up to?
Vance gave a list of ways that the MOU he signed was better than the JCPOA, most of which were just outright lies.
False! Like the money we’re releasing now, the $1.7 billion given by the Obama JCPOA was Iran’s own frozen assets.
He implied that all opponents to this terrible MOU are war hawks who want a forever war and boots on the ground, who have some kind of blood thirst for endless Iranian death—just an appalling straw man. I don’t know anyone who wants boots on the ground. The whole point of the U.S. blockade on the Strait of Hormuz was we didn’t need them!
And while Vance spent all week talking about how “cool” the IRGC is, he repeatedly blasted Israel, Israelis, and Israeli politicians, inventing bizarre scenarios in which he fantasized about how many Iranians they wanted to kill.
He ended his press conference on—you guessed it—the crimes of Israel.
Apparently, according to our Vice President, you gotta hand it to the Iranians for negotiating in good faith—it’s Israel that’s the *real impediment to peace!
Here’s the truth:
VP JD Vance just brought the great United to its knees with a humiliating deal weeks before our 250th birthday, and he’s decided, like many before him, to blame Israel for the terrible situation we’re in.
If this was a dry run for 2028, it was at least very clarifying.
I had the pleasure of debating the issue with Joel Rubin and Scottie Nell Hughes on my show.
