Vance says he won’t turn on ‘friend’ Carlson over Trump, Rogers criticism

Vice President Vance defended his relationship with right-wing media personality Tucker Carlson during Thursday’s White House press briefing, saying he won’t allow political disagreements to ruin friendships.

Carlson this past week has said President Trump should be removed from office for “actively considering” preemptive nuclear strikes, while also saying he wouldn’t vote for former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the GOP candidate in Michigan’s Senate race, “at gunpoint.”

“Everybody knows that Tucker Carlson and I are friends, and I think it’s very obvious that Tucker has said some things that I disagree with,” Vance said when asked Thursday about people who are uneasy about his relationship with the former Fox News host.

“He said some things about the president of the United States that I think are just wrong,” he added.

The vice president also said he disagreed with Carlson’s apparent support of Abdul El-Sayed, Rogers’s Democratic opponent in the Wolverine State.

“I’d like to have a non-crazy person like Mike Rogers representing Michigan in the United States Senate, rather than a crazy person like El-Sayed,” Vance said during the White House press briefing.

However, he went on to say that he tries not to let political disagreements define his friendships.

“Tucker is a friend of mine,” the vice president continued. “Tucker is a friend, despite the fact that we disagree on a number of things. And I’m not going to play the game where I throw friends under the bus because I have political disagreements with them.”

“I think that is a terrible place for the United States to go,” he added.

Carlson described El-Sayed’s campaign as “Trumpian” during a podcast episode released Wednesday.

The right-wing pundit has long been a major booster of Trump but has been increasingly critical of him since the Iran war started early this year. Both Carlson and Vance have promoted an isolationist, anti-war worldview distinct from more traditional Republican hawkishness.

While Vance has not been publicly critical of the war, he has reportedly been the most skeptical member of Trump’s Cabinet throughout the conflict.

Carlson pointed to the president’s threat of the “total destruction” of Iran in his comments calling for his removal.

“The second any president actively considers first-use of nuclear weapons, that person should be removed from office immediately. Immediately, because that’s gotta be the red line, destroying all of humanity with a nuclear strike,” Carlson said.

“Why isn’t there an attempt to remove him from office, like, immediately?” he added.