Sen. JD Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, is in the midst of yet another controversy: his association with Tucker Carlson.
It comes after Carlson, a former Fox News host who remains influential among Republicans as the host of a popular online show, released an interview with Darryl Cooper, an amateur historian who put forward a revisionist account of World War II and the Holocaust.
That’s prompted a broad array of figures to condemn Carlson for interviewing Cooper, along with calls for the VP candidate to distance himself from Carlson.
But Vance isn’t doing that. He reportedly taped an interview with Carlson on Thursday, after the controversy began, and he remains slated to appear with Carlson at a live event in Hershey, Pennsylvania later this month.
“Senator Vance doesn’t believe in guilt-by-association cancel culture but he obviously does not share the views of the guest interviewed by Tucker Carlson,” Vance spokesperson William Martin said in a statement. “There are no stronger supporters of our allies in Israel or the Jewish community in America than Senator Vance and President Trump.”
On Friday, Vance brushed off a question about Carlson’s interview, telling reporters that “the fundamental idea here is Republicans believe not in censorship, we believe in free speech and debate.”
It’s not the first time Vance has come to Carlson’s defense — and it’s the latest example of the Ohio senator’s relatively unique approach to controversy.
Carlson’s guest made false claims about World War II
Cooper, an amateur historian and the host of the “Martyr Made” podcast, argued on Carlson’s show that the history of World War II and the Holocaust have been heavily mythologized, to the point that it’s difficult for anyone to question it.
He went on to posit that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the “chief villain of the Second World War” and was responsible for escalating the conflict.
Cooper also characterized the Holocaust, the systematic murder of millions of people, primarily Jews, as the result of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis simply being in over their heads as they waged war.
“They just threw these people into camps, and millions of people ended up dead there,” Cooper said.
Carlson has been criticized for praising Cooper at the outset of the interview as “the most important popular historian working in the United States today” while declining to push back on his false claims.
Carlson and Cooper did not respond to requests for comment. Cooper wrote on X that a 27-minute clip on the “early history of Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” will “serve as my official and only response to the mob of liars and slanderers.”
All eyes quickly turned to Vance
Vance and Carlson are friends, with the latter reportedly playing a key role in convincing Trump to select him as his running mate.
Alex Floyd, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, criticized Vance in a statement for declining to denounce Carlson.
“Instead of calling out Carlson for his shameful actions, Vance is cozying up to him,” Floyd said. “Every time Vance rubs shoulders with out-of-touch creeps like Carlson, he reminds Americans why he’s the most extreme and least popular VP candidate in decades.”
Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney also criticized Vance at an event in Texas on Friday.
“If you appear with Tucker Carlson, if you do an interview with him as JD Vance apparently has, you’re endorsing him,” Cheney said. “You’re embracing that, and that pro Nazi propaganda should have no place — it is garbage, and it should have no place in our politics.”
Vance has defended Carlson before — and it’s indicative of his broader approach to politics
In May 2023, after Carlson was fired by Fox News, the New York Times reported that Carlson texted his producer and bemoaned that a group of Trump supporters did not “fight” like “white men” when they attacked someone on the street in Washington, DC.
Two other GOP senators who had appeared on Carlson’s show — Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Mike Braun of Indiana — pleaded ignorance when asked about the text. But Vance opted to issue a full-throated defense of Carlson.
“It was actually quite introspective about how it made him feel,” Vance said at the time. “I know Tucker, I know that he’s the sort of guy who thinks pretty deeply about this stuff, and I felt that text message reflected well on him, not poorly.”
Vance’s choice to defend Carlson on both occasions is part of a political style that’s relatively unusual, but has reportedly impressed Trump. It’s characterized foremost by a refusal to bow to criticism.
It also demonstrates, in contrast to other politicians on both the right and left, a relative lack of trepidation about being associated with more fringe political ideas and figures.
The most prominent example of this approach in recent weeks has been his response to the controversy over his “childless cat ladies” comments, which he first made on Carlson’s show in 2021.
Pressed during a recent interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker over whether he regretted making that comment — given the fact that many women have felt insulted by it — Vance brushed it off.
“I regret certainly that a lot of people took it the wrong way,” Vance said.
