The Movement: Vance faces pressure over Carlson friendship

Vice President Vance is in hot water with some conservatives after a press briefing last week where he defended his friendship with Tucker Carlson. 

“Tucker is a friend of mine,” Vance said. “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.” 

Carlson has been a divisive figure within the conservative movement. As an independent commentator, he has embraced people and ideas that run counter to many conservative values, especially in criticizing Israel and flirting with alternative theories about World War II. The divide within the GOP over Carlson still has fracture lines from last winter, when a slew of Heritage Foundation staff and trustees left that organization when its president defended Carlson for interviewing a known antisemite. 

Carlson has also been taking fire from many in the conservative movement as he has turned further against President Trump amid the war with Iran. Last week, Carlson said that left-wing Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was “literally Trumpian” and that he wouldn’t vote for El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Trump-endorsed former Rep. Mike Rogers, “at gunpoint.”

Vance has been pressed repeatedly on his relationship with Carlson in recent months, including at a summit of Jewish Republican donors in Las Vegas last week. Although Vance reportedly tried to reassure the attendees that he was staunchly opposed to antisemitism, some were left unsatisfied about his response to questions on his friendship with Carlson.

At the press briefing a few days later, Vance was once again asked about, and once again did not denounce, Carlson. 

“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 at the briefing. He added that El-Sayed is “a crazy person.”

That answer further riled up conservatives of all stripes.

“It’s one thing to say I’m not going to torch a friend, a personal friendship, as a result of a difference of opinions. I think that that sounds halfway reasonable because it is in a vacuum a reasonable thing to say,” said Stephanie Slade, an editor at Reason Magazine and author of a new book about the conservative movement. “But when you are the vice president of the United States and the person you’re talking about is one of the most popular podcasters on planet Earth, you do have an obligation to make sure to make sure the people who are looking to you as an example know whether you endorse exactly what you disagree with when you say you have disagreements with somebody, you know what do you disagree with them about and why, and he is clearly avoiding committing himself on that because he does not want to alienate Tucker’s fans.”

Ben Shapiro, in a post on social media, said much the same. He referenced a December quote from Vance, when the vice president apparently said the idea that Carlson “has no place in the conservative movement” is “absurd.” Shapiro called for Vance to further articulate which views of Carlson’s are welcome........

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