David Frum on JD Vance and Israel

Transcript:

Michael Medved:
And on the Michael Medved Show, a few minutes more, I'm pleased to say, with David Frum from The Atlantic magazine, author of 10 books and a former White House speechwriter for President George W. Bush. David, we're talking about your knowledge of JD Vance, and you worked with him fairly intensively in a whole series of articles before he came to the U.S. Senate and was nominated for Vice President. And there's now a piece in the Jerusalem Post today which says that anti-Semites and anti-Israel activists were angered by former president and Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump's pick for vice president on Monday, claiming on social media that JD Vance is controlled by Israel and the Jews, to which you say?

David Frum:
I would say—translating that from bigotry into plain English—I think people who support and care about Israel should be very nervous about how committed JD Vance will be to that cause. I don't think it makes psychic or intellectual sense for someone to say, "I'm willing to abandon Ukraine, I'm willing to abandon Taiwan, I'm willing to abandon all our democratic allies in Europe, but Israel can trust me. I'll have Israel's back." That doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make sense strategically. It doesn't make sense as a matter of character, I think. What's more true is that Vance has signed up with a view of politics that he shares with Tucker Carlson and Pat Buchanan and other people, and he's carved out a special exemption for Israel. How long that will last, how sincere that is, it's not something I'm comfortable with. I think that on an issue so important, we want to see a demonstrated record of consistent support. And let's remember, he gave us one test, which is when the Senate passed the bill to extend $95 billion, I think it was, to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel. JD Vance voted against it. He said he voted against it because of Ukraine, but in fact, Israel also took a hit.