EXCLUSIVE – Former Vice President Mike Pence delivered a blistering assessment of Vice President ‘s midterm election postmortem that the war in Iran cost Republicans control of Congress, with the former vice president contending that Americans grew frustrated not because President launched the conflict, but because his administration failed to finish it.
Pence, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, his first following the midterms, also blamed the Republicans’ midterm shellacking on the president’s economic policies, retreat from conservative principles and what he argued is an “air of corruption” surrounding the White House.
Vance, in an assessment the morning after Election Day, wrote, “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.”
The also cited an unnamed pollster in his X post who said voters who had abandoned the GOP wanted the administration to end the conflict, address inflation and the cost of living, put America first and change its relationship with Israel.
RUBIO’S DEFENSE OF TRUMP’S IRAN WAR DRAWS SHARP CONTRAST WITH VANCE’S MIDTERM BLAME
Asked about Vance’s assessment, , “I disagree with the vice president about the reasons for the midterm election outcome.”
“There’s no question that the war in Iran became a frustration for millions of Americans, but it wasn’t because President Trump started the war or took on Iran. It’s because we stopped short and didn’t finish it,” Pence said. “As Americans saw the politics of appeasement that the administration embraced, one negotiation after another, I think people became… frustrated with the lack of progress, frustrated with the price of fuel at the pump.”
But the former vice president emphasized “the reasons for this midterm election were much more complex than gasoline prices or the war in Iran. So, I respectfully disagree with my successor in that regard.”
Pence added that he has “great concerns about what I’ve heard coming out of the vice president’s office with regard to Israel.”
“If the world knows nothing else, the world should know that America stands with Israel. Israel is our most cherished ally. It is the only democracy in the Arab world,” Pence a longtime strong supporter of Israel, emphasized.
Pence said he’s “very troubled at the way that criticism of Israel on the left and on the right collapses too often into antisemitism and antisemitic rhetoric. There’s no place in America for antisemitism on the left or on the right and the people that are wringing their hands about U.S. support for Israel, I get the feeling sometimes they’re just using that as a thinly veiled excuse for their antisemitism.”
A Vance ally, responding to Pence’s criticism, told Fox News Digital, “Former Vice President Pence had to retreat into the think tank world because his politics never developed past the Bush-era neocon warmongering that dragged us into the Middle East in the first place. He is laughably out of touch with how people feel in the real world.”
Pence, who served as vice president in Trump’s first term, pointed to the president’s second term tariffs, the administration’s handling of abortion medication and the first family’s growing wealth as factors in the GOP’s electoral defeat, arguing that Republicans must return to traditional conservative principles to reclaim their congressional majorities.
While the high cost of living and the war in Iran were key issues in the mi
