“Anyone who attacks my wife, whether their name is Jen Psaki [the former Biden press secretary] or Nick Fuentes, can eat s**t,” US Vice President JD Vance gave a befitting reply to all those online extremists who had targeted Usha Vance added that this is his official policy. After months of pressure to disavow white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes and his Groyper supporters, America’s first millennial vice president has finally dropped the diplomatic filter. In an exclusive interview with UnHerd on Friday, the VP said that an antisemitism, and all forms of ethnic hatred have no place in the conservative movement.Vance, America’s first millennial veep, spoke in his library at the Naval Observatory on the eve of the Christmas vacation, dressed in a button-down shirt and fleece vest amid leather-bound volumes and his memoir Hillbilly Elegy displayed on the shelves. He argued that Fuentes’s influence within Donald Trump’s administration and on the broader Right was “vastly overstated” by those seeking to avoid discussing US policy towards Israel. “That is, the Hitler‐praising Groyper king functions as a useful foil for pro-Israel hard-liners in the Right’s raucous internal debate over America’s alliance with the Jewish state,” he said. He noted that the debate reached a peak at a recent Turning Point USA conference, where Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson clashed with Steve Bannon and Megyn Kelly. Vance said he had not yet viewed the duelling speeches but welcomed the exchange. In his address to the organisation he rejected “purity tests”. Defending Carlson, he said, “Tucker’s a friend of mine […] The idea that his views are somehow completely anathema to conservatism…is frankly absurd.” He accused some figures of “gatekeeping” and seeking to “settle their own ideological scores” on Middle East policy. “I happen to believe that Israel is an important ally…and that there are certain things that we are certainly going to work together on. But we are also going to have very substantive disagreements with Israel, and that is OK.” Regarding Fuentes’s promotion of white racial politics and use of the N-word, Vance acknowledged concern but said “other offenders” who discriminated against white men in college admissions and jobs had gone unchecked. “If you believe racism is bad, Fuentes should occupy one second of your focus…and the people with actual political power who worked so hard to discriminate against white men should occupy many hours of it.” On immigration, Vance blamed rapid increases under the Biden administration for eroding social cohesion. “Ethnic rivalry and balkanisation is the inevitable consequence of these things. You do not have to think it is a good thing, I certainly do not, but it is a predictable consequence.” When asked about his own children, he said his half white, half South Asian offspring faced discrimination under race-based affirmative action. “It pisses me off that Fuentes calls my kids ‘jeet’, and I appreciate that Ro Khanna would never do that. You know what pisses me off a million times more? That Ro Khanna, AOC, and Chris Murphy would deny them jobs and opportunities because they have the wrong skin colour.” On the concept of Heritage Americans, Vance rejected purely genetic definitions and endorsed a mixture of credal nationalism and cultural assimilation. “Do I think that somebody who came to the United States fifteen minutes ago has the same understanding of American culture and American identity as somebody whose family has been here for ten generations? No.” He said America’s national project was “very unusual” in asserting “the fundamental dignity and equality of every human being” and insisted that all naturalised citizens receive equal treatment: “Whether you got your citizenship an hour ago, or your family got citizenship ten generations ago, we have to treat all Americans equally.” Vance argued that Christianity provided a common moral language crucial to national unity. “With the exception of Jefferson and a couple of others, most of our Founding Fathers were devout Christians…There is a lot about Christianity that is very useful, even if you are not a Christian.” He regarded the rise of figures like Fuentes as “symptoms” of deeper issues, warning that moral denunciation alone would not resolve them. It remains to be seen whether his approach to immigration and national identity can be translated into responsible policy in the coming years.
