A new New Hampshire primary poll points to an early shake-up in the 2028 presidential race, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) leading the Democratic field while Secretary of State Marco Rubio gains ground on Vice President JD Vance among Republicans.
<a href="https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1982&amp;amp;context=survey_center_polls">The Granite State Poll,</a> conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, shows the Democratic socialist leading the hypothetical Democratic field with 22% support, narrowly ahead of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at 21%. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) placed third with 9%. 
Notably, the quarterly survey showed support slipping sharply for several other potential Democratic contenders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Newsom&#8217;s support in the Granite State fell from 15% in February to just 8% in July. Harris, the failed 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, also saw her support cut in half, falling from 10% in February to 5% in July. 
“Nearly half of socialists and one-third of progressives support Ocasio-Cortez, while pluralities of liberals and moderates support Buttigieg,” the polling report said. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
New Hampshire poll of Republican primary voters on 2028 has shifted a lot since February, when it was 53% JD Vance to 7% Marco Rubio.
It is now 36% JD Vance to 26% Marco Rubio. <a href="https://t.co/kuYmt317j4">pic.twitter.com/kuYmt317j4</a>
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) <a href="https://x.com/BrentScher/status/2079979408043979096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
New Hampshire remains one of the nation&#8217;s most closely watched political battlegrounds, with its early primary serving as a crucial measure of presidential candidates&#8217; viability on the national stage. 
On the Republican side, the poll showed support for Vice President Vance slipping significantly. About 36% of likely GOP primary voters backed Vance, down sharply from 53% in February. Rubio appeared to capitalize on the shift, more than tripling his support from 7% to 26%.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley tied for third place at 8%. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finished fifth with 6%, followed by former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard with 4%. 
Despite his decline, Vance enjoyed the highest favorability rating among New Hampshire Republican primary voters. The survey found GOP voters overwhelmingly want the party&#8217;s next nominee to build on President Donald Trump&#8217;s agenda, while only 28% said they preferred a candidate who would take the party in a different direction.
Neither Vance nor Rubio has publicly announced a presidential campaign. Still, Trump&#8217;s endorsement could prove decisive. More than 40% of Republican primary voters surveyed said his backing would significantly influence their vote.

Earth Day event in Virginia

A New 2028 Poll Just Shook Up Both Parties

2028

2028 presidential election

Democrats

Gavin Newsom

JD Vance

Kamala Harris

Marco Rubio

Mark Kelly

New Hampshire

News

Pete Buttigieg

Politics

Republicans

For a left preaching tolerance, the emotionally stunted quackery emanating from the mouths of &#8220;I’ve Had It&#8221; podcast hosts Jennifer Welch and the cackling, near-mute sidekick Angie “Pumps” Sullivan proves it’s a pants-on-fire farce.
On Monday, Welch promulgated a conspiracy theory from the bowels of her Luciferian sense of punditry that Vice President JD Vance and Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk are far more than just friends.
Welch extrapolated the Vances deciding to have a fourth child following Charlie’s assassination as something beyond the regret Erika had about only having two children:
<blockquote>
I want to remind you guys that Erika Kirk practically dry humped the vice president on stage at one of those Turning Point events. You remember the way she, like, grabbed his head and how excited she was to see him, and everybody’s like, oh my God, are they screwing? Like that energy is weird. Well then, a couple of months later, Usha ends up pregnant. Like, the timing of all of that, could you imagine if Kamala was embracing somebody like that on the stage somewhere &#8230; Look at that. You don’t hug a person. You’re not screwing and grow up with her hair like that.
</blockquote>
“JD Vance is a weird guy. I mean, he is so weird. The relationship is with Usha is weird, roping in Erika Kirk into their relationship that she’s there, like — what — birthing coach or something. I mean, that was some weird sh*t,” she later added.
Despite the vitriol, they’ve been heralded by elite media. Welch has been given hero’s welcomes by ABC’s &#8220;The View,&#8221; CNN’s Dana Bash, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, to name a few. And there’s been utter silence from this crowd about the comments.
But this wasn’t the first time Welch and Sullivan went after the Vance family.
During a November 2025 show, Joy Reid <a href="https://x.com/CurtisHouck/status/1993401409103184331">told</a> the cackling quacks that the vice president will divorce Usha if he truly wants to become president and instead marry Erika Kirk because MAGA “can’t have the successor” to Trump “be the guy with the brown, Hindu wife.”
“And he’s playing slap and tickle with Erica Kirk, the weirdest sh*t I’ve ever seen,” Welch declared, to which Reid said Charlie’s widow dispensed with “widow wear” in search of her “MAGA fairy tale.”
“But wouldn’t it be the most perfect fairy tale — MAGA fairy tale if he finally sees the light that he needs a white queen instead of this brown Hindu? I mean, I’m not saying that’s happening,” Reid said.
Yes, Welch believes the Vances had another child because something untoward happened last year involving the vice president.
When you’re resorting to demented nightmares that might give the National Enquirer pause, you know you’re far more than just a prepubescent lunchroom bully.
Welch addressed the new lamb for the Vance family a second time, except this time with the vacuous Sullivan alongside. She told listeners this fourth “mixed-race child” could fall prey to ICE because of their father’s support for “the Kavanaugh rule &#8230; that ICE can pull somebody over that ‘looks suspicious.’”
Because of this, she asserted Vance “will not stand up for [his] own kids.”
Sullivan wasn’t to be left out, declaring Vance a “failed” father and husband.
Dovetail this with her ongoing shtick that widespread numbers of MAGA men are closeted, and you have proof that, for the Left, homophobia and racism are not only okay, but accepted so long as it’s framed and delivered in a manner that would make Regina George blush.
Welch and her clapping seal of a sidekick <a href="https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2025/10/29/former-guest-view-demands-dems-get-board-gop-assassinations">asserted</a> on October 27, 2025, that Democrats need to “get on board” with the “shift” toward political assassinations or MAGA will be “coming after you.”
A month later in the Reid episode, they <a href="https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2025/11/25/joy-reid-joins-miserable-libs-smearing-p-show-pony-jennings-jihad">said</a> MAGA is willing to “commit jihad” for “proto-fascist” Trump and thus are incapable of being “patriotic.”
To their delight, Reid asserted: “The fear is that if you don’t obey [Trump], his cult will try to kill you &#8230; MAGA supporters are armed to the teeth. They are rabid in their support of him, and it’s a religion.”
Welch told &#8220;The View&#8221; in February 2025 she and Sullivan perceive &#8220;I’ve Had It&#8221; as “authentic trash talking” and “counterprogramming to the toxic positivity culture.”
But with &#8220;I’ve Had It,&#8221; defamatory allegations are in, along with homophobia so long as the accused gay is a Republican.
They frequently refer to Speaker Mike Johnson as “Moses Mike Grindr Johnson,” insisting outright he and other Hill Republicans are fervent homosexuals.
In the same show with Reid, they declared without evidence the Epstein Files proved the president <a href="https://x.com/CurtisHouck/status/1993723159397499162">has given</a> blowjobs.
For their funhouse mirror dystopia, gay jokes are in, but say “illegal immigrant,” and that’s on-par with the n-word.
And I haven’t even touched their comments about homeschooling as <a href="https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2026/07/15/vile-podcast-smears-homeschooling-evil-child-abuse-trickle-down">“trickle-down stupidity”</a> and <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2026/07/21/affairs-and-ice-harming-babies-witch-welch-uncorks-new-smears-kirk">“a patriarchal step of the fascist project”</a> overseen by people who are “f*cking weird as f*ck that you want your kids around you all day, every day, and all night.”
Despite all this, they’re the new cool kids.
They’ve welcomed on fellow liberal podcasters such as Jim Acosta, Don Lemon, Sam Seder, and Emma Vigeland, fellow liberals such as Brooke Baldwin, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Daily Beast editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, Leigh McGowan, David Rothkopf, Al Sharpton, Jason Stanley, Kara Swisher, and even members of Congress such as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Simply put, they’re not going anywhere, so it’s past time someone took these miserable psychopaths to court for defamation.
***
Curtis Houck is the managing editor of NewsBusters.

One Story. One Future: GLAAD Celebrates Pride 2025

Cackling, Racist Quack Jennifer Welch Is The Face Of The Democratic Party

Angie Sullivan

DW Opinion

Erika Kirk

I've Had It

Jennifer Welch

Leftists

Usha Vance

The Treasury Department said Tuesday that it prevented nearly $100 million in welfare payments to dead people, thanks to new fraud prevention measures implemented by the Trump administration. 
Since March 2025, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department had identified 4,900 payments worth $99 million that were slated to go to dead people. The payments never went out because they were flagged for review after the department implemented new payment verification policies. 
“Treasury has delivered on a key promise of President Trump’s mandate to stop improper payments and fraud before money leaves the Treasury, and strengthen the integrity of the federal payment system,” Bessent <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0569">said</a> in a statement. “Together with Vice President Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, this new safeguard addresses a longstanding vulnerability and helps ensure every dollar the federal government spends reaches its intended recipient.”
The payments were identified as the department screened 885 million payments worth about $2.77 trillion.
Bessent said the screening took place because the department has increased access to the Social Security Administration’s death master file, making it easier to identify deceased payees. He also pointed to the adoption of the Do Not Pay program, which <a href="https://fiscal.treasury.gov/payment-integrity/do-not-pay-dnp/about">requires</a> identity verification, eligibility confirmation, and bank account information before any payment is doled out. 
“Treasury will continue efforts to modernize the federal payment system, strengthen safeguards against fraud and improper payments, and protect taxpayer dollars,” Bessent said. 
In his first few months back in office, President Donald Trump signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/protecting-americas-bank-account-against-fraud-waste-and-abuse/">executive order</a> aimed at empowering the Treasury Department to identify fraud. Trump’s executive order noted that the Government Accountability Office estimates that the government loses between $233 and $521 billion every year in fraud. 
“This order promotes financial integrity by enabling the Department of the Treasury to more easily conduct improper payment and fraud prevention screening prior to disbursing funds on behalf of agencies,” Trump directed in March 2025. “This order increases transparency and accountability by requiring agencies to provide the Department of the Treasury with the information needed to track transactions through the General Fund in greater detail.”
The Trump administration has brought a strong emphasis on combating fraud with the White House creating a new task force under Vice President JD Vance focused on tackling the issue. The task force opened up an investigation in Ohio after The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-massive-anti-fraud-strike-force-lands-in-ohio?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump’s+Massive+Anti-Fraud+Strike+Force+Lands+In+Ohio">reported</a> on spurious entities being paid millions for so-called home health care services.

IMG_5307

The Shocking Payments To Dead People Trump Just Stopped

Department of the Treasury

Donald Trump

Scott Bessent

waste fraud abuse

Welfare

This is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qan5KnvolrM">monologue</a> by Mark Halperin adapted for The Daily Wire by permission from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@NextUpHalperin">Next Up With Mark Halperin</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@2WAYdotTV">2WAY</a>.
***
Israel has become such a defining issue within both parties, but primarily within the Democratic Party. That was put in sharp relief this past week when Mr. Massie of Kentucky, a Republican, put forward a bill that would have cut off aid to Israel. And he&#8217;s the only Republican who voted for his own bill.
Every other Republican voted no. The Democrats in the House were split down the middle. Half the Democrats voted yes. Half the Democrats voted no. Amongst those voting to cut off aid to Israel was the number two Democrat in the House, Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, and AOC. This divides both parties, but it&#8217;s an issue the Democratic Party&#8217;s dealing with, and it&#8217;s also an issue that Israel&#8217;s going to have to deal with, and Israel supporters in the United States are going to have to deal with. I can&#8217;t tell you how often I hear this — hours after the vote from American supporters of Israel, including some members of Congress who are crestfallen by this. Both sides, both the people who voted to cut off aid to Israel and those who support that position and those who think it&#8217;s a horrible vote, both sides are calling this a watershed.
Why is this happening, and what is its significance? First, here are a couple of House Democrats who voted to cut off aid to Israel and their explanation about this moment. Here&#8217;s Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), “Think about this just for a moment. Starting today, a majority of Democrats in this building refused to vote to send billions of dollars in weapons to the Israeli military.”
A young congressman from Texas who clearly is proud about the fact that half the Democrats voted to cut off aid. Here&#8217;s another member of Congress. This is Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) explaining why she voted that way as well:
<blockquote>
One issue facing the Democratic Caucus this week is a piece of legislation by Thomas Massie on Israel cutting off funding $3 billion worth of aid to Israel. Yes. Where do you stand on that? I&#8217;ll be voting for it. How come? Well, because the Israelis are out of control. Lebanon, Gaza. There&#8217;s no reason for us to continue to make these investments at this time.
</blockquote>
Now, she&#8217;s from Illinois. These two representatives, part of half the Democrats in the House, including Nancy Pelosi, including AOC, who said something to the extent of, &#8220;Well, the amendment was flawed. It wasn&#8217;t a perfect piece of legislation, but they all felt they needed to send a signal.&#8221; Now, part of this is about Israel now, about Benjamin Netanyahu now, about what&#8217;s happened in Israel recently with Gaza. But part of it is broader than that. Part of it is a broader view of foreign policy and American aid, but part of it is a belief that the relationship with Israel has to change. And for those supporters of Israel, this is a watershed; this is a huge moment. Here&#8217;s a quote from Josh Gottheimer. He&#8217;s a Democrat congressman from New Jersey who voted very much against this piece of legislation. Josh Gottheimer is probably amongst the most pro-Israel members of Congress.
Here&#8217;s what he said in the New York Times. “Supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship is quickly becoming a minority view among congressional Democrats.” A shockingly seismic shift in a brief period of time.
Here&#8217;s Amy Siskind&#8217;s view. She&#8217;s a writer and a pro-Israel person on the Left. Here is her <a href="https://x.com/Amy_Siskind/status/2077563273000411614?s=20">tweet</a>, which really captures the views of many people in her party who oppose this piece of legislation:
<blockquote>
What a politically astute move by Thomas Massie for bringing this anti-Israel vote up in the House because he is a conservative Republican with blind ambition and 2028 aspirations. And he knows this issue will split the Democratic Party in half, which it literally did. Republicans voted unanimously against it and Democrats were split in half.
Ro Khanna, who&#8217;s a congressman from California, more about him in a moment, who morphs himself with the ease of J.D. Vance and his equally blind ambition was all too happy to comply and go along and to put Democrats on the record.
I hope and pray that Bibi loses in the election later this year because Lord, help us as this is still an issue ahead of 2028. It will be that wedge that will split our party in half. And if a normal Republican runs like a Rubio, we will lose the presidency. Mark my words. Those of you who are seemingly in this fever dream who have made this your number one issue in litmus test, take note. You are going to take down our party with you and our chances of winning back the White House in 2028.
</blockquote>
That seems perhaps premature, maybe cataclysmic to some, but I hear that from so many Democrats who aren&#8217;t as open about their fears as Amy Siskind is, because this issue really has become the hottest of hot buttons. We&#8217;ve seen how much this has tied Democrats in knots. We&#8217;ve seen how divided it&#8217;s made the party.
And we&#8217;ve seen how afraid Democrats who might want to run for president are of the pro-Palestinian, in some cases, pro-Hamas wing of their party. The group AIPAC, which has been the biggest supporter of Israel, is on the run. They&#8217;ve become a hot-button issue and an anvil around the necks of supporters of Israel. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) went to Israel and was in a confrontation with the Israeli military forces and settlers there. It made news. He has become the face — the poster child — of Democratic politicians who previously were friendly to Israel, now very hostile to Israel, adopting the description of what Israel has done in Gaza, calling it genocide. Ro Khanna went on <a href="https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/ro-khanna-jeremy-scahill-debate-israel-west-bank-resistance-fifa-world-cup">Drop Site News</a> and talked to reporters there, including a guy named Jeremy Scahill, about whether he would condemn those who would kill Israeli soldiers. I guarantee you that 10 years ago, Ro Khanna would&#8217;ve answered that question effortlessly.
This exchange has gotten wide currency amongst lots of people, including pro-Israel folks, as Ro Khanna struggles in this interview to answer what is no longer a simple question, apparently:
<blockquote>
SCAHILL: Military bases in the Gaza envelope. Did the Al-Qassam Brigades[…]have a right to kill Israeli soldiers? Yes or no? On October 7th, did Palestinians have a right to attack Israeli military bases in the Gaza Strip? Yes or no?
KHANNA: I mean, I think October 7th attack was a terrorist attack, so I don&#8217;t justify…
SCAHILL: Was it a terrorist attack when the first targets that were hit on the morning of October 7th were multiple military bases? Did Palestinian forces have a right to attack those military bases?
KHANNA: I am not for violent violence in any way. I mean, I am for making sure that we end the occupation.
SCAHILL: Did they have a right to do it, Congressman? Did they have a right to attack Israeli soldiers?
KHANNA: No, I&#8217;m not going to say that Hamas had a right to attack Israeli soldiers or kill Israelis. I don&#8217;t think that advances peace or advances Palestinian statehood.
</blockquote>
The fact that he struggled to answer that question, “Did Hamas have the right to kill Israeli soldiers?” So many people, as I said, have pointed out the struggle there to me. Leaders of the Democratic Party who are pro-Israel are either flipping, like Nancy Pelosi (Again, she downplayed her vote by saying the amendment was flawed, but they&#8217;re flipping to a position that really bothers pro-Israel folks), who has been such a staunch ally of Israel, including fundraising by pro-Jewish Americans. Nancy Pelosi and Ro Khanna have both moved. And yet Ro Khanna couldn&#8217;t answer that simple question. Here&#8217;s Rahm Emanuel, who went to Israel and gave a speech that was at times supportive of Israel and at times critical of Israel. Here he is in an interview after that widely discussed speech, talking about his own view of where things stand and the kind of problem Israel has.
<blockquote>
INTERVIEWER: There’s a different conversation within the Democratic Party about whether Israel should be allowed to buy weapons, even defensive weapons. What do you make of that?
EMANUEL: I want this to get across. Israel does not have a problem in the Democratic Party. Israel has a problem in America, and very specifically, a generational problem under 30.
INTERVIEWER: Are you the most acceptable thing, pro-Israel, acceptable in the Democratic Party today?
EMANUEL: Well, look, I consider myself pro-American, but there&#8217;s been a change in some elements of the party, and it&#8217;s a change because what&#8217;s happened and how things have played out have changed. I don&#8217;t support the Democratic socialists. I don&#8217;t support people that believe in open borders. And I also don&#8217;t support people that were celebrating on October 8th.
</blockquote>
So Rahm Emanuel&#8217;s a very smart guy, and he&#8217;s right. This is not just a Democrat problem. Although make no mistake, Israel has a big problem with the Democratic Party because the Democratic Party, in large part, has a big problem with Israel. But it is a problem with younger people, and it is a problem that therefore strains all of America, including the vice president. JD Vance, who has been one of the leading voices on this issue. When Republicans say, &#8220;Well, all our problems with Israel are with podcasters and bloggers and people on social media.” Israel&#8217;s got a problem with JD Vance. JD Vance, in an interview with Joe Rogan last week, said a number of things that no previous vice president would&#8217;ve said. In fact, Kamala Harris wouldn&#8217;t say these things in the presidential campaign, and it hurt her quite a bit. It hurt her quite a bit with the wing of her party, whose views of Israel have changed as Josh Gottheimer said so quickly and so dramatically; a lot of this is about Netanyahu.
A lot of this is about Gaza, but some of it is for the members of the Democratic Party who voted the way they did with Nancy Pelosi; some of this is for people in the Republican Party who feel the way JD Vance does about Israel&#8217;s sustained influence in the United States. Like many countries, Israel has influence in the United States. Israel gets aid from the United States, like many countries. I urge you to listen to the totality of what JD Vance said in his interview with Rogan about Israel. Listen to the whole thing. It&#8217;s interesting. But this is not out of context — as I&#8217;m about to show you. This is JD Vance saying things about Israel, which Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Dick Cheney — no previous American vice president or president would have said. And it&#8217;s another indication, along with the vote in the House, of how much things have changed.
This is JD Vance with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtxyvD58eDg">Joe Rogan</a>:
<blockquote>
VANCE: There are some people within their system we know beyond a shadow of a doubt who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely. But I definitely think you have seen this very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation and try to derail the deal. And again, there&#8217;s this Time article that came out yesterday, a friend sent it to me. It&#8217;s like worth reading because it lists a bunch of people who have quite literally been paid by a former Trump campaign person who was himself paid by certain elements within the Israeli government. And those people are attacking me viciously for quite literally trying to accomplish the negotiation objective that the president set for the country. What bothers me is actually when Americans allow, meaning American leadership, allows that influence to affect their judgment and to affect what they are advocating for.
</blockquote>
Again, I&#8217;m not saying he&#8217;s right or wrong. Factually, there&#8217;s support for some of the things he&#8217;s saying. But you see now in Rahm Emanuel and in JD Vance — Rahm Emanuel, longtime supporter of Israel, but as he&#8217;ll tell you, a critic of Bibi Netanyahu from the past — you see a change in where this debate is in America. In both parties, there&#8217;s an audience that&#8217;s loud and angry and visible that wants the relationship with Israel to change and believes it has to change. Now, some people say, maybe this will cool off after Netanyahu is out of office, and he might be out of office this year. But other people I&#8217;ve talked to say, no, this is bigger than Bibi Netanyahu. And it&#8217;s become a fetish for folks. Now I will say this: this is such an emotional issue. I have people in my life so pro-Israel that this period with young people and with members of Congress is amongst the most painful things they&#8217;ve seen in the National Town Square.
And then I have people in my life who say, &#8220;This is wonderful because the relationship with Israel has been so dysfunctional.&#8221; Vance said something else to Rogan that I think is also extraordinary and I think speaks to where this conversation should go. I don&#8217;t know that it will. Here&#8217;s JD Vance, I think, being accurate, and it could apply equally to Rahm Emanuel. Here&#8217;s JD Vance talking about where he thinks he should be seen as standing on Israel:
<blockquote>
VANCE: People don&#8217;t realize this. I&#8217;m actually in this&#8230; There&#8217;s this massive pro-Israel, anti-Israel debate in the United States of America. I&#8217;m like the reasonable moderate.
</blockquote>
The reasonable moderate. And you know what? It&#8217;s the truest thing he said in the interview because he is. He is like Rahm Emanuel and like some other people in both parties; he recognizes there&#8217;s no position that&#8217;s going to lead us to a better place and a stronger alliance with Israel.
There is either the AIPAC position or the traditional position of being with Israel, no matter what. And there&#8217;s no progress to be made in the position on the other side, against Israel, no matter what. The United States and Israel need to be allies. There needs to be a military-to-military relationship of some sort. There needs to be a cultural and economic relationship. But what we need is a productive discussion that isn&#8217;t just red-hot rhetoric in Congress, on social media, or the kind of interview we saw Ro Khanna do. What we need is people who are reasonable moderates on this issue.
They&#8217;re not the only voices that should be at the table. The pro-Israel voices should and will be at the table. The pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas voices will be at the table. But what we need is a conversation led by people like JD Vance and Rahm Emanuel, who are positing the existence of a reasonable moderate position here, who are positing an understanding of the way it was and the way some people want it to be.
I underestimated this issue. Several months ago, when people told me this would be the dominant issue in the Democratic nomination fight in 2028, and that it would be a huge general election issue, the Republican nominee for president would also be under pressure to take a different position. I didn&#8217;t believe it. And now I&#8217;ve probably over-corrected. Now I see just how emotional this is, just how powerful it is, crystallized by that vote in the House, crystallized by that exchange with Ro Khanna, crystallized by the reaction to Rahm Emanuel&#8217;s speech in Israel, and crystallized by the words the vice president of the United States making an open accusation about Israel, that there are forces within the Israeli government, Israeli society who don&#8217;t want the war to end and are using their influence to try to keep the war going.
That&#8217;s an extraordinary claim for anyone of influence to make, even more so from the vice president of the United States. I&#8217;m going to keep reporting on this story because it is not going away.
***
Mark Halperin is an American journalist, political commentator, author, and founder of the interactive media platform 2WAY. He previously was political director for ABC News, where he also edited the Washington, D.C., newsletter The Note.

Israel and USA grunge flags connection vector

What Explains The Seismic Democratic Shift On Israel?

Israel

Ro Khanna

President Donald Trump shared the first photo Monday morning of the new baby boy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jd-and-usha-vance-welcome-first-vice-presidential-baby-in-over-150-years?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Brecca+Stoll&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=JD+And+Usha+Vance+Welcome+First+Vice+Presidential+Baby+In+Over+150+Years">welcomed</a> by the Vance family.
“Congratulations! A perfect baby boy for the wonderful Vance family,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday alongside a photo of two of the older Vance children holding their new baby brother. 
&nbsp;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1138251" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-20-at-6.51.41-AM.png" alt="" width="1523" height="1145" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-20-at-6.51.41-AM.png 1523w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-20-at-6.51.41-AM-300x226.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-20-at-6.51.41-AM-766x576.png 766w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-20-at-6.51.41-AM-768x577.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1523px) 100vw, 1523px" /></div>
&nbsp;
Trump’s congratulatory post comes after Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jd-and-usha-vance-welcome-first-vice-presidential-baby-in-over-150-years?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Brecca+Stoll&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=JD+And+Usha+Vance+Welcome+First+Vice+Presidential+Baby+In+Over+150+Years">announced</a> the birth of Alec Neel Vance on Sunday. 
“Usha and the baby are happy and healthy, and our kids are overjoyed to meet their little brother,” Vance said. “The incredible military doctors and staff members of Walter Reed Medical Center and the White House Medical Unit have been a blessing. We are deeply thankful for all they have done for our family.”
The Vance’s other kids include Ewan (9), Vivek (6), and Mirabel (4). 
No child has been born to a sitting vice president since a son was born in 1870 to Vice President Schuyler Colfax during President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration.
The Vances previously discussed how the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was close to the vice president, influenced their decision to have another child. In the aftermath of Kirk’s death, Erika Kirk told Usha that she had regretted not having more children.
“I think it really heightened JD’s sense that he’d been talking about this for a while, this sense that there was this possibility of having another kid whom he could love as much as the three that we had,” Usha <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/jd-vances-wife-usha-details-how-charlie-kirks-death-influenced-decision-have-fourth-child">said</a>. “It really did crystallize for [him], that sense that if you could have that other child, then you would have nothing to regret. And if we couldn’t have that other child, then we were very happy with the children that we had. So it was very powerful what she said about her own family and certainly very moving to both of us.”
Vance is not expected to take any formal time off, but will work more from the vice president’s residence.

US-REPUBLICAN-CONVENTION-PARTIES-ELECTION-POLITICS-VOTE-TRUMP

First Photo Of ‘Perfect’ New Vance Baby Shared By Trump

baby

Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance welcomed their fourth child on Sunday. 
Alec Neel Vance was born Sunday morning at Walter Reed Medical Center. “Usha and the baby are happy and healthy, and our kids are overjoyed to meet their little brother,” Vance said on Sunday. Alec Neel Vance joins older brothers Ewan and Vivek and older sister Mirabel.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://t.co/VMCGCCRd7s">pic.twitter.com/VMCGCCRd7s</a>
— JD Vance (@JDVance) <a href="https://x.com/JDVance/status/2078962245216731298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
Alec Neel Vance&#8217;s birth marks the first time in more than 150 years that a sitting vice president has welcomed a newborn. The last baby born to a sitting vice president was Vice President Schuyler Colfax&#8217;s son, born in 1870 during President Ulysses S. Grant&#8217;s administration.
Alec Vance is the second baby born to a top Trump administration official in recent months after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gave birth to a baby girl in May. When Vance subbed in for Leavitt one day at the briefing room podium during Leavitt&#8217;s maternity leave, he joked that she would be vice president for a couple weeks when he welcomes his baby. 
Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was the most recent sitting cabinet member to welcome a child while in office, and he took a two-month paternity leave after he and his husband adopted twins in 2021. Vance, however, has said he will not be taking formal paternity leave from office. Instead, he will spend more time at home as he continues his official duties. 
Vance revealed in his new book that the assassination of his friend Charlie Kirk last year, helped influence his and Usha&#8217;s decision to have a fourth child. The vice president’s latest book “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith” describes sitting next to widowed Erika Kirk with Usha after Kirk’s assassination as Erika Kirk told Usha “between sobs” that she wished she had had more kids with Charlie. Vance said that although a fourth child was already a discussion between him and Usha, “something changed” that day. 
&#8220;I think it really heightened JD&#8217;s sense that he&#8217;d been talking about this for a while, this sense that there was this possibility of having another kid whom he could love as much as the three that we had,&#8221; Usha <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/jd-vances-wife-usha-details-how-charlie-kirks-death-influenced-decision-have-fourth-child">said</a>. &#8220;It really did crystallize for [him], that sense that if you could have that other child, then you would have nothing to regret. And if we couldn&#8217;t have that other child, then we were very happy with the children that we had. So it was very powerful what she said about her own family and certainly very moving to both of us.&#8221;

President Trump And First Lady Melania Trump Host Military Mother’s Day Event At The White House

JD And Usha Vance Welcome First Vice Presidential Baby In Over 150 Years

Trump Administration

Vice President JD Vance sat down with prominent Catholic theologian Bishop Robert Barron this week to discuss his new book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back.” The conversation ranged far beyond typical book tour talking points, touching on Vatican diplomacy, artificial intelligence, faith, and family life. 
The most candid moment of the discussion came when Vance reflected on a Vatican meeting that followed his conversation with Pope Francis shortly before the pope&#8217;s death. As he did previously, Vance reiterated that the discussion never moved beyond surface-level diplomatic language.
&#8220;It just felt like [Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Gallagher] didn&#8217;t want to move past the diplomatic platitudes,&#8221; Vance told Barron. He recalled Vatican officials telling him the Church &#8220;would really prefer that you show more respect for the dignity of the migrant,” but argued that was something everyone already believed.
&#8220;There is an impulse within the church that is very comfortable in dealing with the highest level of generality because then it&#8217;s not challenging to anybody,&#8221; Vance said, adding that he believes &#8220;the current hierarchy is way too uncomfortable dealing with anything other than abstraction.&#8221;
Vance said he hopes that changes under Pope Leo XIV, whom he described as &#8220;a brilliant guy&#8221; and &#8220;clearly a very holy man.&#8221; He acknowledged the pope would likely criticize some Trump administration policies but said he welcomed the dialogue and didn’t believe the Church and the administration had to agree on everything.
“I think again there is this demand that you treat people with dignity… There&#8217;s also an acceptance, maybe even endorsement, of the fact that nations are allowed to control their borders,&#8221; Vance said. &#8220;How do you balance these things when controlling your borders inevitably leads to law enforcement operations that sometimes can create issues? That&#8217;s the balance that we fundamentally have to strike.”
Much of “Communion” deals with Vance&#8217;s admission that he spent his younger years &#8220;worshipping success&#8221; while attending Yale Law School.
&#8220;The social currency is credential,&#8221; Vance told Barron. &#8220;People don&#8217;t care about what you&#8217;ve achieved. They don&#8217;t care about what you&#8217;re going to achieve. They don&#8217;t care about your family.&#8221; He contrasted that with the community he grew up in, where &#8220;the thing that people were most interested in you is how are your kids doing.&#8221;
“And yet at Yale it was who is going to get ahead in this game of life. And I found that very unsatisfying,” he added.
Vance made the distinction between being ambitious and what he now sees as the disordered pursuit of success. 
&#8220;There&#8217;s the ambition to do something amazing or to do something transformative or to help a lot of people or to build a beautiful building,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But there&#8217;s a separate kind of ambition… which is like the desire to just get ahead for its own sake.&#8221;
Barron and Vance spent a significant portion of the conversation discussing French philosopher René Girard and his theory of mimetic desire, the idea that people desire things because others desire them.
&#8220;Once you see it… it&#8217;s very hard to unsee it,&#8221; Vance said, describing how it happens at home with his kids. &#8220;My 9-year-old will pick up a toy that none of the kids have played with in six months. And instantly, all of them want that toy.&#8221;
Vance argued that social media makes mimetic desire spread faster.
 &#8220;Because it sets that desire aflame and makes it spread so rapidly, it also makes the conflict side of it spread so rapidly,&#8221; he said, recalling watching friends on Facebook &#8220;get into arguments on the internet&#8221; and thinking, &#8220;these are two really lovely human beings that are calling each other these terrible names.&#8221;
The two also discussed Pope Leo XIII&#8217;s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, a foundational document of Catholic social teaching. Vance said the document was impressive for trying to strike a balance between two extremes rather than picking a side.
&#8220;He&#8217;s very worried that if we don&#8217;t strike the right balance between human dignity and prosperity, between workers and capital owners, that it&#8217;s going to inevitably lead to this conflict,&#8221; Vance said of Leo XIII. He argued the encyclical rejects both the Marxist assumption that class conflict is inevitable and the libertarian belief that there is no conflict. 
&#8220;There can be a real compromise,&#8221; he said.
Vance argued that same philosophy also separates President Donald Trump&#8217;s economic approach from the Reagan era. 
&#8220;What President Trump has brought is a recognition… that there is a national and community element to economics,&#8221; Vance said, pointing to shortages of masks and hospital gowns during the COVID pandemic.
Vance described his grandparents as &#8220;classic blue dog Democrats&#8221; and said the biggest difference between their beliefs and today’s Democratic Party is the absence of religion. 
&#8220;I do think that religion itself has become very disfavored among Democratic elites,&#8221; he said.
Later in the interview, Vance described a backstage conversation at a Turning Point USA event in which a young woman told him she and her friends were using ChatGPT to help respond to boys&#8217; text messages. 
&#8220;I realized that the technology that actually brings man and woman together successfully is the church,&#8221; Vance said. &#8220;You have young people who are using ChatGPT and they don&#8217;t want to.&#8221; 
He said the rise of AI presents an opportunity for churches to step in.  
Barron also asked Vance about his prayer life. The vice president admitted that praying consistently with young children at home can be difficult. 
&#8220;Probably 80% of the time I fail on that,&#8221; Vance said. &#8220;Either because bedtime is too chaotic or because I&#8217;m at the White House.&#8221; 
He said part of his return to Christianity involved relearning how to pray after years as an atheist. 
&#8220;It&#8217;s like when I was 17 and I would get on my knees and clasp my hands together, I would know what to say. When I was 28, I didn&#8217;t know what to say anymore.&#8221;
&#8220;You don&#8217;t have to be perfect at it,” he said of praying. &#8220;Try to just do as much as you can.&#8221;
Vance&#8217;s book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back,” is on sale now.

JD Vance Bishop Barron

EXCLUSIVE: JD Vance Tells Bishop Barron What’s Gone Wrong In America

Catholic Church

Immigration

Religion

Vice President

Vice President JD Vance&#8217;s decision to spend nearly three hours chatting with Joe Rogan on his podcast is the type of choice that drives consultants to drink more heavily than they do on a normal Wednesday. Devoting that amount of time to open questioning and long-winded theorizing about politics, culture, and conspiracy theories is a minefield for any elected politician, and one where it&#8217;s easy to create clips that will be edited and used to make half-baked arguments or warp what&#8217;s said into an unintended context.
Unfortunately for Vance, despite his well-known and much-admired communication prowess, that&#8217;s exactly what happened. On Iran, Israel, Jeffrey Epstein, and more, the vice president came across as far more interested in defending his own personal opinions than fulfilling the task of representing the Trump administration. Taken as a whole, the interview reads as if he&#8217;s already the 2028 nominee, speaking for the Republican Party he wants to manifest, not the one that currently exists under President Trump.
Time and again, the knock on this VP has been simple: He&#8217;s too online. He pays far too much attention to random social media accounts criticizing his tireless advocacy for a bad deal with Iran than he does to the possibility that the deal is, well, bad. He complained vociferously to Rogan that Israel is apparently funding some of the same people who are criticizing his deal online. But given that polls show the deal is unpopular with a significant portion of Republicans, and that only a small minority of voters think it&#8217;s a better deal for America than it is for Iran, Vance seems to be investing a gargantuan belief in the effectiveness of pro-Israel propaganda to move the needle.
Conservative Fox viewers and Daily Wire readers have never been sold on this deal, and now that it&#8217;s fallen apart, it&#8217;s something he should be eager to put in the rearview mirror — a collapse he should understand is the fault of Iran doing what Iran always does, not something he should blame on foreign manipulators. The sooner voters forget about Vance&#8217;s cheerleading for a doomed plan as his first major foray into foreign policy, the better it is for him.
For a vice president who seems to view the world more through the lens of podcasters than real life, the prescription is clear. The biggest viral trend over the past few months for American parents is in favor of giving kids a &#8220;nineties summer&#8221; — minimal screen time, maximum outdoor time, a throwback to the America where the rare moment of connecting to the internet came with the crackling sound of AOL dial-up and people focused on the real world of their neighbors and friends, long before the word &#8220;podcast&#8221; even existed. Perhaps that&#8217;s the recipe the vice president needs to reset, and get back to being the effective voice for this administration he was in its first year. Let the podcasts roll on. Everybody needs a break sometimes.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

JD Vance Is In Desperate Need Of A Nineties Summer

Foreign Policy

Iran war

Vice President JD Vance told Joe Rogan he believes the White House &#8220;mishandled&#8221; the Epstein files in an interview that aired Wednesday, and claimed Epstein had connections at the &#8220;highest levels&#8221; of both American and Israeli intelligence.
&#8220;We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files,&#8221; Vance told Rogan as the two discussed the dramatic 2025 release of the files. &#8220;We just did. But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No.&#8221;
Vance pointed to former Attorney General Pam Bondi&#8217;s claim that the &#8220;client list&#8221; was sitting on her desk — a falsehood that drew massive backlash toward the administration once it was confirmed no such list existed. Bondi&#8217;s team then offered binders of &#8220;Epstein files&#8221; to right-wing influencers that held no new information and prompted even more scrutiny.
&#8220;The effect of it was to make people distrust the entire effort,&#8221; Vance explained. &#8220;Look, I know Pam, I like Pam.  I don&#8217;t think there was anything malicious going on. I think Pam was trying to respond to the political moment. I think she overstated what we have and what we didn&#8217;t have, and I think she got roasted for it publicly, by a lot of people, including me.&#8221;
The vice president maintained that he is one of the &#8220;OG Epstein conspiracy theorists,&#8221; and has gone down every possible rabbit hole on the subject. He&#8217;s convinced that the evidence showing Epstein blackmailed influential people was destroyed back in 2006 or 2007 — or that no one ever properly gathered that evidence.
<div id="attachment_1136427" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vance-tells-joe-rogan-trump-team-mishandled-epstein-case-alleges-intel-ties/us-politics-justice-epstein-5" rel="attachment wp-att-1136427"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1136427" class="wp-image-1136427 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2201631069-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2201631069-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2201631069-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2201631069-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2201631069.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>(Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)</div>
&#8220;You go back to the original warrant back in 2008,&#8221; Vance said, pointing to Alex Acosta, who originally investigated Epstein. &#8220;What was he looking for? What was he allowed to look for? What were they collecting? It was not looking at a broader conspiracy.&#8221;
&#8220;So that happens, Epstein gets pinched. I think he goes to prison or maybe this is when he was on house arrest,&#8221; Vance explained. &#8220;Anything that existed from the 80s, 90s, up to 2006, 2007, anything that existed that we didn&#8217;t get back then, was disappeared.&#8221;
He added: &#8220;So when people say, has what you seen on the inside make you think that Epstein never blackmailed people or that Epstein never engaged in broader sex trafficking? No, absolutely not. What I have seen, and I&#8217;ve looked at most of the files, is that there just wasn&#8217;t dispositive evidence. And if that dispositive evidence ever existed, it was probably destroyed after 2006, 2007.&#8221;
Vance agreed with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles&#8217; assessment that on this topic, he is a conspiracy theorist. When Rogan pointed out that many people think Epstein was a Mossad agent, Vance lent credence to the idea.
&#8220;Yeah, Mossad or CIA or some other deep state, whether in America or Israel or another country,&#8221; he reflected. &#8220;Or both! Look he clearly had connections to the highest levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.&#8221;
Vance then admitted there was no actual evidence in the files for those claims.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve asked, were there like, were there documents connecting Jeffrey Epstein directly to our intelligence agencies or anybody else&#8217;s, and the answer is no. But if that sh*t existed, it wouldn&#8217;t exist in 2026,&#8221; Vance claimed.
&#8220;One of the reasons I&#8217;m always careful and I say there are some elements within the Israeli government who don&#8217;t like our peace process, because there are a lot of elements within the Israeli government that actually do like our peace process, they recognize that this indefinite campaign is not good for them either.&#8221;
&#8220;The Epstein thing is interesting,&#8221; he continued, &#8220;because as much as I know Prime Minister Netanyahu is not a particularly popular person in the United States of America right now, Epstein seemed to be connected to the elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of center. I&#8217;ve always found that fascinating. It wasn&#8217;t like he was super connected to the right of center of Israeli politics.&#8221;
In the United States, Vance pointed out, Epstein was connected &#8220;across the board.&#8221;
&#8220;He had Republican friends, he had Democratic friends,&#8221; the vice president said. &#8220;He had much deeper connections to the Israeli left of center than right of center, I don&#8217;t know what that means, but I find that interesting.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1136425" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vance-tells-joe-rogan-trump-team-mishandled-epstein-case-alleges-intel-ties/patrick-mcmullan-archives-43" rel="attachment wp-att-1136425"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1136425" class="wp-image-1136425 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-590696434-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-590696434-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-590696434-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-590696434-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-590696434.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>(Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)</div>
&#8220;I also just think there&#8217;s an element of, he was a scumbag, he was a very sick person, he built relationships with a lot of other rich and powerful people who just didn&#8217;t have any real moral judgement about the fact that the guy was obviously a scumbag,&#8221; Vance noted, before telling Rogan that Democrats continue to accuse the president of wrongdoing related to Epstein without any evidence.
&#8220;Who was the guy who narc&#8217;d on Epstein to the Palm Beach police?&#8221; Vance asked. &#8220;That&#8217;s in the Epstein files. It was Donald Trump!&#8221;
Asked by Rogan how the administration should have handled the matter, Vance responded that &#8220;we should have just dropped everything at the very beginning.&#8221; He acknowledged that it does take time to redact the documents when victims are involved, but they should have done it as quickly as possible.
Vance also said that he believes Epstein was absolutely trying to influence people and compromise people.
&#8220;There is a story there — I will go to my deathbed believing there is a story there, but I can&#8217;t prove it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And I promise there&#8217;s not some document, that at least I&#8217;m hiding, that allows us to prove exactly what was going on and how.&#8221;
Vance also used the interview to allege that opponents of his negotiations with Iran were being paid by Israel, referencing a <a href="https://time.com/article/2026/07/13/brad-parscale-israel-influence-operation/">TIME Magazine investigation</a> into former Trump campaign operative Brad Parscale&#8217;s paid lobbying efforts.
&#8220;I definitely think you have seen this very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation,&#8221; Vance told Rogan. &#8220;Those people are attacking me viciously for quite literally trying to accomplish the negotiation objective the president set for the country.&#8221;
&#8220;They&#8217;re leaking to reporters, they&#8217;re attacking me obsessively saying that we should not be negotiating with Iran, we should just keep the military campaign going indefinitely &#8230; people have come after me and said that I&#8217;m influenced by Qatar, that I&#8217;m influenced by foreign governments, that I take my marching orders from Tucker Carlson, there&#8217;s so much bullsh*t out there.&#8221;
&#8220;What I&#8217;m actually trying to do is accomplish what the president of the United States told me to accomplish,&#8221; Vance said.

Vice President Vance Speaks At TPUSA Event In Athens, Georgia

Vance Tells Joe Rogan Trump Team ‘Mishandled’ Epstein Case, Alleges Intel Ties

Epstein Files

Jeffrey Epstein

Joe Rogan

Pam Bondi

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance wants to boil the 2026 midterms down to a binary choice: Democrats who want to trans kids and destroy the economy, or Republicans who are making steady progress on a long list of promises. 
&#8220;We have to focus on the things that we&#8217;ve accomplished,&#8221; Vance explained. &#8220;We did come in with a historic border crisis that&#8217;s now over. We came in with a historic crime crisis. We now have violent crime in some places at century-low levels. We came in with a historic inflation crisis, and yes, prices are still too high. But we&#8217;ve made a lot of progress in curbing that inflation problem.&#8221;
The vice president reflected on the upcoming elections during a wide-ranging interview with The Daily Wire, laying out how he believes the White House and Republicans should be messaging to Americans. While Republicans should be touting the wins of the second Trump administration, they also need to remind the public that &#8220;Rome wasn&#8217;t built in a day,&#8221; he said.
One of President Donald Trump&#8217;s main priorities upon entering office was &#8220;getting things back on track,&#8221; Vance said, &#8220;having people reinvest in the country,&#8221; and &#8220;rebuilding the industrial base of the United States.&#8221; 
&#8220;We&#8217;ve made a lot of progress there, where we see record capital flowing into our country, record construction and factories, and so forth. So there&#8217;s a lot to it that we&#8217;ve achieved.&#8221; 
He also emphasized honesty about the work that&#8217;s left to be done.
 &#8220;I also think we have to be you know candid with the American people that Rome wasn&#8217;t built in a day, and as much as we achieved over the last two years, we can do a lot more on housing, on energy, on agriculture and food, and those things we need to get some more time in order to accomplish,&#8221; Vance said. 
&#8220;Fundamentally, the question for the American people is: Do you want to give the government back over to a bunch of crazy people who want to trans the kids and led to a historic inflation crisis, or do you want to give the people who have chipped away at a lot of those problems another two years to keep on working at them?&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s ultimately up to the American people.&#8221; 
The Daily Wire spoke to Vance days after Maine Democrat Graham Platner was hit with a rape allegation that forced him out of the state&#8217;s Senate race. Until last week, Democrats had largely stood by the embattled candidate as he faced a series of scandals, including his Nazi tattoo and explicit social media posts.
&#8220;I think that it shows that they&#8217;re afraid of their radicals,&#8221; Vance said of the Platner debacle. 
&#8220;Look, Graham Platner was a guy that every Republican in D.C. knew had major red flags. It was just it was sort of an open secret that if he was nominated, there would be so much stuff on him that it would make it impossible for him to win,&#8221; Vance said. &#8220;So if that was an open secret in our party, I guarantee it was an open secret in their party.&#8221;
&#8220;The fact that they still nominated him, the fact that they still pushed him shows that they don&#8217;t have the ability in their movement to stand up to the radicals,&#8221; the vice president argued. 
Vance pointed to how Trump deals with Republicans who defy him or buck his will. 
&#8220;When he sees a candidate he doesn&#8217;t like, whether you agree with him or disagree with him, he can very very easily get that person out of the Republican Party,&#8221; Vance said. 
&#8220;The Democrats just don&#8217;t have that,&#8221; the vice president insisted. &#8220;They don&#8217;t have any real leadership that allows them to draw any bright lines in their party, and because of it, they keep on nominating crazier and crazier people.&#8221;
Vance cautioned that the Democrats winning primaries in New York City are &#8220;even crazier&#8221; than Platner.
 &#8220;People who are talking about ending ICE, ending police, ending the imprisonment of violent criminals,&#8221; Vance said. &#8220;Say what you will about Graham Platner. At least he wasn&#8217;t advocating the end of imprisoning violent criminals. The Democrats actually have people who are running in New York who are advocating exactly that position.&#8221; 
&#8220;Between a guy with a terrible personal history and candidates in New York with crazy ideas, it&#8217;s not a great time to be a Democrat in Washington, D.C.,&#8221; he concluded. 
Vance also addressed warnings from the pro-life movement that religious Americans may become disillusioned with the Trump administration over failure to act on abortion, causing them not to go to the polls. One area of particular concern for the pro-life movement: abortion drugs, which are still easily available by mail thanks to a Biden-era mandate, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-women-harmed-by-abortion-drugs-send-a-message-to-todd-blanche?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=EXCLUSIVE%3A+Women+Harmed+By+Abortion+Drugs+Send+A+Message+To+Todd+Blanche">potentially harming many women</a>.
&#8220;I hope not,&#8221; Vance responded, stressing that the Trump administration has been the &#8220;most pro-life administration in history.&#8221; He pointed out that Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-restores-mexico-city-policy-ends-taxpayer-funding-for-abortion">reinstated the Mexico City Policy</a>, ending taxpayer funding for abortions abroad and appointed the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, giving the &#8220;life question&#8221; &#8220;back to the people as opposed to unelected judges in robes.&#8221; 
&#8220;I just think there are a lot of things that we can hang our hat on and say that we&#8217;ve accomplished a lot for the life community,&#8221; Vance responded. &#8220;So I certainly cherish those votes. I agree with those voters, and I certainly want them to come out.&#8221;
&#8220;We are trying to do the best we can, within the political realities that we face, to do as much for life [as we can],&#8221; he explained. &#8220;And that&#8217;s not going to make everybody happy.&#8221;

Former President Trump And VP Nominee Sen. JD Vance Hold Rally In St. Cloud, Minnesota

EXCLUSIVE: JD Vance Gives His Pitch For Voting GOP This November

2026 midterm

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance says there is &#8220;clear evidence&#8221; that 23-year-old accused assassin Tyler Robinson killed Charlie Kirk, he shared in an interview with The Daily Wire, but that he is &#8220;always going to wonder&#8221; who radicalized his friend&#8217;s killer.
The vice president shared that he managed to follow parts of the Utah hearing for Robinson, though not all of it, and he told The Daily Wire that &#8220;the evidence against Robinson is just really, really compelling.&#8221; In a wide ranging interview as the hearing concluded on Friday, Vance put a rest to the notion that he believes the viral conspiracy theories about Kirk&#8217;s death, stating firmly that Robinson killed his friend.
&#8220;Do I think Tyler Robinson pulled the trigger and killed Charlie Kirk? Absolutely,&#8221; Vance said. &#8220;I think the evidence is clear on that.“
Throughout the past week, prosecutors spent days revealing surveillance footage, forensic evidence, an alleged confession note, and testimony from Robinson&#8217;s ex-roommate and transgender lover Lance Twiggs, as well as Robinson&#8217;s parents. Vance and Kirk were close friends, and Vance has spoken openly about the role Kirk played in convincing President Donald Trump to choose him as his vice president.
Vance addressed claims in an upcoming book from New York Times journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, who report that Vance&#8217;s “instincts told him that there was a larger plot behind&#8221; Kirk&#8217;s murder in the days following Kirk&#8217;s death. Swan and Haberman wrote that Vance &#8220;went down countless online rabbit holes, becoming so consumed by the videos and the theories that his wife, Usha, told him she was worried about him.”
The vice president emphasized that the aspect of Kirk&#8217;s death that will always haunt him is the possibility that other individuals were involved in radicalizing Robinson.
<div id="attachment_1133065" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-jd-vance-says-evidence-against-tyler-robinson-is-really-really-compelling/vp-vance-transports-charlie-kirks-body-back-to-phoenix-via-air-force-two" rel="attachment wp-att-1133065"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1133065" class="wp-image-1133065 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2234227591-865x576.jpg" alt="" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2234227591-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2234227591-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2234227591-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2234227591.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" /></a>Vice President JD Vance, Usha Vance, and Erika Kirk escort the body of Charlie Kirk on September 11, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)</div>
“Do I think that Tyler Robinson is part of a broader network of left wing radicals who have fomented and encouraged violence? Absolutely. Do I know that they communicated with Tyler Robinson before the shooting? No, I don&#8217;t have evidence for that.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m always going to wonder,&#8221; Vance said. &#8220;I&#8217;m always going to wonder what was said and how many contacts he had beforehand. By the way, it doesn&#8217;t mean that [Robinson&#8217;s] any less guilty. But do I wonder if there are other people who are more directly involved in Charlie&#8217;s murder? Absolutely, because I don&#8217;t think that it&#8217;s possible for a young man to get radicalized like that without somebody encouraging him, whether informally or formally.&#8221;
&#8220;I think there are a lot of people with blood on their hands in the case of Charlie Kirk, but of course, the person most directly who has blood on their hands is Tyler Robinson,&#8221; he concluded.
&#8220;The truth is that Charlie is dead because a bunch of left-wing radicals have preached a message that it&#8217;s okay to kill people you disagree with, and unfortunately, for my friend and and importantly for his family, there&#8217;s at least one guy in Utah who took that message to heart and and and murdered a young innocent father,&#8221; Vance said. &#8220;The worst part about all of this is not my my personal grief, as much as that&#8217;s very real, and the country&#8217;s loss, but the fact that I know that Erika and two little kids are going to grow up without their husband and father.&#8221;
Vance says his hope is that what transpired last September causes leftists to reconsider the violent rhetoric that they too often unleash against political opponents.
&#8220;If I was on the left, whatever the ideas that I had about politics and policy, if I saw that the result of some of the violence that I pushed is the death of Charlie Kirk, I would think twice about what I said and what beliefs led me to advocate for violence against people,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Because way too many leftists have advocated for violence for too long in our country, and it&#8217;s had real consequences.&#8221; 
<div id="attachment_1133049" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-jd-vance-says-evidence-against-tyler-robinson-is-really-really-compelling/turning-point-inaugural-eve-ball-held-in-washington-d-c-7" rel="attachment wp-att-1133049"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1133049" class="wp-image-1133049 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2194278697-864x576.jpg" alt="Donald Trump Jr., then Vice President-elect JD Vance, and Charlie Kirk during the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball.  (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2194278697-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2194278697-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2194278697-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2194278697.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Donald Trump Jr., then Vice President-elect JD Vance, and Charlie Kirk during the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball.  (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)</div>
During the court proceedings this week, the prosecution played an interview with Robinson&#8217;s ex-roommate and lover Lance Twiggs, showing some of their text exchanges about the murder. Twiggs revealed to the court that Robinson cried at their apartment after he shot and killed Kirk and said he wished &#8220;he hadn&#8217;t done it.&#8221;
Vance said he had seen this report, calling it &#8220;very compelling evidence for a court of law.&#8221;
He sighed as he added: &#8220;In all Christians, if we&#8217;re being honest for us, there is a thirst for justice and a thirst for vengeance. And you know what God encourages to do is to care about justice and not vengeance. And so, if I&#8217;m being honest, my mind wishes for justice and hopes that Tyler Robinson is able to find forgiveness and find mercy. But I don&#8217;t feel that, and I don&#8217;t particularly care about that person or what happens to him.&#8221;
Reflecting on his own grief after the death of his friend, Vance said he remains as &#8220;heartbroken.&#8221;
&#8220;I think selfishly, I was thinking about what it would mean for for us, for the movement, and then you know, non-selfishly, I was thinking about what it would mean for Erika and the kids,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And you know, Charlie was one of those guys who was not just a friend, he was sort of a confidant. He was a guy that I could rely on. He was a guy that I could confide in. And there aren&#8217;t that many people when you&#8217;re the vice president of the United States.&#8221;
&#8220;It was a very, very big loss to me,&#8221; he shared. 
Vance also repeatedly returned to the impact that Kirk&#8217;s death has on his family, his wife Erika, and his two children. 
&#8220;I think about this a lot as a young father, and this is probably the thought that I&#8217;ve had the most consistently since Charlie&#8217;s death: thank God, my kids are at an age where, if God forbid, something happened to me, they would they would have memories of me, and Charlie&#8217;s kids are at that age where, especially for his youngest child, but even for his oldest child, you just worry that a young father who poured his heart and soul into that family, you worry that those kids won&#8217;t have any memory of them, and I think that is the greatest tragedy of all of this.&#8221; 
&#8220;And I know it&#8217;s something Erika cares a lot about,&#8221; added Vance. &#8220;It&#8217;s certainly something I&#8217;ve thought a lot about over the last year, but I think we have to take some some, as Lincoln would say, some measure of devotion to that, that his kids should know at the very least who he was, that that they were beloved, and that their dad gave his life fighting for the very best principles of the country that he loved.&#8221;

Image-1

EXCLUSIVE: JD Vance Says Evidence Against Tyler Robinson Is ‘Really, Really Compelling’

Charlie Kirk

Tyler Robinson

There is no greater disagreement within the Republican Party today than over what American foreign policy should be. Hawks want the United States to keep confronting its adversaries by force; restrainers want it out of the business of wars that do not end. President Donald Trump has been the glue holding together partisans on both sides of that debate into a single coalition. Now the rifts that he papered over are starting to show, and they will fully open when he eventually leaves the stage.
Trump ran in 2016 against “stupid wars” in the Middle East. Then he bombed Iran. Restrainers heard a promise to avoid open‑ended conflicts; hawks saw a president willing to use conventional force against a longstanding adversary. Both camps look at the same record and see an ally. Trump holds them together because a decade of getting big things right (the border) has earned him the benefit of the doubt. But that credibility is personal, not ideological, and the coalition of restrainers and hawks lasts only as long as Trump holds them together.
This is generational, and the fault line is most visible in how Republicans of different ages <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/organic-protests-that-come-with-price-tags?author=Alex+Tarascio&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98Organic%E2%80%99+Protests+That+Come+With+Price+Tags">see Israel</a>. Among Republican men under 45, Israel and <a href="https://www.cygn.al/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/23738-Cygnal-National-Apr26-NVT-Deck-Public.pdf">Saudi Arabia</a> draw almost identical favorability, 34% and 33%, respectively. For anyone raised on the Reagan-era foreign policy consensus, that&#8217;s a different planet. That consensus held the party together for 40 years, but it no longer exists among the voters who will define the future.
The public did not turn against the war in Iran on principle. Support came with the expectation that it would be wrapped up fast. But while the American military has performed brilliantly to degrade Iran’s military capabilities, the regime&#8217;s will to fight has not been exhausted. The collapse of the latest ceasefire this week made that plain. For any president, expectations about timing are baked in, and the American people’s tolerance for protracted engagements is almost nonexistent.
In April, our national survey <a href="https://www.cygn.al/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/23738-Cygnal-National-Apr26-NVT-Deck-Public.pdf">found</a> that support for the Iran strikes tracked with how long people thought the war would last. Voters who expected it to end within three months backed the strikes by 57 points, while voters who expected it to drag past nine months opposed the strikes by 44 points. The largest single group, 27%, already expected it to run more than a year. Among Republicans, that group was even larger. As the conflict continues, it keeps running past the implied deadline voters set for it.
In our June survey, 74% of American likely voters said they want Trump to finalize a deal to end the war with Iran. That is one of the only positions right now that pulls Republicans and the persuadable middle in the same direction. The public wants force used swiftly and concluded on schedule. Republican restrainers have been arguing exactly that, and the broader electorate is with them. Each new round of strikes, ceasefires, or talks is being judged against that same expectation.
Which brings us to JD Vance. Trump sent the vice president to carry the peace, then joked on camera that if it worked, he’d take the credit, and if it failed, he’d blame Vance. The easy reading is that Vance got handed a poisoned chalice — the kind of impossible assignment presidents often give their number twos to keep their own hands clean. Joe Biden did something similar to Kamala Harris on the border, assigning her the problem and giving her none of the power to solve it.
Vance is in a different position. Rather than giving him a purely thankless job, Trump let him take the lead on advancing the argument he had articulated since he was <a href="https://ecfr.eu/article/j-d-vances-foreign-policy-when-restraint-meets-culture-war/">in the Senate</a>. So far, peace has eluded him. The ceasefire broke down this week, and the war keeps burning through every attempt to end it. Restrainers never trusted this war to stop on its own, and every collapsed truce vindicates their position. That puts Vance on the same side as the 74% of voters who want this conflict to end, and at the center of the fight the party is about to have with itself.
Far from a setup, this may be the clearest vantage point any 2028 contender has into where Republican foreign policy is headed.
No Republican has yet built a foreign policy that survives the absence of a singular figure who can simply tell both tribes in his camp to trust him. Trump has been that figure, but his credibility has never been transferable.
This new fight is coming to the GOP, whether the party wants it or not. The public wants American power used decisively, kept limited, and brought to a clear end on time. Iran is the latest in a series of Middle East antagonists that have dragged America back to the region for decades. And how the war ends will define the shape of the post‑Trump Republican Party.
***
Alex Tarascio is a Pollster and Principal at Cygnal.

Donald Trump Campaigns For President In Georgia Ahead Of November Election

The Issue Determining The Future Of The Republican Party And Why Trump Is The Key

Isolationists

Republican Party

Menu