Vice President J.D. Vance is “wrong” to blame the Republican Party’s midterm losses on the Iran war, his GOP predecessor said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration should have finished off Iran following Operation Epic Fury rather than “inexplicably” stopping the bombing campaign last year.
Voters, Mr. Pence told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” were “turned off” by seeing the military stand down, allowing Iran to begin counterattacks that later shut down the Strait of Hormuz.
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“I think the frustration that many Americans had seeing gasoline prices rise, diesel prices rise, was the fact not that we went to war, not that we took the fight to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, but that we stopped short,” Mr. Pence said. “And I have to believe that that was a reflection in some respect of some of the voices of isolationism on the populist right that have gained some purchase with this administration.”
Mr. Pence wouldn’t endorse Mr. Vance as a 2028 presidential candidate, dumping criticism on a broad array of the Trump administration’s foreign and domestic policies.
He said the Trump administration and Mr. Vance “have taken the party in a direction far afield from the principles of American leadership in the world, limited government and fiscal responsibility.”
Mr. Pence criticized the administration’s tariffs, its decision to pause aid to Ukraine, the president’s proposal to lower the interest rates on credit cards and Mr. Trump’s negotiated price controls with pharmaceutical companies.
Mr. Pence said “the most troubling” aspect of the Trump administration has been inaction on banning on-demand access to Mifepristone, which Mr. Pence called “mail-order abortion pills.”
The FDA is currently reviewing the safety of the medication, which is often used to treat miscarriages in addition to its use as an abortifacient.
The Trump administration is seeking to ban distribution of the drug through the mail or in pharmacies and require access through a physician.
The Supreme Court in May restored temporary mail and pharmacy access while the matter is litigated.
Mr. Vance replaced Mr. Pence on the GOP presidential ticket in 2024. Mr. Trump lambasted Mr. Pence on January 6, 2021, for refusing to use his role as Senate president to block the certification of President Joseph R. Biden’s election victory.
Mr. Pence recently told a crowd in Washington that on January 6, 2021, after rioters took over the U.S. Capitol, he met with Mr. Trump in the White House and told him, “I want you to know that I am praying for you.” Mr. Pence said Mr. Trump responded, “Don’t bother.”
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