Vice President JD Vance asked North Carolina to “say a prayer” for American service members taking part in Operation Epic Fury on Friday, but, when pressed, did not deny reports that he cautioned President Donald Trump against waging war in Iran before the bombs first dropped.
The vice president traveled to North Carolina to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, but only briefly mentioned Epic Fury at the tail end of his roughly 25-minute-long speech.
“You all know that right now we are engaged in a military operation to ensure, as the president has said repeatedly, that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. That is a simple, simple principle and standard,” Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, told the crowd. “Frankly, every president said that they believed it. Donald J. Trump has taken affirmative steps to ensure that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”
“But we also know that there are a lot of people from the state of North Carolina who are in harm’s way right now,” the vice president continued. “I want all of us to say a prayer. Not just for the North Carolinians, but for the people of all of our 50 states, who put on the uniform and are willing to sacrifice for the safety and security and freedom of the United States of America.
Following his remarks, Vance took a handful of questions from reporters, one of whom directly pressed him to address a Friday Politico report that he actively voiced opposition to Epic Fury directly to Trump before the first strikes on Tehran started on Feb. 28.
“I hate to disappoint you, but I’m not going to show up here in front of God and everybody else, and tell you exactly what I said in that classified room,” he said. “Partially, because I don’t want to go to prison, and partially because I think it’s important for the President of the United States to be able to talk to his advisers without those advisers running their mouth to the American media.”
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Dating back to his 2022 Senate campaign, Vance has consistently opposed so-called “forever wars.” During his first year as vice president, he openly cautioned against the United States getting drawn further into Russia’s war in Ukraine. However, Vance has publicly backed Trump’s decision to attack Iran over the past two weeks.
You can watch Vance’s remarks in full below.