Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), one of Washington’s staunchest defenders of Israel, condemned Vice President JD Vance on Thursday for alleging that Israel is paying online influencers to criticize and undermine administration talks toward an Iran peace deal.
“It is a betrayal,” Fetterman told the Washington Examiner. “Anyone — I don’t care if Republican or Democrats — betray Israel, I’ll of course reject that in the strongest terms.”
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In an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast earlier in the week, Vance condemned what he described as a “very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign” from elements of the Israeli government “to try to derail the negotiation and try to derail the deal.”
“They’re attacking me obsessively, saying that we should not be negotiating with Iran, we should just keep the military campaign going indefinitely, and that is their explicit position,” Vance said. “People have come after me and say that I’m influenced by Qatar, that I’m influenced by foreign governments, that I take my marching orders from Tucker Carlson, and there’s just so much bulls*** out there.”
“My response to that is, ‘Well, go to hell,’” the vice president added.
A senior White House official said Friday that “no reasonable person” who saw Vance’s interview with Rogan “could conclude that the vice president has ‘betrayed’ Israel.”
“The president and vice president are on the same page,” the official told the Washington Examiner.
In her Thursday press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and Vance were in lockstep on the war and finding a long-term peace agreement with Iran.
“I think the president would certainly agree that, yes, foreign countries certainly do try to persuade American public opinion,” Leavitt said. “There’s no doubt about that. I think it’s just a basic fact.”
Time reported that the firm of Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump‘s 2020 campaign manager, was the culprit behind the Israeli-funded campaign to influence Americans against diplomatic negotiations with Iran. He rejected Vance’s claims and said his influence efforts began during the Biden administration when he “saw a rise in Jewish hatred, not because of any government agenda.”
“Claims that I attacked the [peace deal] or the Administration are false,” Parscale, who Vance referenced in his Rogan interview, told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “I welcome professional journalists who examine the facts instead of drawing conclusions from speculation or manufactured connections. Everything I created and did is publicly disclosed through the FARA process. There isn’t a single shred of evidence that I acted against the Administration.”
Christian Datoc and Mabinty Quarshie contributed to this report.
