Whither J.D. Vance

ovelist E.M. Forster famously wrote, “If given the choice between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” Forster’s hope has now become the standard approach among a number of prominent “right-wing” commentators, think tank directors, and politicians.

Popular broadcaster Megyn Kelly, for instance, refuses to take Candace Owens to task for spouting total nonsense, without evidentiary support, on a daily basis, on the grounds that Owens is a friend and the mother of a young baby. On October 30, Kevin Roberts, the executive director of the Heritage Foundation, a premier conservative think tank, created a turmoil within his own organization when he broadcast a statement affirming that the Heritage Foundation would not in any way distance itself from its “close friend” Tucker Carlson, after the latter’s friendly interview with Nick Fuentes.

Of all those refusing to criticize Tucker Carlson’s platforming of Nick Fuentes, by far the most prominent was Vice President J.D. Vance. He told UnHerd interviewer Sohrab Ahmari, “Tucker’s a friend of mine. And do I have substantive disagreements with Tucker Carlson? Sure. I have disagreements with most of my friends, especially those who work in politics…. I’m also a very loyal person, and I am not going to get into the business of throwing friends under the bus.”

He went on to ridicule the proposition that Carlson, who supported President Trump and Vance in 2024, holds views that are “somehow completely anathema to conservatism, and that he has no place in the conservative movement.”