J.D. Vance dogged by calls to denounce Tucker Carlson

Even if Mr. Vance wins the nomination, “Tucker has splintered the fragile but winning coalition that Trump put together, and I expect that a lot of people who otherwise would vote for JD will sit home rather than have Tucker effectively in a Vance administration,” said Mr. Jacobson.

Leading the “ditch Carlson” effort is Trump ally and conservative activist Laura Loomer, who warned that “Tucker is going to destroy J.D. Vance’s Presidential campaign” unless Mr. Vance condemns him.

“I always said I would support J.D. as the nominee in 2028, but Tucker Carlson is truly jeopardizing J.D.’s chances of becoming the nominee by attaching himself to Vance,” said Ms. Loomer in a post on X. “I am growing very alarmed by JD Vance’s refusal to condemn some of the crazy positions Tucker has taken.”

Many of Mr. Carlson’s positions are standard “America First” populism — he opposes immigration and wants the U.S. to take care of problems at home before engaging overseas — but he has alienated even longtime allies in the conservative movement with his forays into far-right field.

That includes his platforming of antisemitic fringe figures on his top-rated Tucker Carlson Network; his vehement criticism of Israel; his cozying up to U.S. adversaries such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela, and his doomsaying on the Trump administration’s national-security moves.

He has been ripped for saying that “Christian Zionists” suffer from a “brain virus,” that Hamas seems more like a “political organization” than a radical jihadist group, and that the Middle East might be more stable if Iran had a nuclear bomb.

A recent headline in the conservative National Review declared: “Vance Will Have to Choose Between Tucker and the Presidency.”

At this point, however, Mr. Vance is showing no signs of denouncing Mr. Carlson. Far from it.

Mr. Vance defended the host as calls to ostracize him grew after the Heritage debacle, declaring, “Tucker’s a friend of mine” and “I am not going to get into the business of throwing friends under the bus.”

“The idea that Tucker Carlson, who has one of the largest podcasts in the world, who has millions of listeners, who supported Trump in the 2024 election, who supported me in the 2024 election, the idea that his views are somehow completely anathema to conservatism, that he has no place in the conservative movement, is frankly absurd. And I don’t think anybody actually believes it,” Mr. Vance said in the Dec. 22 interview with UnHerd.

That the White House is still in his corner was underlined last month when Mr. Carlson appeared not once but twice at high-profile events with President Trump inside the Oval Office.

“One can only infer that the VP is doubling down by inviting Tucker back to the White House despite the shocking statements made by Tucker,” said Ms. Loomer.

Early polling shows no sign of a Carlson backlash. A Harvard CAPS/Harris survey released Tuesday found 53% of Republican voters favor Mr. Vance as the next GOP presidential candidate, followed by Donald Trump Jr. with 21% and Secretary of State Marco Rubio with 17%.

In fact, Mr. Carlson himself drew 5% support, another sign of his remarkable comeback after being fired from his top-rated prime time show on the Fox News Channel in 2023.

So @POTUS @SecRubio & pretty much the entire MAGA team doesn’t care about US but YOU do Tucker? How incredibly arrogant! If Tucker is that much better than the entire @POTUS TEAM, then why doesn’t HE run? Only @realDonaldTrump got elected. HE sets policy-not a podcaster. https://t.co/s4dGVgacoh

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) January 31, 2026

Condemning Mr. Carlson comes with its own political drawbacks. The host has 1.65 million subscribers on YouTube, a bloc of potential voters that the Vance team would undoubtedly prefer to keep in the fold if it can be done without losing pro-Israel conservatives.

Mr. Vance has other reasons to defend Mr. Carlson. Not only did he plug Mr. Vance’s Ohio Senate candidacy on his Fox show in 2022, but Mr. Carlson is credited with helping convince President Trump to tap the “Hillbilly Elegy” author for the 2024 ticket.

In his newly released book on Mr. Carlson, New Yorker staff writer Jason Zengerle said he was crucial in tipping the balance as Mr. Trump weighed Mr. Rubio and former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as possible running mates.

“If Trump chose one of them for his running mate, Carlson said, “U.S. intelligence agencies would try to assassinate him. Trump picked Vance,” said Mr. Zengerle in “Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind” (Crooked Media Reads).

Republicans have taken note. Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, said that “Tucker created J.D. J.D. is Tucker’s protégé, and they are one and the same,” according to private recordings obtained last month by Axios.

Democrats are also watching. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a potential 2028 candidate for the Democratic presidential nod, cited Mr. Carlson last week as he called on Mr. Vance to condemn antisemitism on the right.

“He should not allow for a Nick Fuentes or a Tucker Carlson or others who are promoting antisemitic views to be platformed,” Mr. Shapiro told Fox News anchor Bret Baier. “And my view he is seeking some short-term political gain by not criticizing them, and in the long run I believe that makes our country less safe.”

The election is nearly three years away, which means Mr. Vance has plenty of time to prepare for unfriendly questions about Mr. Carlson’s views. And he may need it.

“Any general election will focus heavily on J.D.’s close career and personal affiliation with and affection for Tucker, and all the malign influence that brings — from normalizing Nazi revisionism, to an almost demonic obsession with Israel and its American supporters (including evangelical Christians), to support for America’s sworn enemies and the spread of Islamism,” Mr. Jacobson said.