A former GOP operative was caught off guard when he heard Vice President JD Vance’s comments about Charlie Kirk and the Iran war.
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On Thursday, Vance gave the keynote speech at the second night of the GOP midterm convention in Dallas. Through the evening, speakers kept bringing up Kirk because the date marked one year since his assassination during a Turning Point USA event in Utah.
Vance brought him up to talk about hearing out opposing political views and said that Kirk wouldn’t agree with everything that Trump has done during his second term.
“Don’t give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue,” Vance said. “I’m not asking anybody to agree with me on every single issue. I’m not asking anybody to agree on every single policy of the administration.”
To make his point, Vance explained that Kirk “was a free thinker with his own principles and views. He did not always agree with us. Let me just give you one example.”
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Vance continued, “Charlie hated war, whether it’s Europe or Africa, the Middle East, he didn’t care. That was his view.”
Political commentator and former GOP operative Tim Miller was covering the event through a livestream for The Bulwark. After Vance finished his comments about Kirk’s view on war, Miller said, “Wow!” and explained why he was surprised.
“Man, JD Vance making the claim that posthumous Charlie Kirk would’ve been against the Iran war during the midterm convention is pretty striking,” Miller said. “Does Trump know the vice president and Charlie Kirk are against the war?”
Vance’s comments came moments after a protester disrupted his speech, but also after a New York Times report that revealed the vice president had been seeking blunt assessments about the Iran war from military commanders that differed from the Pentagon’s official view.
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