Overview
- At TPUSA’s AmericaFest, Vice President J.D. Vance refused calls to denounce specific right-wing figures, telling attendees he did not bring a list to “de-platform” and urging the party to avoid “purity tests.”
- In a new UnHerd interview, Vance said Nick Fuentes’s sway on the right is vastly overstated and argued critics are avoiding an open debate over U.S.–Israel policy, while asserting that almost no Americans are antisemitic.
- A Manhattan Institute poll cited in coverage found nearly four in 10 GOP voters believe the Holocaust was greatly exaggerated or did not happen as historians describe, and about one in five in each party hold anti-Jewish sentiments.
- Vance’s AmericaFest appearance coincided with a 2028 presidential endorsement from TPUSA leader Erika Kirk, as the conference wrestled with whether to platform figures associated with antisemitic rhetoric.
- Writers including Franklin Foer and Jonathan Tobin condemned Vance’s approach as giving license to antisemites, while conservative commentary criticized him for shielding influential media allies from accountability.