Pence delivers scathing rebuke of Vance's Iran war assessment, blames Trump policies for GOP losses

EXCLUSIVE - Former Vice President Mike Pence delivered a blistering assessment of Vice President JD Vance's midterm election postmortem that the war in Iran cost Republicans control of Congress, with the former vice president contending that Americans grew frustrated not because President Donald Trump launched the conflict, but because his administration failed to finish it.

Pence, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, his first following the midterms, also blamed the Republicans' midterm shellacking on the president's economic policies, retreat from conservative principles and what he argued is an "air of corruption" surrounding the White House.

Vance, in an assessment the morning after Election Day, wrote, "The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night."

The vice president also cited an unnamed pollster in his X post who said voters who had abandoned the GOP wanted the administration to end the conflict, address inflation and the cost of living, put America first and change its relationship with Israel.

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Asked about Vance's assessment, Pence said, "I disagree with the vice president about the reasons for the midterm election outcome."

"There's no question that the war in Iran became a frustration for millions of Americans, but it wasn't because President Trump started the war or took on Iran. It's because we stopped short and didn't finish it," Pence said. "As Americans saw the politics of appeasement that the administration embraced, one negotiation after another, I think people became ... frustrated with the lack of progress, frustrated with the price of fuel at the pump."

But the former vice president emphasized "the reasons for this midterm election were much more complex than gasoline prices or the war in Iran. So, I respectfully disagree with my successor in that regard."

Pence added that he has "great concerns about what I've heard coming out of the vice president's office with regard to Israel."

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"If the world knows nothing else, the world should know that America stands with Israel. Israel is our most cherished ally. It is the only democracy in the Arab world," Pence, a longtime strong supporter of Israel, emphasized.

Pence said he's "very troubled at the way that criticism of Israel on the left and on the right collapses too often into antisemitism and antisemitic rhetoric. There's no place in America for antisemitism on the left or on the right and the people that are wringing their hands about U.S. support for Israel, I get the feeling sometimes they're just using that as a thinly veiled excuse for their antisemitism."

A Vance ally, responding to Pence's criticism, told Fox News Digital, "Former Vice President Pence had to retreat into the think tank world because his politics never developed past the Bush-era neocon warmongering that dragged us into the Middle East in the first place. He is laughably out of touch with how people feel in the real world."

Pence, who served as vice president in Trump's first term, pointed to the president's second-term tariffs, the administration's handling of abortion medication and the first family's growing wealth as factors in the GOP's electoral defeat, arguing that Republicans must return to traditional conservative principles to reclaim their congressional majorities.

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While the high cost of living and the war in Iran were key issues in the midterms, the Fox News Voter Poll also highlighted that 55% of respondents said government corruption was a "crucial" factor in their vote for Congress, with another 36% saying it was a major factor.

Pence argued that "I don't think you can ignore the air of corruption that's emerged around this administration, the self-dealing. The American people saw a first family seeing their wealth increase by more than $3 billion, including more than a billion dollars in cryptocurrency."

Asked by Fox News Digital if he thought the president and his family had improperly profited from being in the White House, Pence answered, "I wouldn't have any way of knowing and wouldn't care to speculate."

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but didn't receive a response at the time this story was published.

The former vice president, referring to the midterm results which saw the Democrats storm back to grab a large House majority, take control of the Senate and win a majority of the nation's governorships, said it "wasn't just a rout, it was a reckoning."

"I believe our voters rejected President Trump's redirection of our movement toward protectionist tariffs, toward policies of appeasement toward Russia and even Iran, toward marginalizing the right to life, and I think the era of corruption around the Trump administration was very concerning to millions of Americans, including our voters," Pence claimed. "I don't think the American people turned left. I think they were turned off, and that's what explains the outcome of this election."

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Looking forward, Pence said Republicans "now more than ever ... need to recommit our party to the conservative principles that have defined our movement for more than 50 years."

"There's no question that the direction the president has taken our party was roundly rejected by the voters," he charged. "The key for success for the party and more importantly, the key for success for the country, is to return the Republican Party to advancing and advocating the conservative principles that have always made America strong and prosperous and free."