Vance: Tucker Carlson’s interview with Huckabee ‘a really good conversation that’s necessary for the right’

US Vice President JD Vance says he’s really glad conservative commentator Tucker Carlson interviewed US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee last week.

“I guess my takeaway is it’s a really good conversation that’s going to be necessary for the right, not just for the next couple years but for long into the future,” Vance tells the Washington Post in an interview, acknowledging that he hadn’t watched the full two and a half hour interview but had “seen a couple of clips here and there.”

The interview sparked headlines after Huckabee said it would be “fine” if Israel took over large swaths of the Middle East, while Carlson launched a litany of unsubstantiated claims, some of which echoed antisemitic tropes.

The conversation frequently turned heated as the pair represent opposite sides of the Republican party regarding their feelings toward Israel, with Huckabee being an ardent Christian Zionist and Carlson espousing more isolationist views that have become more common among younger Republicans more uncomfortable with US support for the Jewish state.

Vance, who is considered close to Carlson, says that what he has always liked about the political right in the US is that “there is a real exchange of ideas,” even if he finds some of the people in his camp “annoying.”

“And if you think of the Trump coalition in 2024 — and the way that I put it is, you had Joe Rogan, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and JD Vance and a coalition of people … but to do that, you have to be willing to tolerate debate and disagreement,” Vance continues. “And I just think that it’s a good thing.”