| |
Vance, Rubio Iran Stances Show Split 04/01 06:32
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As President Donald Trump assembled his Cabinet last
week, he asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance to
give an update on the Iran war.
Rubio, known for his hawkish views, gave an impassioned defense of the war,
calling it "a favor" to the United States and the world.
Vance, who has long pushed for restraint in U.S. military intervention
overseas, was more sedate. He said that the U.S. now has "options" it didn't
have a year ago and that it is important Iran does not get a nuclear weapon --
before redirecting his remarks toward wishing the troops a happy Easter.
The exchange was a distillation of their diverging postures toward the war
that their boss has launched in Iran. And it comes as some would-be Republican
presidential candidates begin quietly courting officials in key states like New
Hampshire in the early stages of the GOP's next nomination fight.
With Vance and Rubio seen as the party's strongest potential candidates in a
2028 primary, the two have to balance their roles in the Trump administration
with their future political plans.
"It's very obvious from the way that Rubio talks about Iran and the way that
Vance talks about Iran that they are of different casts of mind," said Curt
Mills, the executive director of "The American Conservative" magazine and a
vocal critic of the war. The Cabinet meeting episode was telling, he said,
because it seemed as though Vance, discussing Easter, was "literally trying to
talk about anything else other than the war."
Vance's office declined to comment. The State Department declined to comment
but pointed to Rubio's remarks last year during a Fox News Channel interview
where he said he hopes Vance intends to run for president and wouldn't rule out
anything for himself.
It's too soon to forecast how Republican voters might feel about the war
next spring, when the 2028 contest is expected to begin in earnest, but the
risks for both Vance and Rubio are acute. Rubio's full-throated support for the
war could come back to haunt him depending on how the conflict develops. Vance,
meanwhile, would risk accusations of disloyalty if he were to stray too far
from Trump, but struggles to square an appearance of support for the war with
his past comments.
Vance's restrained comments stand in contrast to Rubio's full defense
Vance, who served in the Iraq war, has said that Iran cannot have a nuclear
weapon, but he's long been skeptical of foreign military interventions.
Trump seemed to allude that Vance may have held onto that position in
private discussions about Iran, telling reporters that Vance was
"philosophically a little bit different than me" at the outset of the conflict.
"I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was quite
enthusiastic," Trump said.
Though Vance has been careful in how he speaks about the war, what he's not
saying has been conspicuous. On a March 13 trip to North Carolina, he was twice
asked by reporters if he had concerns about the conflict. Each time, he said it
was important that Trump could have conversations with advisers "without his
team then running their mouths to the American media."
A few days later at the White House, when Vance was again asked if he had
concerns, he accused the reporter of "trying to drive a wedge between members
of the administration, between me and the president."
For Rubio, long before he became the country's chief diplomat, he voiced
support for muscular foreign policy and American intervention abroad.
Days into the war, he told reporters that it was "a wise decision" for Trump
to launch the operation, that there "absolutely was an imminent threat" from
Iran and that the operation "needed to happen."
Fractures are emerging in the GOP
The apparent split between Rubio and Vance on the Iran war is emblematic of
the divide starting to cleave within the Republican Party. A recent survey from
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found some
divisions within the GOP on Iran, with about half of Republicans saying the
U.S. military action has been "about right." Relatively few Republicans, about
2 in 10, say military action has not gone far enough, while about one-quarter
say it's gone too far.
While some conservatives have described the war as a betrayal, many other
Republicans have cheered on the president's actions.
Alice Swanson, a 62-year-old who attended Vance's event in North Carolina,
said she wants Vance and Rubio to run together in 2028 but favors the vice
president.
"I think he fully believes and supports exactly what his convictions are,"
Swanson said.
Swanson acknowledged, nonetheless, that Vance has been an outspoken opponent
of interventionist policy but has been quieter on the subject since the war. "I
can see both sides," Swanson said after expressing full support for Trump's
decisions.
Tracy Brill, a 62-year-old from Rocky Mount, spoke highly of Rubio, but
declared, "I love JD Vance."
She made it clear she sides with the president, calling the course he's
taken "spot on." But she defended the vice president if he seems at odds with
his past statements, noting politicians do it frequently. "They've all changed
their positions at one point or another," she said.
However, Joe Ropar, attending the Conservative Political Action Conference
last week, said Rubio's unequivocal support for the Iran war helped crystallize
his preference for the secretary of state for 2028.
"I'm not looking at JD Vance for president, and it's for stuff like that,"
said Ropar, a 72-year-old retired military contractor from McKinney, Texas. "I
don't 100% trust him."
Benjamin Williams, of Austin, Texas, said at CPAC that both Trump and Vance
are "tied to this war." The 25-year-old marketing specialist for Young
Americans for Liberty is looking elsewhere for a candidate.
The political risks might not be known until the field fills out
Whether the war becomes a political problem for Vance and Rubio depends on
who ultimately enters the GOP's next presidential primary.
While Vance and Rubio are currently considered the overwhelming
front-runners, former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu expects a half dozen
high-profile Republicans to enter the contest.
Sununu and former RNC Committeewoman Juliana Bergeron told The Associated
Press that multiple Republican presidential prospects have reached out to them
in recent weeks to discuss the political landscape in the state that
traditionally hosts the opening presidential primary; they declined to name
them.
Republican strategist Jim Merrill, a top New Hampshire adviser for Rubio's
2016 presidential bid, predicted that Iran would become a flashpoint in 2028 --
just as the Iraq war was for Democrats in 2004 and 2008.
"If for some reason things don't go as anticipated, there will be contrasts
drawn," he said.
Still, Sununu is doubtful that Iran would become a meaningful dividing line
in a prospective Vance-Rubio matchup given their status as prominent members of
the Trump administration. Both will likely take credit if the conflict ends
well, and both would look bad if it does not, he predicted.
"They're tied together with the success or failure of Iran. It doesn't
really separate one versus the other, at least I don't think that's how the
electorate will see it," Sununu said.
|
|
