Politics

Vance just said he wouldn’t call Iran conflict a ‘war’ – yes, really

JD Vance’s jaw-dropper after reporter asks about Iran timeline
Reuters

It was back in June last year that US vice president JD Vance told Meet the Press that America was “not at war with Iran” but with “Iran’s nuclear program”, but now, during a White House press briefing on Thursday, the VP argued that he “wouldn’t call it a war” after all.

Yes, really.

Responding to a question from CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins about whether the war would be over by the November midterm elections, Vance said: “I wouldn’t call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting – I recognise there have been places where this has flared up.

“When you ask, ‘when will this end’, you’re asking me a question like ‘when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships?’ I think the reality is I don’t know the answer to that question.”

Vance’s comments have since raised eyebrows from people online, who argued they had heard the VP refer to the Iran conflict as a war before:

“You just called it a f***ing war literally 2 minutes before this,” fumed progressive commentator Alex Cole:

Vanity Fair’s Washington correspondent Aidan McLaughlin jokingly rebranded a government department and tweeted: “Department of (I Wouldn’t Call It A) War”:

Evan loves worf said: “Trump has called it a war literally every day since it started”:

And Democrats on the House Oversight Committee shared a supercut of Vance previously referring to the situation in Iran as a “war”, adding: “You sure about that?”:

Awkward…

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