An offhand comment about the war in Iran by Vice President JD Vance during a speech in Iowa on Tuesday set off a chorus of harsh criticism on MS NOW on Wednesday morning.
The vice president spoke at a manufacturing facility during a rally to boost the candidacy of Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Joni Ernst (R) and, while downplaying the economic devastation being visited on US consumers by the war, he awkwardly admitted, "We also know that a lot of our farmers are struggling with high fertilizer prices. I'm aware of that. As the president of the United States has said, we got a little blip in the Middle East. We gotta take care of some business on the foreign policy side."
The panel on “Morning Joe” was quick to pounce on Vance’s dismissive comments.
Co-host Willie Gest, speaking with conservative columnist David French, prompted his guest with, “We had two days ago the president of the United States calling this a ‘mini war. ‘Yesterday you had Vice President Vance calling this a blip. I think everyone who's lost a family member in this war, or who's now paying $4.50 a gallon on national average, or much more in many states, would consider it much more than a blip. They're trying to sort of minimize and diminish the war and in many ways, wish it away.”
“You know, it's very clear at this point that it looks like Trump was essentially sold a bill of goods that he thought, and he keeps using the Venezuela comparison, we've heard it that he thought what he was getting was going to be a short and glorious and victorious military operation and he hadn't thought this through," French noted.
Co-host Joe Scarborough turned the conversation back to Vance’s remark.
“Over 100 school children being killed the first day of the war is a blip, up to maybe 10,000, 15,000 Iranians being killed, JD Vance is calling a blip,” he recited. “You have JD Vance calling a blip entire communities in Lebanon being wiped off the face of the earth. I mean, how would JD Vance feel if his community that he grew up in didn't have a building left standing? That's what's happening in Lebanon, all across Lebanon, because of this, quote, ‘blip.’”
“That's what's happening in Iran because of this blip,” he added. “And as you say, people across the world are paying for this day in and day out with an economy that's getting worse. And of course, I guess only people like me worry about spending money and the national debt, but this war has already cost us $250 billion at minimum.”
“If this is what JD Vance calls a, quote, ‘blip,’ well, then JD Vance is not a serious person. He's not a compassionate person. He's certainly — the lack of humanity calling this something that caused this much suffering a blip speaks volumes.”