US Vice President JD Vance claimed in an interview on Sunday that almost no Americans are antisemitic and that concerns about antisemitic voices are raised as a way to avoid discussing “a real backlash to a consensus view in American foreign policy” on Israel.

In the interview with the publication Unherd, Vance also downplayed concerns about Nick Fuentes, the popular far-right antisemitic podcaster, and said that Christianity is “very much at the heart” of America’s common culture.

The interview was the latest in a series of comments Vance has made dismissing or declining to condemn an increasing embrace of antisemitism among parts of the US right.

In a speech on Sunday to the conservative Turning Point USA’s annual convention, whose opening days were roiled by a debate over excluding antisemites, Vance said the movement should be open to everyone as long as they “love America,” coming down firmly against “purity tests” and adding that he “didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to de-platform.”

Vance condemned antisemitism in the interview with Unherd, saying that “antisemitism, and all forms of ethnic hatred, have no place in the conservative movement. Whether you’re attacking somebody because they’re white or because they’re black or because they’re Jewish, I think it’s disgusting, and we should call that stuff out.”

But he went on to minimize the scope of the issue across the American political spectrum, claiming almost no Democrats or Republicans are antisemitic, and that much of the focus on antisemitism is an attempt to avoid addressing criticism of American support for Israel.

“I think that Nick Fuentes, his influence within Donald Trump’s administration, and within a whole host of institutions on the right, is vastly overstated,” he said. “Frankly, it’s overstated by people who want to avoid having a foreign-policy conversation about America’s relationship with Israel.”

Vance added, “99% of Republicans, and I think probably 97% of Democrats, do not hate Jewish people for being Jewish. What is actually happening is that there is a real backlash to a consensus view in American foreign policy.”

He did not cite any surveys to back up that assertion. Polling by Jewish groups has found that antisemitism in the United States actually is far more widespread.

A study by the Anti-Defamation League in 2024 surveying how many Americans agreed with a series of antisemitic statements found that 24 percent agreed with six or more. A survey from that year by the American Jewish Committee found that 56% of American Jews considered........

© The Times of Israel