WASHINGTON — Sid Rosenberg said that he “charmed” Vice President JD Vance at the White House Thursday to mend fences with Jewish conservatives, weeks after the radio host criticized the likely 2028 frontrunner for not being “strong enough on Israel.”
Rosenberg said on X he “enjoyed” a nearly half-hour discussion with Vance and the “chance to get to know each other.” He also spent time with President Trump in the Oval Office.
Later on 77 WABC’s “Cats & Cosby,” the radio host shared that the two “hit it off” and he expected “many, many more meetings about very substantial things in the very near future.”
“I think I charmed him more,” Rosenberg joked. “I did most of the talking, and he spent most of the time laughing.”
Before the meeting, the radio host told Politico he was planning on asking tough questions about Vance’s friendship with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and US aid for Israel. Rosenberg also said that the vice president had requested the sitdown.
“Right now, the general feeling is JD is going to be the nominee in 2028, and he’s got a couple of loose ends that he’s got to tie up to make this really work,” said a New York source tapped into the Jewish community’s concerns. “And probably number one on the list is the conservative Jewish vote.”
The issues that give donors and other influential leaders pause are Vance’s comments indicating a separation between the US and Israel and his friendship with Carlson, this person added.
“Sid would be a logical person to call in to try to help figure this out,” the source also said.
Rosenberg has suggested that Vance may need to disavow Carlson in order to allay Jewish Republicans’ concerns, given the podcaster’s denunciations of the US-Israel alliance.
Vance had spoken at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit in Las Vegas earlier this month, where Rosenberg was harshly critical of the vice president’s remarks.
“My honest assessment of Vice President Vance tonight? He was not strong enough on Israel. In fact, he referred to Israel as ONE of our best allies. One of?” Rosenberg posted on X.
“He had a chance to hammer @TuckerCarlson and @megynkelly but instead spent all his time defending @joerogan over Nick Fuentes,” added the former sports commentator and current host of the political show “Sid & Friends in the Morning.”
“He also blamed immigration for a lot of the antisemitism in our country today,” Rosenberg said of Vance. “Silly. Look, he’s still better than any Democrat candidate but I don’t think he wowed the STRONG Jews in the room tonight.”
Conservatives at the Heritage Foundation were roiled last year by Carlson’s decision to feature Holocaust-denying, anti-semitic livestreamer Nick Fuentes in an episode of his podcast.
The political right has also been divided in recent years over the issue of US support for Israel.
In his WABC interview Thursday, Rosenberg again stressed that he was closer to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and viewed him as a preferable GOP presidential candidate in 2028, but that Vance was someone he and other Jewish Republicans could “work with.”
“I leave this meeting today, one of many between me and the vice president, I guarantee it, and I leave this meeting today feeling like I can work with this guy,” Rosenberg said. “We can work with this guy, and he is willing to listen and he’s aware, and I don’t think by any stretch that JD Vance hates Israel.”
Reps for the vice president’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
