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Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., said Vice President JD Vance’s election analysis posted online last week amounted to an attack on the Jewish people, leading him to swear off support for any presidential aspirations Vance might have for 2028.
“I definitively will not be supporting the vice president in that nominating contest. I thought his message that he put out the day after the election was abhorrent and, frankly, smacked of the kind of thing you’d read in 1932 Germany,” Fine, who is himself Jewish, said in an interview with Fox Now.
“He’s out in my book,” he added. “He blamed the Jews for losing the election.”
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Rep. Randy Fine outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 18, 2025. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Fine’s blistering attack on Vance comes as the GOP is working to understand the midterm election results, in which Republicans lost control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. It also underscores tensions in the GOP as the party wrestles with how to balance America-First principles with its alliance with Israel.
In his breakdown, Vance cited polling that identified four key items disillusioned voters wanted to see from Republicans: ending the war in Iran, focusing on the cost of living, putting America first and changing the U.S.-Israel relationship.
“Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats,” Vance wrote.
Amid that mix, Vance especially singled out the first item, noting that Trump had himself identified the Iran conflict as a decisive factor in the midterms in interviews after the election.
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance said. “The president himself said so last night.”
But Fine had a different diagnosis.
When asked about his comments by Digital, Fine doubled down on his characterization, arguing that the vice president had tacitly laid blame on “the Jews” in three of the four reasons he had identified.
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Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., left, pictured alongside Vice President JD Vance. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images; Tierney L. Cross-Pool/Getty Images)
“What does America First mean when you’ve said, ‘end the war’ and ‘change our relationship with Israel?’ Isn’t that saying the same thing? When you hear… talk about America First, are they saying, ‘let’s stop giving aid to Egypt?’ No, it’s always about Israel. So it’s three times out of four things,” Fine said.
Although Vance’s election breakdown didn’t mention Jews specifically, Fine believes the connection between Israel as a state and the Jewish people is inseparable.
“You can’t be Jewish if you don’t believe in Israel. It’s core to our identity and who we are,” Fine said.
Fine also believes there is a distinction between Trump’s view of the war in Iran and the breakdown expressed by Vance. In particular, Fine highlighted comments from Trump in which the president said he would likely do the war over again if given the opportunity.
“The president said it himself. He said, I would do it again knowing what I know now because they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Fine said.
“I’m not sure JD Vance is bothered by the idea of Iran having a nuclear weapon,” he added.
Vance’s office declined to respond to the characterization.
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Vice President JD Vance meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Oct. 22, 2025. (Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post/AP)
Fine has been one of Israel’s loudest supporters in the House of Representatives. He has introduced several pro-Israel pieces of legislation, such as the Enhanced Iran Sanctions Act of 2025, argued that the U.S. should recognize the Muslim Brotherhood, a political-religious organization, as a terrorist organization, and urged the U.S. to officially designate the Palestinian-controlled West Bank with the Jewish historical names of “Judea and Samaria.”
He encouraged Republicans to steer clear of seeing Israel as the reason why the GOP underperformed in the midterm elections.
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“If you don’t identify the true reasons for the failure, you will fail again, which is why JD Vance can’t be our nominee because he doesn’t understand the reason that we lost the election,” Fine said.
