Vice President JD Vance pushed back Monday against a report from Axios claiming he had scrapped a trip to Israel due to the Israel Defense Forces stepping up military operations in Gaza.
Before boarding a flight from Rome, Vance addressed the media and was asked if the report was accurate.
“Well, I think there’s a lot of overstatement there. I haven’t seen the story, to be clear, so I don’t want to speak to the details,” the Vice President replied.
Vance explained that while a trip to Israel was under consideration, it wasn’t the only destination being discussed.
“But the simple reason is, we thought about going to Israel. We also thought about going to a couple of other countries that the president would like me to visit here in the next few months. Logistically, it was just a little bit too hard on basic things like who is going to take care of our kids if we take another couple of days overseas,” he said.
He went on to cite more technical and planning-related factors that influenced the decision.“But on – some more serious things, like how do we provide security, how do we make sure that we get – all the assets that we need in order to do the right official delegation.”
“So, I’m sure we’ll visit Israel sometime in the future, but not today,” Vance concluded.
The initial report came Sunday from journalist Amit Segal, who said Vance was expected to land in Israel on Tuesday.
However, the White House was quick to reject those claims. A White House spokesperson stated, “Media reports that the vice president will visit Israel are false,” emphasizing that Vance was scheduled to return to Washington on Monday.
{Matzav.com}