JD Vance on Cousin’s Criticism: He Could’ve Reached Out Via Family

US Vice President JD Vance responded to his older cousin Nate Vance’s criticism, calling Nate “the toughest guy [he] knew” but claimed that Nate did not reach out to him via their family members.

Nate Vance, a 47-year-old former US Marine, fought for nearly three years as a member of Ukraine’s “Da Vinci Wolves” elite infantry unit.

Nate Vance criticized JD Vance’s stance on Ukraine in a recent interview with French outlet La Figaro, particularly on the infamous White House meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump – with JD Vance accusing Zelensky of being ungrateful for US support – that Nate called “an ambush of absolute bad faith.”

“JD is a good guy, intelligent… When he criticized aid to Ukraine, I told myself that it was because he had to please a certain electorate, that it was the game of politics. But what they did to Zelensky was an ambush of absolute bad faith,” he said.

Addressing Nate’s criticism in a recent interview with Fox News, the vice president said he has “always considered Nate the toughest guy [he] knew” and that he was “always happy to talk to him.”

However, JD Vance said he has “no interest in arguing with [Nate Vance] in public” and questioned why Nate Vance did not try to reach out via mutual family members to share his first-hand account of what he witnessed in Ukraine.

Other Topics of Interest

‘A Remarkable Breakthrough’ – Trump Will ‘Likely’ Speak With Putin About Ceasefire

“We have a big meeting with Russia tomorrow,” US President says, adding that Zelensky is welcome to come back to the White House.

“As far as his criticisms, I have no interest in arguing with him in public, but I do feel the need to address one issue in particular: His failed effort to contact me. I am unsure why Nate felt the need to reach out to my Senate office, rather than to his mom, dad, or sister, all of whom I am in contact with regularly,” JD Vance said.

JD Vance also said he has thus far not commented on Nate Vance because he “didn’t want to endanger his life more than it already was.”

The vice president has not responded to repeated offers of an unbiased eyewitness account from the war’s front lines, and, according to Nate Vance, the junior JD Vance is making willfully uninformed US foreign policy toward Ukraine.

The two Vances are related by a common grandmother and are first cousins. Nate Vance, at 47 the elder cousin by six years, in a 78-minute January interview with The Real Jim Morris Show said that he and the vice president knew each other well from family summer vacations.

Both served in the United States Marine Corps (USMC) but at different times. The more senior Nate Vance, per his account, joined the famous American amphibious infantry formation in 1995 as a 17-year-old. At the time, USMC units were not deployed into heavy combat. Nate Vance, in public comments, said his USMC training taught him strong infantry skills.

Vice President Vance per his official biography served as a USMC military journalist. In 2005 he served in a non-combat role, in Iraq, as an official content creator and escort to civilian media.