A bombshell Time magazine report about foreign influence and social media took the internet by storm this week and led to a now-viral exchange between Vice President J.D. Vance and Joe Rogan about the role paid influencers may have played in trying to derail his negotiations with Iran.
“I definitely think you have seen this very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation and try to derail the deal,” Vance told Rogan at one point in their three-hour sit-down on Wednesday.
“There’s this Time article that came out yesterday — a friend sent it to me — it’s worth reading because it lists a bunch of people who have quite literally been paid by a former Trump campaign person, who was himself paid by certain elements within the Israeli government,” he explained. “And those people are attacking me viciously for quite literally trying to accomplish the negotiation objective that the president set for the country.”
The Time report by senior correspondent Eric Cortellessa is titled “Trump’s Ex-Campaign Manager Is Running An Israeli Influence Operation Targeting the MAGA Base” and explores how Brad Parscale, who briefly ran the Trump 2020 campaign, and his company are being paid by Israel to conduct influence campaigns, according to U.S.Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings.
The vice president went on to explain that the attacks involved “social media posts… leaking to reporters… obsessively saying that we should not be negotiating with Iran, that we should just keep the military campaign going indefinitely.”
Vance told Rogan “people are always going to try to influence the United States of America, whether they’re allies of ours or whether they are enemies of ours.” And while he has no issue with criticism of the Iran negotiations or the deal, he does take issue with where that criticism is coming from.
“I don’t actually mind that certain elements of the Israeli government want to criticize the deal or have disagreements about the deal. I don’t even mind an effort to try to influence– you know, foreign governments try to influence the United States all the time. Israel does it, other countries do it. It’s just sort of the nature of the beast,” he said. “What bothers me is actually when Americans — meaning American leadership — allow that influence to affect their judgment and to affect what they are advocating for. That’s what really bothers me.”
“Again, when I open up the pages of Time magazine and I see that there’s a literal foreign influence campaign being funded to tank the very deal that I was pursuing — and, oh, by the way, many of the people who were receiving that money were actually attacking me in completely dishonest ways — my response to that is: Well, go to hell. I’m going to do what I have to do for the American people. I represent Americans first,” Vance added.
Taking a Closer Look
Megyn has been talking about these influence campaigns for months now based on her own experience on social media. On Friday’s show, she was joined by Trump political adviser Alex Bruesewitz, who has been sounding the alarm on this issue so much so that some people have called for him to be fired. Keep scrolling for their complete analysis:
Why Israel’s Influence Campaign in America is Failing
Megyn and Bruesewitz discuss why the Israeli influencer campaign is failing in America, the way these efforts undermine the cause of supporting Israel, the “PR disaster” of some of Israel’s biggest spokespeople, and more.
Getting to the Truth About Foreign Influence on Social Media
Bruesewitz and Megyn break down the truth about foreign influence in politics and social media, what we’re now starting to learn about the scope of the paid influencer campaigns, when and more.
What’s Really Behind the Campaign Against Certain MAGA Supporters
Bruesewitz explains why he’s pushing for greater disclosure about paid political social media posts, politicians and content creators working against the Trump agenda, and more.
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Bruesewitz by tuning in to episode 1,362 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.