Full blame on the journalist, silence on his own posts

Vice President JD Vance has been going on the attack, focusing most of his comments on Goldberg.

Vance also went out of his way to defend Ratcliffe over accusations he breached policy by disclosing the name of a career CIA officer who serves as his chief of staff, issuing a post where he accused Goldberg of having “oversold what he had” about the nation’s spy chief. He has not reposted any defenses of Hegseth or national security adviser Mike Waltz.

But Vance hasn’t personally addressed his own potential misstep — dissenting from Trump’s view about the benefits of striking the Houthis and the apparent help it would provide “free-loading” European allies. At one point, Vance also questioned whether the strike should go forward that week.

Vance’s spokesperson, William Martin, did do some damage control, telling POLITICO when reports emerged about the chat that the vice president “unequivocally supports this administration’s foreign policy.”

“The vice president’s first priority is always making sure that the president’s advisers are adequately briefing him on the substance of their internal deliberations,” Martin said, adding that Vance and Trump “had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement.”