Vance downplays choice not to support Netanyahu, says won't endorse 'any more foreign candidates'

"I'm not endorsing Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu," US Vice President JD Vance told reporters before a political rally in Ohio, after US President Donald Trump endorsed Netanyahu earlier this week.

Speaking less than a week before the Israeli election, Vance seemed to downplay his hesitation to endorse the current Israeli prime minister.

"Look, I have endorsed one foreign candidate for election in my entire life," Vance explained. "It didn't go particularly well, as much as I'm very much an admirer of [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orban."

Vance said he was instead devoting his time to the US election cycle, adding that he is "very focused on getting candidates elected in the United States of America."

"As I said in that interview, I'm not attacking Bibi Netanyahu. I'm not endorsing Bibi Netanyahu," he said.

"I think the president's endorsement is ultimately what matters, and the president is going to make the decision about how he doles out that endorsement according to his preferences."

"I'm going to be focused on the midterm elections here in the United States of America. I'm not endorsing any more foreign candidates now or in the future," Vance added.

Vance avoids answering a journalist's question about endorsement of Netanyahu

In an earlier interview with journalist Mark Halperin, Vance was asked whether he supported Netanyahu's reelection shortly after Trump officially endorsed the Israeli prime minister.

“The president has the most effective endorsement in American or international political history,” Vance answered. “I endorse American candidates, and that’s where I’m focused on as the midterms."

"I’m not getting involved in Israeli elections," he added.

Halperin kept pushing the US vice president to answer; however, he simply reiterated that he was not "getting involved" in Israel's election.

Trump: Netanyahu is a 'Great Warrior Prime Minister'

"If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so," Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social endorsing Netanyahu.

"Bibi Netanyahu has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combating the Islamic Republic of Iran."

He went on to describe Netanyahu as "Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel itself.”

Trump then addressed Netanyahu's leadership after October 7, calling him "brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition."

"Despite all of that, he has endured and, in fact, he has thrived!" Trump wrote. "I have watched Bibi under the most trying of times. Normal men or women in such situations would have wilted under the pressure - But Bibi did not wilt; he actually got stronger and maintains that same Strength today."

The US president's "Complete and Total Endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu" on Sunday marked a reversal from his position just three days earlier, when he refused to endorse any Israeli candidates during an interview with Newsmax.