'He's my friend': Vance stands by Tucker Carlson despite call to remove Trump

Vice President JD Vance has defended his friendship with Tucker Carlson and refuses to distance himself from the podcaster despite his controversial call for President Trump's removal. "Tucker is a friend of mine," Vance said during a White House press briefing on Thursday, local time. "Tucker is a friend despite the fact that we disagree on a number of things and I'm not going to play the game where I throw friends under the bus because I have political disagreements with them." Vance acknowledged Carlson had "said some things about the president of the United States that I think are just wrong," but stopped short of cutting ties with him. The comments came after Carlson said any president who considers using nuclear weapons first should be "removed from office immediately," in remarks made alongside former National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent. Vance also addressed Carlson's endorsement of Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed over Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan's Senate race, calling El-Sayed a "crazy person" and saying he preferred "a non-crazy person like Mike Rogers" to represent the state.