In his first exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post since winning reelection, Florida Republican Representative Randy Fine accused the vice president of betraying Trump, blamed him for the failure to end the Iran war, and called Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed a “Muslim terrorist.”
Republican Congressman Randy Fine of Florida said Sunday that he would not support Vice President JD Vance in the 2028 Republican presidential primary, accusing him of betraying President Donald Trump and scapegoating Israel and American Jews for the Republican Party’s crushing midterm election defeat.
In his first exclusive interview with the Post since winning reelection on Tuesday, Fine delivered an unusually harsh attack on the vice president, blaming him for the failure of diplomatic efforts to end the war in Iran and warning about the growing influence of the Tucker Carlson wing of the Republican Party.
“I won’t endorse JD Vance in the 2028 primary,” Fine told the Post. “Given the things that he said about Israel and everything else, I thought it was important to say I found Vance’s message to be abhorrent and wrong.”
Fine accuses Vance of shifting blame for midterm losses to Jewish community
Fine went further, accusing Vance of shifting responsibility for the Republican defeat onto the Jewish community.
“When people want to refuse to take responsibility for their own failures, what weak people do is they blame the Jews, and that’s exactly what he did,” Fine said. “And I find it inexcusable.”
The congressman’s remarks followed Vance’s controversial assessment of Tuesday’s elections, in which Democrats captured control of both the House and Senate.
In a lengthy statement on X, Vance argued that the Iran war had been a major factor in the Republican defeat. He said voters who previously backed Trump wanted the administration to end the war, address inflation, put America first and change Washington’s relationship with Israel.
Vance did not explicitly blame Jewish Americans for the election results, but Fine interpreted his comments about Israel as an attempt to redirect responsibility for the administration’s failures.
“I thought his comments were a betrayal of the president,” Fine said.
‘JD Vance is the reason the war in Iran is not over’
Fine also directly challenged Vance’s handling of negotiations with Tehran, arguing that the vice president’s diplomatic approach had prolonged the conflict rather than brought it to an end.
“People aren’t angry that we stopped Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” Fine said. “People are angry about the consequences of trying to negotiate with people who are not honorable.”
“JD Vance is the reason that the war in Iran is not over because he led us astray in claiming that we could do a peace deal,” he continued.
Referring to the memorandum of understanding negotiated during earlier efforts to end the fighting, Fine asked: “Remember the idiotic MOU? Well, that was him. How’d that work out?”
“Had his MOU worked, everything would be fine now,” he added.
Vance played a leading role in diplomatic negotiations with Iran earlier this year, including talks aimed at securing an agreement to end the conflict. Those efforts failed to produce a lasting settlement.
Fine’s accusation represents a sharp challenge to the vice president’s emerging position within the Republican Party ahead of a possible presidential campaign in 2028.
The Florida congressman rejected the suggestion that Israel or American Jews were responsible for the Republican defeat.
“Look, I take responsibility for the election results. I won. I was one of the only Republicans in America whose margin increased from their last election,” he said.
“But it’s my side that lost, and I’m not looking to blame anyone else for that. We have to make a hard assessment about why things went badly, but it ain’t because of Israel, and it’s certainly not because of the Jews.”
Fine blames 'Carlson wing' of Republican Party for anti-Israel political forces
Asked whether American Jews and Israelis living in the United States should be concerned about the political forces surrounding Vance, Fine pointed directly to the influence of conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.
“That comes from the Tucker Carlson wing of the Republican Party, and it’s disqualified,” he said.
Fine also suggested that Israelis may not fully appreciate the speed at which anti-Israel rhetoric has gained influence in American political discourse.
“One would think October 7 would have created great sympathy for the Jewish people,” he said. “Instead, those who have always hated us feel emboldened to say the most ridiculous things.”
Fine calls Michigan’s newly elected senator a ‘Muslim terrorist’
The congressman was equally uncompromising when discussing Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democrat who defeated Republican Mike Rogers on Tuesday to become the first Muslim elected to the United States Senate.
In one of the interview’s most inflammatory exchanges, Fine described El-Sayed as a “Muslim terrorist.”
Asked directly whether he was using that characterization to describe the newly elected senator, Fine stood by his words.
“I don’t know that that’s in dispute,” he said.
Fine alleged that members of El-Sayed’s family were affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and claimed that the senator-elect had signed a document supporting the organization.
“If you support terrorism, you are a terrorist. I’m not sure why that’s controversial,” he said.
There is, however, no verified evidence that El-Sayed has participated in terrorist activity or belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood. The senator-elect has repeatedly denied connections to the organization and publicly disavowed it.
Fact-checking organizations have also challenged Republican claims that El-Sayed pledged his support to the Muslim Brotherhood. A 2012 statement he signed defended Egypt’s then-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, who was affiliated with the movement, but did not constitute a general pledge of allegiance to the Brotherhood.
Fine’s allegations therefore remain disputed and unsupported by the available evidence.
‘I wouldn’t form a government with people who want to destroy your country’
Fine also weighed in on the political developments in Israel following the recent Knesset elections.
While acknowledging that decisions about the formation of a coalition are for Israelis to make, he expressed strong opposition to bringing parties he views as hostile to the state into government.
“That’s up to the Israelis. I’m not Israeli,” Fine said. “I wouldn’t form a government, though, with people who want to destroy your country.”
He argued that Israel faces what he described as an existential question about political participation.
“I think you have a real existential question about what happens when you allow people to vote who, if they were to win, would dismantle the very government they are trying to serve,” he said.
Asked to compare his concerns about El-Sayed’s election in the United States with the prospect of including Arab parties in an Israeli governing coalition, Fine said he considered both deeply troubling.
“I think they’re both equally bad,” he said, comparing the choices to competing nuclear threats.
His remarks did not distinguish between the political positions of different Arab parties in Israel, and his characterization of their representatives as terrorists was not supported by evidence presented during the interview.
The Florida Republican ended the conversation with a stark warning about the direction of American politics and the challenges facing Jewish communities and supporters of Israel.
“I think we have very dark times ahead,” Fine said. “And it’s going to be very important in those dark times to be willing to speak the truth, and to not be afraid to do it.”