Pod Save America Host Says JD Vance Lied to Widower of Soldier Killed in Kuwait

Former Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor accused Vice President JD Vance of lying to a man whose wife was killed in the Iran war. At a CBS News town hall, Vance told the man he had never heard of the failures at the Kuwait base where she died. Vietor says that claim was false.

In a CBS town hall that aired Saturday, Vance took questions from voters in a session moderated by Tony Dokoupil. Joey Amor's wife, Master Sgt. Nicole Amor, was one of six Army Reserve soldiers killed on March 1. He asked Vance about the "mistakes and fundamental failures" that led to their deaths and how leaders would be held accountable, the Associated Press reported. Vance answered, "This literally is the first time I've heard of this," and offered to talk with Amor afterward.

"But I think the thing that everyone needs to know about that exchange is he's lying to his face," Vietor said.

"Lying" is Vietor's word. His charge rests on how widely the failures at the base had been reported. The hosts also pointed to reports, leaked by Vance's own staff, that the vice president had been calling combatant commanders to get his own battle assessments of the war's impact on U.S. bases in the region. If that is true, they argued, he would have known about the problems at Port Shuaiba.

What the Record Shows About the Port Shuaiba Attack

Nicole Amor, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, served with the 103rd Sustainment Command. She was posthumously promoted to master sergeant. She was killed when an Iranian drone hit a U.S. operations center at Port Shuaiba on March 1.

Doubts about the site were reported almost immediately. On March 3, military officials told CBS News that the operations center was "a triple-wide trailer made into an office space" and that there was no counter-rocket, artillery and mortar system at the port. They said requests for more counter-drone capability were made but that "those additional resources never came." A Pentagon spokesperson disputed that, describing the site as a secure facility fortified with 6-foot walls.

An AP investigation went further. It reported that intelligence officers had urged commanders "to not go there." Separately, when Maj. Gen. John Hinson asked whether the port was on a list of planned Iranian targets obtained by U.S. intelligence, he was told it was not on the list but was "considered a likely secondary target," the AP reported. The port's only U.S. air defense, the AP reported, was a Patriot system near Camp Arifjan that was "ill-equipped for shooting down Iranian drones."

Vance did not deny the failures outright. As he went on, he said "there were issues with where troops were located that we realized was a huge mistake that we could do better on, and we have changed that," the AP reported.

The Army has said it will brief the families on the investigation's findings first. "Out of respect for the primary next of kin," it told the AP, it would not comment on specific details or leaked portions of the report.

JD Vance on Donald Trump Corruption: 'Not a Single Shred of Evidence'

The hosts also pointed to Vance's defense of the president. When Dokoupil pressed him on crypto profits and the ambassador to Greece, Vance said the reports left him uneasy: "it makes me uneasy when I read about my public officials potentially getting wealthy off of my public trust." He called Washington a corrupt town. Then he said: "Donald Trump, I have not seen a single shred of evidence that he participates or sanctions in that corruption."

Co-host Jon Lovett said that after that answer, "Tony's just like, okay, next issue." Vietor said CBS "gave him a softball to like tee off on tech CEOs" and did not follow up.

"There were some real opportunities there to press him on stuff in a way that just had not happened in a while," Vietor said.

The answers come as the administration's numbers sag. Donald Trump's approval stands at 37.8 percent in PolitiKool's polling average.

What Happens Next

Vance leads the 2028 Republican field at 38.5 percent in PolitiKool's polling average. That makes the Kuwait exchange an early test of how he will answer for the Iran war.