JD Vance defended his ties to Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Joe Rogan before a private gathering of Jewish donors and pro-Israel activists in Las Vegas, according to leaked audio.

The vice president addressed members of the Republican Jewish Coalition, many of whom had raised concerns about his friendly relationship with Carlson, a vocal critic of Israel.

Former Republican senator Norm Coleman asked Vance about the popularity of Carlson, Kelly, Rogan and anti-Semitic provocateur Nick Fuentes, whom the vice president has already denounced.

'A lot of people in this room are going to disagree with things that Tucker Carlson or Megyn Kelly or Joe Rogan have said,' Vance told the audience, according to audio obtained by the New York Times. 

'But I think, just to hone in on Fuentes and Rogan, I think these are two very, very different categories of people, both with their reach, but also within the ideas that are in their actual head,' Vance added. 

The vice president argued that the 'best approach' to combat anti-Israel sentiment on the right is 'actually go in there and talk to him [Rogan] and make the argument as best as you can.'

But on Fuentes, Vance did not hold back: 'Obviously, I’m not going to go talk to a guy who’s attacked my wife or who said that Hitler was a good guy.' 

His comments reportedly drew a standing ovation from the audience of Jewish conservative voters gathered at the closed-door summit. 

Carlson, Kelly and Rogan became powerful media allies for Trump and Vance during the 2024 campaign. Carlson stumped for the ticket, while Kelly endorsed Trump at a closing rally in Pittsburgh. 

Rogan's last minute interview with Trump also drew more than 40million views online on the eve of Election Day. 

Carlson had helped turn Vance into a household name in Republican politics years earlier by featuring him on his Fox News show, including for his first interview after launching his 2021 Ohio Senate campaign.

Vance returned to Rogan’s podcast in July for a nearly three-hour interview in which he defended the administration’s Iran policy and admitted it had bungled its handling of the Epstein files.

Later in the speech, Vance said one of the 'obvious elephants in the room' was the growing number of young Americans who view the US relationship with Israel negatively.

A February Gallup poll found that 53 percent of Americans aged 18 to 34 sympathized more with the Palestinians, the first time a majority of that age group had done so, while a record-low 23 percent sided with the Israelis.   

'What we have to do is articulate why this is in the best interest of the United States of America,' Vance argued. 

'I think it’s very, very important to talk about the concrete alignment of interest, and to hook the relationship on that.'

Vance is considered a leading contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, although he has yet to announce whether he will run.