A Widower Asked Vance Who Will Answer for His Wife's Death. Vance Made Promises Americans Should Remember.
Joey Amor, whose wife was killed by an Iranian drone in Kuwait, pressed JD Vance on accountability. Vance said, 'I don't doubt there were' failures.
The hardest question Vice President JD Vance faced in Michigan on Saturday did not come from a journalist. It came from a widower.
Joey Amor's wife, Army Reserve Master Sgt. Nicole Amor of Minnesota, was one of six people killed in an Iranian drone attack on an outpost in Kuwait on March 1, one day after the U.S. began striking Iran. It remains the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in the war, CBS News reported.
"Though the Iranian drone was the weapon that killed my wife, there were a lot of mistakes and a lot of fundamental failures that led up to that," Amor told Vance during "Things That Matter," an hour-long CBS News town hall hosted by "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil. "There's a failure in the leadership. And I want to know how this administration is gonna start holding those leaders accountable."
The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the sections marked as opinion.
What Vance told the widower
Vance called Nicole Amor "a precious human being who served her country honorably." He said, "if there were failures, and I don't doubt there were," he wanted to fix them, and admitted it was "literally the first time I've heard of this." As vice president, he said, "you live in a bit of a bubble" and "sometimes information doesn't filter up to me."
He also conceded "there are issues with … where troops were located that we realized was a huge mistake," and said those had been changed. "I promise you, this is not something I'm gonna forget," he said.
CBS News has reported concerns that the Kuwait facility was not adequately fortified and lacked the means to shoot down incoming drones. CBS counts 21 U.S. service members killed and hundreds injured since the war began in late February, according to its summary of the town hall.
Promises on ICE, corruption and the economy
Sister Nancy Sylvester, a Catholic nun, asked Vance, a fellow Catholic, how he would justify the administration's immigration tactics "to people of faith." Vance said the administration is trying to enforce the law humanely without doing "so little law enforcement that you actually empower some of the worst people in the world."
Most ICE agents are "amazing people who are patriots," he said, but "sometimes you have some people who really screw up. And obviously, we have a responsibility to prosecute, investigate when people do screw up," CBS reported. He would not name any specific case.
Asked about his past remark likening some H-1B visa holders to "foreign indentured servants," Vance said, "To the extent that my rhetoric has been imperfect here, that's on me."
On corruption, Dokoupil raised Trump's cryptocurrency earnings and the ouster of Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle over an allegation that she asked a man seeking help from the administration to wire her $100,000. Guilfoyle has denied wrongdoing. "If somebody's selling access to the White House, that's disgusting and despicable and they should suffer consequences," Vance said. He said he had seen no evidence Trump takes part in corruption, and that he would comply with congressional subpoenas: "Of course I will. Look, I mean, we follow the law," CBS reported.
On prices, he told a small business owner, "It's gonna take more than 18 months to fix things and turn them around," according to CBS.
Opinion: Accountability is a promise worth keeping
Credit where it is due. Vance did something many politicians will not do. He sat in front of a grieving husband, did not argue with him, admitted mistakes were made and owned his own careless words on immigration. Humility is not weakness. "Confess your faults one to another" (James 5:16) is good counsel for leaders, too.
But words at a town hall are the easy part. Vance made at least four promises on Saturday: to find out what went wrong in Kuwait, to prosecute and investigate agents who "screw up," to see that anyone selling access suffers consequences and to obey subpoenas. Each of those can be checked.
Voters have reason to want proof. Eight in 10 voters want major change, an AP-NORC poll found. Trust is earned by following through, especially when the person asking has buried his wife.
Scripture sets a high bar for those in power: "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required" (Luke 12:48). Nicole Amor gave everything. Her husband is owed a real answer, not just a kind one.
If Vance keeps his word to Joey Amor, he will have shown what accountable leadership looks like. If the promise fades after Election Day, that will say something too. Either way, Americans should remember what was said in Michigan.
