Vice President JD Vance said he doesn't see "simmering antisemitism that’s exploding" among young conservatives, even as some Republicans raise concerns about such views gaining traction on the right.

Vance in an NBC interview said "I think it’s kind of slanderous to say that the Republican Party, the conservative movement, is extremely antisemitic.”

The antisemitism debate has raged on the right after conservative media figure Tucker Carlson interviewed white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

Fuentes has a history of promoting racist and extremist views. Carlson didn't push back during their interview when Fuentes said Jews are not loyal Americans.

Fuentes said "the main challenge to" unifying the country is "organized Jewry in America."

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas criticized Carlson after the interview, saying: "If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool, and that their mission is to combat and defeat global Jewry, and you say nothing, then you are a coward and you are complicit in that evil."

There have been a number of incidents in recent months of Republicans being associated with Nazi symbology or ideology.

Cruz in an October speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition said he's seen more antisemitism on the right in recent months than at any time in his life, calling it a "poison" and an "existential crisis" for the GOP and the nation.

The debate also roiled the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, after President Kevin Roberts released a video saying he wouldn't denounce Carlson and blasting his critics. Members of Heritage's antisemitism taskforce and two scholars resigned in protest.

Vance told NBC that “Judging anybody based on their skin color or immutable characteristics, I think, is fundamentally anti-American and anti-Christian. I do think it’s important to call this stuff out when I see it." But he rejected the idea that antisemitism is a major problem on the right.

“Do I think that the Republican Party is substantially more antisemitic than it was 10 or 15 years ago? Absolutely not,” Vance said. “In any bunch of apples, you have bad people."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Vance downplays concerns about antisemitism on the right

Reporting by Zac Anderson and Phillip M. Bailey, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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