US Vice President JD Vance has left the hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe stunned after comparing Iran's right to enrich uranium to his wife's freedom to go skydiving. Speaking at Budapest airport during a visit to Hungary, Vance mocked a remark by Iran's parliamentary speaker about the country's 'right to enrichment' and said: 'My wife has the right to skydive, but she doesn't jump out of an airplane because she and I have an agreement that she's not going to do that because I don't want my wife jumping out of an airplane.'
Morning Joe presenter Mika Brzezinski struggled to contain her disbelief, saying: 'I really don't want to hear about women's rights from JD Vance.' Her co-host Joe Scarborough interjected, calling the analogy 'so confusing' and adding, 'my teeth hurt right now trying to figure it out.' Contributor Willie Geist joked: 'I also didn't know you were allowed to give your wife rules of things she can't do.'
Vance made the comments shortly after the US agreed a temporary ceasefire with Iran, brokered by Pakistan, just in time to halt a fresh round of airstrikes. However, the truce is already under strain over whether it includes Israel's campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is a key aim of Operation Epic Fury, though President Donald Trump previously claimed to have 'obliterated' enrichment facilities in a bombing campaign last summer.
Before the analogy, Vance stated: 'We don't want Iran to have the capacity to build a nuclear weapon... Those are going to be our demands during the negotiation.' The comments come amid ongoing tensions over Iran's uranium enrichment, which can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
