‘We Know He’s Hurt’: JD Vance Dishes Details On New Supreme Leader’s Health

Vice President JD Vance told reporters on the tarmac before boarding Air Force Two on Friday that he believes Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive, but was injured in the U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed his father, Ali Khamenei.

Mojtaba Khamenei reportedly suffered serious injuries in the strike and may even be in a coma, according to i24 News.

“A source in Tehran told reporters that the new supreme leader is hospitalized in intensive care at Sina University Hospital after sustaining serious injuries in an airstrike,” the outlet reported.

CBS News’s Jennifer Jacobs was among the reporters on the tarmac.

“@VP tells us it’s not clear if the wounds that the new Supreme leader of Iran suffered are from a US strike, given much fire in this war, but it was likely from either Israel and US,” Jacobs wrote on X. “‘We know that he’s hurt. We don’t know exactly how bad, but we know that he’s hurt,’ Vance said.”

NewsNation cameras caught up with Vance on the tarmac, with the host saying, “I’m gonna go to J.D. Vance, the vice president, live, being asked about the supreme leader of Iran. He just said, they know he’s hurt. They believe — they think he’s alive. Let’s listen to on the tarmac.”

Unfortunately, Vance was done talking about the supreme leader, but he did answer a reporter’s question about his “philosophical differences” with President Donald Trump on the onset of the war.

“When you’re thinking about a major decision like this, the way the president makes these decisions is, he talks to a lot of people,” Vance said. “Obviously we’re thinking about various ins and outs, various options, what this looks like, how to accomplish our goals, what our goals should be.”

Vance continued, “And I think it’s important for the president of the United States to be able to have that conversation with his team without his team then running their mouths to the American media. So, part of what makes our national security team so cohesive is that we all trust each other and we all have a very free exchange of ideas, and I’d like to keep that going.”

Watch the clip above via NewsNation.

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