WATCH: Hannity Grills Vivek Ramaswamy on Controversial Israel Remarks

(VINnews) — Sean Hannity grilled Vivek Ramaswamy about his campaign stance Israel on Monday, in a heated interview on Fox. Ramaswamy appeared to walk back or at least clarify his stance from last week, in which he suggested that the USA should stop funding Israel.

Hannity opened, “You said aid to Israel, our number one ally, only democracy in the region, should end in 2028 and that they should be integrated with their neighbors.”

“That’s false,” Ramaswamy replied.

“That was the exact quote. You want me to read it?” Hannity asked.

“I can tell you the exact quote,” Ramaswamy said. ”What I said is it would be a mark of success if we ever got to a point in our relationship with Israel if Israel never needed the United States’ aid, and Sean, you know how politics is played. A lot of the other professional politicians who have been threatened by my rise have used that statement to say that I would cut off aid to Israel. That’s not correct. I’ve been crystal clear.”

Hannity asked whether he understood “the importance of the strategic alliance,” “intelligence sharing in an area of the world where we have a lot of enemies,” and “how important it is with Iran especially seeking nukes,”

Ramaswamy responded:

“I understand it I think more deeply than probably anybody in this race. I’ve traveled to Israel. I have business partners in Israel. The reality is this, by the end of my first term our relationship with Israel will will be stronger than it ever has been because I will treat it as a true friendship, not just a transactional relationship.”

Hannity pushed, “Then why did you say that they shouldn’t have preferential treatment? Why did you say that Israel should not have preferential treatment from us? That’s a direct quote.”

“No, those are direct quotes from headlines summarized by opposition research fed to the fake news media,” Ramaswamy argued, before claiming that “Abraham Accords 2.0 is my top priority, which is to get Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar into that pact with Israel, and foremost, to have a partnership with Israel that does something really important for the U.S., which is to make sure that Iran never, ever, ever has nuclear capabilities.”