Vice President J.D. Vance chimed in on being the last world leader to have met with the late Pope Francis just hours before Francis spoke out against border security policies in a brief Easter Sunday message and then succumbed to a heart attack and stroke overnight into Monday.
"I knew he was very ill," Vance told reporters on the tarmac in Agra, India, adding, "I didn't realize how sick he was" when they met Easter Sunday before the Pope's brief remarks.
Some on social media and on the left blamed Vance for Pope's death, with others apparently thanking him in the name of conservative politics.
Vance called out the politicization of their Easter Sunday meeting and Francis' death "sick" and "crazy."
"I thought a lot about that," Vance told reporters. "It's pretty crazy, actually, and obviously when I saw him, I didn't know he had less than 24 hours still on this earth."
Vance called that brief, final meeting with Francis "a great blessing."
"I try to just remember that I was lucky that I got to shake his hand and tell him that I pray for him every day," Vance said, before excoriating the social media and legacy media "soiling" of Francis' legacy.
"A lot of people, especially in the American press, want to make the Holy Father and his entire legacy and even his death about American politics," Vance said. "I think he was obviously a much broader figure than the United States of America. He represents over a billion Catholics worldwide.
"Yes, I'm aware that he had some disagreements with American policies of our administration. He also had a lot of agreements with some of the policies of our administration. I'm not going to soil the man's legacy by talking about politics, I think he was a great Christian pastor and that's how I choose to remember the Holy Father."
Vance noted he has not decided about whether he was going to be assigned to join President Donald Trump and first lady Melania at the Francis' funeral Saturday in Rome, but he was clear in that he will not politicize the Catholic church in their discussions on their next Pope.
"I won't pretend to give guidance to the cardinals on who they should select as the next Pope," Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, said of Francis, who critics have derided as a left-leaning globalist. "We've got plenty of issues to focus on in the United States.
"I'll just say a prayer for wisdom because I obviously want them to pick the right person. I want them to pick somebody who will be good for the world's Catholics, but I'll let them make that decision, and obviously they're entitled to do so."