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2 months ago
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Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, in his first interview since being selected as Donald Trump‘s running mate, responded to the flood of media coverage of what he had once said about the former president.
Vance was a never-Trump figure during the 2016 cycle, and even served as a CNN political analyst following the publication of his book Hillbilly Elegy. But he’s since become one of Trump’s staunchest defenders, endorsed by the former president in his successful 2022 presidential run.
At the Republican National Convention, Fox News‘ Sean Hannity asked Vance, “You texted a friend that Trump is a cynical a-hole like Nixon who wouldn’t bet that bad and might even prove useful, and that he’s America’s Hitler, you compared him to cultural heroin in The Atlantic monthly. … You said that then, what do you say to people that say, ‘Well wait a minute. What did he mean?”
Vance responded, “I don’t hide from that. I was certainly skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016. But President Trump was a great president and he changed my mind. I think he changed the minds of a lot of Americans because, again, he delivered that peace and prosperity.”
Vance said that in 2016, “I bought into the media’s lies and distortions. I bought into this idea that somehow he was going to be somehow he was going to be so different, a terrible threat to democracy. It was a joke.”
Vance said that Trump called him earlier today to formally offer to become the vice presidential nominee, and even asked that his new running mate put his seven-year-old son on the phone. “Think about this: Everything that’s happened. The guy just got shot at a couple days ago and he takes the time to talk to my seven year old. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
