Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, repeatedly indicated in 2016 that he believed Donald Trump had committed sexual assault, even suggesting in one TV segment that in a “he said, she said” situation Trump was less credible than one of his accusers.
Vance appeared on a MSNBC segment in October 2016 on Trump’s alleged sexual misconduct in which an interview with Jessica Leeds, a former salesperson who accused Trump of groping and forcibly kissing her during a flight in the 1970s, was played. Vance said it was hard to believe Trump’s denials over Leeds.
“At a fundamental level, this is sort of a ‘he said, she said,’ right? And at the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump, who always tells the truth? Just kidding,” said Vance sarcastically. “Or do you believe that woman on that tape?” he said, referring to Leeds.
But by May 2023, in a sign of his shift on Trump from open critic to fiercely loyal surrogate, Vance’s position changed entirely while invoking similar language: Vance said he believed his “friend” Trump, just after the former president was found liable by a jury for sexual abuse against author E. Jean Carroll.
“I think fundamentally the lawsuit is about something that happened 25 years ago. It’s a ‘he said, she said’ situation. And I trust my friend and the guy that I’ve known and gotten to know,” the Ohio Republican told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, about six months after winning his US Senate race with Trump’s endorsement.
Vance then suggested that the lawsuit, and the people funding it, was not about justice but about politics. “They are trying to take him down for political reasons. That, to me, is not about justice, that’s not about discovering the truth. That’s about using the legal system instead of the political system to win a debate against Donald Trump.”
A spokesperson for Vance told CNN, “JD’s tweets and comments about President Trump from nearly a decade ago are old news that have been addressed numerous times since he entered the political world. They don’t reflect his views on President Trump today and haven’t for many years.”
Trump has repeatedly denied claims of sexual assault.
Vance’s defense of Trump marked a striking shift from his remarks in 2016 in the wake of the leak of the “Access Hollywood” tape, which showed the Republican presidential candidate making lewd and sexually aggressive remarks about women.
In October 2016, Vance tweeted, “What percentage of the American population has @realDonaldTrump sexually assaulted?”
The tweet, which was first reported in 2018, was later deleted, but its replies still exist on the platform, and the tweet was later compiled in an opposition report published by his own super PAC in 2022 to uncover his potential vulnerabilities as a candidate.
In deleted likes from his Twitter account, reviewed by CNN, Vance had also indicated he believed Trump’s accusers and those who criticized Trump as a “serial sexual assault[er].”
“Maybe the Central Park 5 could take out a full-page ad to condemn the coddling of thug real estate barons who commit serial sexual assault,” read the post, again posted just after the “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced.
Another post liked in 2016 by Vance said, “I wish there was a 2nd Vice Presidential debate just to see @GovPenceIN deny that Trump said he grabbed p*ssy.”
And in October 2016, Vance shared on Facebook a Washington Post editorial by Russell Moore, then of the Southern Baptist Convention, criticizing Trump’s views on women.
