One of the front-runners to be Donald Trump’s running mate in the presidential election once suggested he believed a woman who accused the former president of sexual assault.
Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), now a leading candidate for Trump’s vice presidential nominee, apparently issued his support for Trump accuser Jessica Leeds while the likely Republican nominee was campaigning ahead of the 2016 election.
Leeds, a former stockbroker who testified in E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault lawsuit against Trump, alleged that the former president abruptly groped her on an airplane in the 1970s.
During an October 2016 appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball With Chris Matthews, Vance was questioned about the allegations and suggested that Trump often lies and that he was inclined to “believe that woman on the tape.”
The interview, along with other negative comments from Vance, including when he called Trump an “idiot” and compared him to Adolf Hitler, resurfaced as Trump is expected to make his vice presidential pick in the coming days.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a front-runner to be Donald Trump’s running mate in the presidential election, once suggested he believed a woman who accused the former president of sexual assault. Trump (left) and Vance (right) are pictured at a rally on March 16, 2024 in Ohio.
Jessica Leeds claimed Trump groped her on a plane in the 1970s. Leeds is pictured leaving Manhattan Federal Court on May 2, 2023 after testifying in a civil case against Trump.
During the 2016 interview, Vance was shown footage of Leeds describing the alleged assault. Mediaite reported.
“These are not memories you want to rehash,” he said, adding that it was “disconcerting” to be “reliving” the incident.
“You repress it. It’s not part of your active everyday thinking. But you don’t forget it.”
Leeds alleged that Trump groped her and tried to kiss her while they were sitting next to each other in first class on a plane bound for New York City in 1979.
“Somehow the armrest of the seat disappeared. And it was a real shock when all of a sudden his hands were on me. He was like an octopus. It was like he had six arms. He was everywhere,” she said.
She accused Trump of putting his hand under her skirt before defending herself and walking away to another seat.
Matthews asked Vance, who rose to fame with his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, what he thought of Leeds’ account.
During an October 2016 appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball With Chris Matthews, JD Vance was questioned about Jessica Leeds’ allegations. He said, “At the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump, who always tells the truth? Just kidding, or do you believe that woman in the tape?”
But Vance has since changed his tune, seemingly dismissing his previous criticism of the former president, saying he was “wrong” to think Trump (pictured at a rally in Florida on July 9) would make a bad president.
Vane responded: ‘It’s kind of like… it makes me think that, fundamentally, this is kind of like what he said/she said, right?
“And in the end, do you believe Donald Trump, who always tells the truth? Just kidding, or do you believe that woman in the tape?”
The Republican lawmaker also once liked a tweet accusing Trump of “serial sexual assault,” according to Raw history.
But Vance has since changed his tone and seemingly dismissed his previous criticisms of the former president.
During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union in May, Vance told host Dana Bash: ‘Look, my view of Donald Trump – I’ve been very clear on this – is that I was wrong about him.
“I didn’t think he was going to be a good president, Dana, and I was very, very proud to be proven wrong. It’s one of the reasons I’m working so hard to get him elected.”
E. Jean Carroll (center) leaves a federal court in New York City on January 26, 2024 after a jury awarded her $83.3 million in a case against former President Donald Trump.
He also appears to have changed his mind about Trump’s accusers. Earlier this year, after a judge ordered the former president to pay Carroll $83.3 million for defamation, Vance told The Associated Press that the former president had been charged with defamation. The hill that the trial’s jurors came from “far-left jurisdictions.”
The jury found that Trump had maliciously damaged Carroll’s reputation in 2019 after she went public with her allegations.
Jurors awarded her $18 million to compensate for the personal damages she suffered and then added $65 million more to punish Trump.
The sum was on top of $5 million in damages Trump was due to pay Carroll in May 2023 following a civil trial, at which Leeds testified.
Carroll’s lawyers had called Leeds to the stand in an attempt to establish an alleged pattern of Trump assaulting women.
Jurors in the civil case rejected Carroll’s claims that she was raped but found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation after she went public with her allegations.
Senator JD Vance is pictured in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024 after the first presidential debate between Trump and Joe Biden.
Trump, meanwhile, has frequently said he will announce his running mate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next week.
Trump appeared to joke at a rally in Miami on Tuesday night that he might choose Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as his running mate.who is apparently on the final list.
The presumptive Republican nominee repeatedly mentioned Rubio during his rally, as he said there has been “a lot of press” surrounding the former presidential candidate’s prospects.
“They probably think I’m going to announce Rubio as my vice president,” Trump admitted at one point.
She also pressed Rubio on his policy proposal to eliminate tip taxes if he wins back the White House, telling him that “you may or may not be there to vote for it, but you will be involved.”
Trump’s list of running mates is also believed to include Vance and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and other outside names such as Vivek Ramaswamy and Byron Donalds have also been mentioned in recent months.
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