FORMER TRUMP CRITIC JD VANCE NAMED 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE
By Madelyn Herrera
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore // Flickr
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has announced senator JD Vance, who was once an open critic of the former president, as his vice presidential nominee in the 2024 US election.
The US Senator publicly criticised Trump when he first ran for president in 2016 but has grown close with him after receiving his endorsement while running for Senate in 2022, which pushed him to the top of the Republican field.
Vance told Fox News in an interview on Monday: "I would not have won that race without Donald Trump's endorsement.”
In the past, and before Trump’s endorsement, Vance called him a “terrible candidate”, said he “never liked him” and that he was “never a Trump guy”.
In a message to a former law school roommate, Vance compared Trump to Hitler.
He said: “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole…or that he’s America’s Hitler.”
In response to his comments surrounding the two-time presidential nominee, Vance said: “I was certainly sceptical 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.
“I bought into the media's lies and distortions. I bought into this idea that somehow he was going to be so different, a terrible threat to democracy. President Trump did a really good job and I actually think it's a good thing when you see somebody, you were wrong about them, you ought to admit the mistake and admit that you were wrong.”
When Trump shared his decision on Truth Social on Monday, he described Vance as “the person best suited” for the role of Vice President and, according to Vance, told him during a phone call: “I need to go save this country and I think you are the guy who can help me in the best way.”
Becoming the vice presidential nominee has made Vance, by extension, an early frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028.
Vance has received much criticism for his conservative views on many subjects such as marriage, abortion, climate change, and gun control.
According to an article published by Vice in 2022, Vance said that people need to be more willing to stay in unhappy marriages “for the sake of their kids”.
Vance, who responded to the article in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, accused Democrats of having “twisted his words”.
He said: “As you know, both me and my mom were victims of domestic violence and to say ‘Vance is supportive to women staying in violent marriages’, I think it's shameful to take a guy with my history and background and say that is what I believe.”
Some members of the Democratic party have said Trump’s decision to pick Vance as his VP is “unbelievable” and a “huge transformation”.
The Biden-Harris headquarters responded to his decision by posting on their official X (formerly Twitter) account:
Vance concluded the interview with Fox News saying: “Donald Trump has given me the incredible honour and we get to go and make the case to the American people that President Trump's next four years can be as great as the first four years, maybe even better.”