JD Vance, a man who became a Senator from Ohio based entirely on the strength and popularity of a book he’d written that became a film, opposed Donald Trump back in 2016.
By that, I don’t just mean that he refused to endorse him, like the Log Cabin Republicans did. I mean, he flat-out made fun of how much Trump lied constantly, as everyone knew. And worse, he said he believed the account of a woman who accused Trump of groping her on an airplane.
Jessica Leeds was just one of MANY women who have accused the former president of inappropriate sexual behavior, and honestly, there’s no reason not to believe all of them. He himself bragged about walking around, kissing any woman he wanted without permission, and grabbing their genitals because they “let you do it when you’re famous.”
In a video clip from October of 2016 [1], Chris Matthews showed Vance what Leeds had said about the encounter:
“These are not memories that you want to go over. It has been somewhat unnerving since Friday to be rehashing it so many times. You suppress it. It’s not part of your active thinking every day. But you don’t forget.
Somehow or other, the armrest in the seat disappeared. And it was a real shock when, all of a sudden, his hands were all over me. He was like an octopus. It was like he had six arms. He was all over the place.
When he started putting his hand on my skirt, that was it. That was it. I was out of there. I wished the stewardess would come and rescue me. And then I decided, I got up. I got my purse. And I said, I’m going back to my seat in coach.”
MSNBC’s transcript shows Vance’s reaction when Matthews asked him what he thought about what he’d just seen, and Vance was a little sarcastic about Trump.
“…this is sort of he said/she said, right? And at the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump who always tells the truth? (Just kidding). Or do you believe that woman on the tape?”
Here’s the thing, though. While we can applaud Vance for being so candid at the time, either he was lying then, feigning outrage and notably comparing Trump to Hitler and all kinds of things in jest, or he’s decided that to further his political career, he’ll overlook the things he once found disgusting.
This is a story that keeps telling itself with Republicans all over America.