Fox News host Bret Baier recently confronted Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) regarding the senator’s prior criticisms of former President Donald Trump, as Vance is reportedly on the former president’s vice presidential shortlist.
It has been noted that Vance, a former tech venture capitalist and the author of the bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy was formerly a harsh critic of Trump before wholeheartedly embracing the ex-president.
Trump had endorsed the political novice in Ohio’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2022 that helped vault him to the nomination and a general election victory.
On Tuesday, the senator appeared on Special Report on Fox News, where the host brought some awkward receipts:
BAIER: You know, Senator, this is an evolution. And I know you’ve been asked about this before about past comments that you made about Donald Trump. You’ve said:
“I’m a never-Trump guy”; “never liked him”; “terrible candidate”; “idiot if you voted for him”; “might be America’s Hitler“; “might be a cynical a-hole”; “cultural heroin”; “noxious and reprehensible.”
Those are things that the left is gonna come after you [with] and they’re probably gonna be put in ads, should you be chosen as the VP pick. How do you deal with them now?
VANCE: Yeah, well, I think the simple answer is you’ve gotta respect the American people enough to just level with them. Look, I was wrong about Donald Trump. I didn’t think he was gonna be a good president, Bret. He was a great president. And it’s one of the reasons why I’m working so hard to make sure he gets a second term.
I think you should – when you’re wrong about something – you should change your mind and be honest with people about that fact.
For all his previous criticisms of Trump, Vance has gone all in on supporting the former president. Last week, he pledged to block President Joe Biden’s judicial nominations in response to Trump’s convictions on 34 felony counts in New York last month.
