J.D. Vance is walking back his since-deleted tweets from 2016 criticizing former President Donald Trump — after launching his Senate bid and seeking the ex-commander-in-chief’s endorsement.
Speaking to Fox News in an interview Monday, Vance owned up to the tweets before explaining how his views on the GOP leader had evolved in the years since.
“Like a lot of people, I criticized Trump back in 2016,” the venture capitalist and bestselling author admitted. “And I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said in 2016, because I’ve been very open that I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy.”
“I think he was a good president,” he continued, “I think he made a lot of good decisions for people, and I think he took a lot of flak.”
Vance then said he had taken heat himself for defending Trump’s agenda in recent years, adding, “I think that’s the most important thing, is not what you said five years ago, but whether you’re willing to stand up and take the heat and take the hits for actually defending the interests of the American people.”
Asked if he was worried he would face scrutiny from his primary opponents, Vance said no, adding they likely had “baggage of their own” related to the 45th president.
Vance, who authored the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” entered the Republican primary to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) last Thursday, portraying himself as the right type of “fighter” to get into the political arena.
“We need a new politics for a new generation. The old way of doing things ain’t working,” the 36-year-old Senate hopeful said at a campaign launch rally in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio.
“What we need in Washington is not just leaders who talk about doing things, but have actually done them and continue to do them,” he added.
Speaking to Fox News Thursday after officially launching his campaign, Vance told host Tucker Carlson that he did not fit squarely into the establishment or Trumpian wings of the Republican Party.
“I think so far a lot of them are frustrated, and a little upset with me because I actually say what’s true — which is many of these people don’t care about their own voters, they think they’re either bigoted or they think they’re stupid,” he said of career politicos.
Vance will face a crowded primary for the GOP nomination, though he enters the race with the most name recognition and a vote of confidence from billionaire Peter Thiel, who donated $10 million to a group backing the author’s potential Senate bid back in March.
Thiel is a PayPal co-founder and early Facebook investor. He prominently supported former Trump’s 2016 campaign.
On the Democratic side, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) is the only contender.
Ryan commented on the controversy regarding the anti-Trump tweets Monday, writing on the social media platform that he and Vance “have exactly one thing in common — neither of us voted for Donald Trump.”
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