J.D. Vance defended Trump when confronted about the fact that the 2022 presidential candidate had dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, who recently attacked Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants. Fuentes said last month that he did not expect Vance — “a man with an Indian wife” — to “support white identity.”
“What kind of man marries a woman named Usha? He clearly does not value his ethnic identity or his heritage,” said Fuentes, who repeatedly praised Hitler.
During an interview that aired on Sunday this weekABC's Jonathan Karl asked Vance about Fuentes' comments and Trump's dinner with the white supremacist along with controversial rapper Kanye West, who has praised Hitler on multiple occasions. Vance responded, “The one thing I like about Donald Trump is that he talks to anybody, but just because you talk to somebody doesn't mean you agree with their views.”
Some of Fuentes’s views include that “traitorous Jews” and anyone who “suppresses Christianity” should be “completely exterminated.” “When we take power, they should be sentenced to death, straight up,” Fuentes said in a December 2023 livestream. The white supremacist had previously praised Trump but declared “war” on his campaign in a post on X on Friday, writing, “Tonight I declare a new Groyper war on the Trump campaign.” The Groypers are far-right extremists and internet trolls associated with the national political action committee America First.
In his interview with ABC, Vance continued to defend Trump, saying, “Donald Trump has spent a lot of quality time with my wife. Every time he sees her, he hugs her, tells her she's beautiful, jokes with her a little bit.”
This isn’t the first time Vance has justified Trump’s dinner with Fuentes. In May, he was asked about the dinner after Vance tried to claim that President Joe Biden was anti-Semitic.
Vance also told Carl, “If these men want to attack me or my views or my political views or my character, follow me, but do not attack my wife. She is out of your league.”
But on CNN State of the Union Vance complained that his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was calling him and Trump “weirdos.”
“I want to turn to something that Governor Walz unleashed on you and Donald Trump, which is weird,” anchor Dana Bash told Vance during an interview Sunday.The New York Times “When Donald Trump was asked about this, he reportedly said, ‘It’s not me. They’re talking about JD.’”
“Well, sure, they’ve leveled this at me more than anyone else,” Vance said. “But I think it underscores how much they’re trying to distract from their political failures. I mean, look, this is basically schoolyard bullying.”
It's odd that Vance would describe Walz's “bizarre” description as “schoolyard fun,” when Vance said a few days earlier at a campaign event in Detroit: “President Trump in particular has the best sense of humor I've ever seen in American politics. He loves to joke. He loves to … make fun of anybody out there.”
