Potential VP pick Sen. J.D. Vance once liked tweets harshly critical of Trump

CNN —

Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, a leading candidate to be Donald Trump’s vice president, liked tweets in 2016 and 2017 that harshly criticized Trump and his policies — including one speculating that Vance could serve in former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s administration.

Other tweets liked by Vance said Trump committed “serial sexual assault,” called him “one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs,” and, in a since-removed set of tweets, harshly criticized Trump’s response to the deadly 2017 White nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia – something Vance now defends Trump over.

Vance’s past anti-Trump stances have been well-documented, but these new examples, unearthed by an extensive review of Vance’s past social media activity, demonstrate they were more widespread and scathing than previously known.

Their discovery also comes as Vance has solidified his standing in Trump’s inner circle as a frequent defender of the former president and is among a handful of people under consideration to be Trump’s vice-presidential pick.

As CNN’s KFile previously reported, Vance deleted past anti-Trump tweets ahead of his announcement in July 2021 that he would run for the open Ohio Senate seat. Vance once privately wondered whether Trump was ‘America’s Hitler’ in February 2016, and a few months later wrote in The Atlantic that Trump was “cultural heroin.”

Vance also said he even contemplated voting for Clinton, but ultimately said he would vote for independent candidate Evan McMullin for president in 2016.

Once regarded as a “Trump whisperer” for his understanding of the aggrieved White working class and a self-described “Never Trump” Republican, Vance shot to fame over his