Resurfaced video shows JD Vance saying some of Trump’s base are racist

JD Vance once admitted that there were “definitely some people” who voted for Donald Trump who were racist and had voted for the former president “for racist reasons” in 2016.

Vance said in a newly resurfaced interview that race was “a constant fact” of American life but it had not been a driving factor behind Trump’s victory.

The clip is the latest in a spate of controversies surrounding Vance, which have led some within the GOP to question Trump’s choice of running mate.

In the interview, Vance was asked about the role of race in Trump’s ascendency to the White House. “Race definitely played a role in the 2016 election, I think that race will always play a role in our country, it’s sort of a constant fact of American life,” he said.

“And definitely some people who voted for Trump were racists and they voted for him for racist reasons… [but] I always resist the idea that the real thing driving most Trump voters was racial anxiety or racial animus, partially because I didn’t see it.”

Vance went on to say that Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton was due to his campaigning on jobs and the economy.

“It’s very easy for somebody like me to watch the sources of news that I watch and only see the really offensive stuff that Trump did replayed over and over again,” he said, adding that a Trump rally it was “five percent him being really outrageous and offensive” and 95 percent remarks about bringing down unemployment.

Vance also said that in the run-up to the 2016 election, campaigning was “hyper-racialized” but said the discourse was “not driven by people in the Rust Belt.”

“This was a racialized discourse unlike any we’ve had in a really long time but I don’t blame Trump’s voters for that,” he said.

“It’s telling that the