JD Vance is refusing to apologize for attempting to mock Kamala Harris by posting an embarrassing clip of a teen beauty pageant contestant struggling to answer a question ― even after he learned the subject of the video once contemplated suicide.
On Thursday night, Donald Trump’s much-beleaguered running mate posted a video on social media Thursday that he “jokingly” claimed was the full Harris CNN interview.
The video was from 2007 and showed Miss Teen USA contestant Caitlin Upton trying ― and failing ― to explain why some Americans supposedly can’t find the U.S. on a map.
Vance’s post was widely condemned, with many people noting that Upton struggled with public ridicule and later admitted that she contemplated suicide as a result of the whole experience.
However, the incident did attract the attention of Trump’s modeling agency, who later signed Upton to a contract.
During a CNN interview on Friday, anchor John Berman asked Vance if he was aware of Upton’s mental health struggles as a result of the video going viral.
Vance admitted he had no clue and added, “My heart goes out to her, and I hope that she’s doing well.”
He then explained that he’s “said a lot of stupid things on camera” and “sometimes when you’re in the public eye, you make mistakes.”
He added that he thinks the best way to deal with it “is to laugh at ourselves, laugh at this stuff, and try to have some fun in politics.”
Vance then noted that while he posted “a meme from 20 years ago,” he thinks “the fact that we’re talking about that instead of the fact that American families can’t afford groceries or health care, young families can’t afford to buy a home to raise their families in. Those are the real crises that we should focus on.”
He then reiterated that he posted the video to make Americans laugh again.
“And there’s nothing that says that we can’t tell some jokes along the way while we deal with the very serious business of bringing back our public policy,” he said.
“Politics has gotten way too lame, John, way too boring. You can have some fun while making a good argument to the American people about how you’re going to improve their lives.”
Berman asked Vance if he’d like to apologize “given what you’ve now learned.”
Vance refused, saying, “John, I’m not going to apologize for posting a joke, but I wish the best for Caitlin.”
You can see the whole exchange below.
Upton responded to Vance resurfacing the video on Friday morning with a post on X, formerly Twitter, that she later deleted.
“It’s a shame that 17 years later this is still being brought up. There’s not too much else to say about it at this point. Regardless of political beliefs, one thing I do know is that social media and online bullying needs to stop,” she said.
Other people weren’t impressed by Vance’s refusal to apologize or his whole CNN interview at all.
And, yes, they had thoughts.
