Senator JD Vance (R-OH) is a leading candidate to be running mate for former President Donald Trump, a selection the former president is expected to make in the coming days. Yet back in 2016, when Trump was running for president for the first time, and Vance was just the author of Hillbilly Elegy, he suggested he believed one of the women accusing Trump of sexual assault.

Many words have been written about Vance’s past comments about Trump, which include him declaring him an “idiot” and comparing him to Adolf Hitler. In a comment that had yet to be unearthed until now, Vance went so far as to signal on MSNBC that he believed the story of Jessica Leeds, who claimed Trump groped her.

Leeds came forward with several other women who claimed they were sexually assaulted by Trump. She testified in the E. Jean Carroll civil trial of which Trump was found liable for sexual assault. Her account was dismissed by Trump and his media surrogates at the time of the 2016 race, but Vance argued during an October 2016 appearance on Hardball with Chris Matthews that he was inclined to believe Leeds’s claim.

“This is sort of he said/she said, right? And at the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump who always tells the truth? Just kidding, or do you believe that woman on the tape?” Vance said, taking a dig at Trump’s track record for honesty.

From MSNBC’s transcript:

JESSICA LEEDS, SAYS TRUMP GROPED HER: These are not memories that you want to go over. It has been somewhat unnerving since Friday to be rehashing it so many times. You suppress it. It`s not part of your active thinking every day. But you don`t forget.

Somehow or other, the armrest in the seat disappeared. And it was a real shock when, all of a sudden, his hands were all over me. He was like an octopus. It was like he had six arms. He was all over the place.

When he started putting his hand on my skirt, and that was it. That was it. I was out of there. I wish the stewardess would come and rescue me. And then I decided, I got up. I got my purse. And I said, I`m going back to my seat in coach.
(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEWS: What do you think of this? This is something, it`s sort of interesting evocative of the time because of the time because we used to say stewardess first of all. That was a flight attendant. It just gives us a sense of history. But this woman is not a showoff. She`s just telling what happened so we can know it.

J.D. VANCE, AUTHOR, “HILLYBILLY ELEGY”: Yes, yes. And it`s sort of — it makes me think that at fundamental, this is sort of he said/she said, right? And at the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump who always tells the truth? Just kidding, or do you believe that woman on the tape? And I —

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