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By Jordan King
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Multiple clips of JD Vance's previous comments about women and women's issues have resurfaced after he was announced as Donald Trump's running mate on Monday.
Vance has accused the media of mischaracterizing his words, so Newsweek has rounded up exactly what he said.
Did Vance say women should stay in violent marriages?
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Social media is flooded with people sharing a clip of Vance discussing the sexual revolution at Pacifica Christian High School in Southern California in September 2021.
Vice News published the footage in July 2022, showing his answer to a moderator asking the question, in relation to his grandparents' relationship: "What's causing one generation to give up on fatherhood when the other one was so doggedly determined to stick it out, even in tough times?"
Vance, who was an Ohio Republican Senate nominee when the story first came out, said: "This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is the idea that like, 'Well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy. And so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that's going to make people happier in the long term.'
"And maybe it worked out for the moms and dads, though I'm skeptical. But it really didn't work out for the kids of those marriages."
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When Vice News asked Vance for comment at the time, he answered: "I reject the premise of your bogus question. As anyone who studies these issues knows: domestic violence has skyrocketed in recent years, and is much higher among non-married couples. That's the 'trick' I reference: that domestic violence would somehow go down if progressives got what they want, when in fact modern society's war on families has made our domestic violence situation much worse. Any fair person would recognize I was criticizing the progressive frame on this issue, not embracing it."
"But I can see that you are not a fair person, so rather than answer your loaded and baseless question, let me offer the following: I'm an actual victim of domestic violence. In my life, I have seen siblings, wives, daughters, and myself abused by men. It's disgusting for you to argue that I was defending those men."
Vance defended himself again on Tuesday, in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity after his role was revealed.
He said: "Democrats have completely twisted my words here and, as you know, both me and my mom actually were victims of domestic violence. To say that 'Vance is supporting women staying in violent marriages' – I think it's shameful for them to take a guy with my history and my background and say that that's what I believe, it's not what I believe, it's not what I said."
What did Vance call "inconvenient" about rape, incest and abortion?
Another quote being spoken about is from a 2021 interview with Spectrum News, where Vance was asked about his stance on abortion and whether a woman should be forced to carry a pregnancy to full term after she had been a victim of rape or incest.
He said: "I think two wrongs don't make a right. At the end of the day, we're talking about an unborn baby. What kind of society do we want to have? Do we want to have a society that sees unborn babies as inconveniences to be discarded?"
Vance went on: "It's not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term, it's whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child's birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society. The question really, to me, is about the baby."
When Hannity asked Vance about this interview on Tuesday too, he answered: "The Democrats have completely twisted my words. What I did say, is that we sometimes, in this society, see babies as an inconvenience and I absolutely want us to change that, I do want us to be more pro-life."
He went on to support Trump's abortion policy, which he described as a "reasonable" one, "to let voters in those states make decisions."
Newsweek has contacted Vance, via his campaign representatives' email addresses, for further comment.
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