Sen. J.D. Vance, Angling For V.P. Pick, Says He Was Wrong To Tell Christians ‘Lord Help Us’ If We Support Trump In 2016

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said he had been wrong to say, “Lord help us,” if we support Donald Trump in 2016.

Vance said this while discussing his opinion about Trump’s New York hush money trial with CNN host Dana Bash.

Vance was one of many Republicans who visited the hush money trial last week.

“I want to ask about what we saw this past week, and it’s gonna continue this week – the trial in New York – adult film actress Stormy Daniels testified about her allegation of the sexual encounter with Donald Trump,” Bash told the Ohio senator. “Now, after the Access Hollywood tape in 2016, you tweeted: ‘fellow Christians, everyone is watching us. When we apologize for this man, lord help us,'” she added.

Bash reminded him that Vance has “since deleted that tweet” about the former president.

“Do you still feel that way about Donald Trump’s sexual indiscretions?” asked him.

“Well, first of all, Donald Trump is not on trial for sexual indiscretions,” he replied. “This is a sham trial where they’re saying his misdeed is that he violated the law, that he committed a crime.”

“You can’t throw somebody in prison in the middle of a presidential election because you think that he did something bad ten years ago,” the senator argued. “So I think we have to separate these arguments from the actual criminal trial that’s attempting to, in my view, Dana, interfere in a presidential election.”

“But, look, my view on Donald Trump — I’ve been very clear on this — is, look, I was wrong about him,” Vance admitted.

He also told Bash that he believed that Trump “was going to be a good president” and also mentioned that he “was very, very proud to be proven wrong,” mainly since it is “one of the reasons why” he is “working so hard to get him elected.”

“And I think that the contrast here is really from [President] Joe Biden, who delivered chaos in the world stage, rising cost of living here at home, to Donald Trump, who delivered peace and prosperity to the American people and to the world,” the senator claimed.

“That’s a very, very simple contrast to make,” he said. 

“And I think Republicans just have to hammer that message home because we’ve got the winning force here, and we’ve got the winning message,” Vance stated.

In December 2023, Trump faced criticism for making controversial comments about illegal immigrants, where he said that they were “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Vance has recently adopted the former president’s rhetoric and agreed with his controversial word choice.

Earlier this year, the senator declared that he would support J.R. Majewski, a Republican primary candidate who lied about his military service, over opponent Craig Riedel, a Republican candidate who criticized Trump.