During a damage-control podcast interview aired on his 40th birthday Friday, J.D. Vance revealed how he became Donald Trump’s running mate. And talk about weird: the crazy questions that came from a lawyer who vetted him.
Vance said the lawyer showed up at his house to talk to him and his wife, Usha, while his kids were asleep upstairs. “He goes, ‘Do you have any secret family?’” Vance recalled. “‘And I’m like, are you serious? Do I have any secret family? Like what do you mean?’
The agent, according to Vance, said, "Well sometimes people will have another spouse and they’ll have other kids in a place like Alaska.’"
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"I’m like, ‘Dude, I’ve never even been to Alaska,” the GOP vice presidential nominee said.
The birthday boy appeared on the Full Send Podcast, hosted by Canadian-American social media stars the Nelk Boys. The show is part of a multimillion dollar effort by Trump allies to win over young men, the Wall Street Journal previously reported. The media blitz is an effort to clean up and counteract Vance's rocky rollout.
Vance answered questions about his wife, his views on potential Democratic veep picks and his German Shepherd—and whether his new Secret Service detail now picks up the dog's poop on walks.
Vance said they probably would, but he wouldn't let them. “I feel like that would be a really dickish thing to do, to ask them to pick up after your dog. I feel like, if they’re going to take a bullet for me, that’s enough, I can handle the dog.”
The Ohio senator told the Full Send hosts that when Trump actually selected him, he was on a plane to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee—without Wi-Fi. When he landed, he was greeted by 350 unread messages, including one saying he missed an important call.
He called Trump immediately. “I’m like, ‘Hey sir, what’s going on?’” Vance said. “And he’s like, ‘J.D., you missed a very important phone call, and now I’m gonna have to pick somebody else.’”
He also revealed that he was more surprised than Trump’s campaign when President Joe Biden stepped aside last month. He recalled someone back in early June from the former president’s team telling him Biden wouldn't survive as the Democratic nominee.
“She was like, ‘Look, we think there’s a really good chance that if you get picked, you’re not going to be debating Kamala Harris."
Weighing in on the Democratic veepstakes, Vance said there was a lot of talk about Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (“I don’t know anything about him, he seems really angry”) and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (“If I tried to do a very bad impression of Barack Obama that’s what it would sound like.”)
Asked if recent attacks that he’s “weird” bother him, Vance said, “I’m a pretty normal guy. I’ve got a wife and kids and I like to hang out and watch football.”
He said he guessed that the Harris campaign was “run by a bunch of 24-year-old social media interns who maybe were bullied in school, so now they’ve decided they’re gonna do the same thing.”
Vance also talked about his wife, who “doesn’t love the spotlight,” but “was kind of getting into it,” right after Trump picked him. He shared a story about how the pair were once at a fundraiser when Trump asked Usha her thoughts on politics.
“She gives this super diplomatic answer, she’s like, ‘Well sir, J.D. really believes in it, and he really believes in politics, and I’m glad to be supportive of him.’ And he looks at her and he says, ‘Yeah, my wife hates it, too.’”
If elected, the senator would be the youngest vice president in 70 years. His interview aired Friday, on his 40th birthday, which he admitted he's "very depressed about."
