¶ JD Vance’s Flip Flops
Highlights:
- JD Vance flip-flopped on his support for red flag laws.
- In 2018, before running for U.S. Senate, Vance supported red flag laws.
- In 2022, Vance opposed gun safety efforts and criticized red flag laws.
- Vance repeatedly attacked red flag laws and other common sense gun safety measures in the wake of the Uvalde mass shooting.
- JD Vance flip-flopped on his support for cutting Medicare and Social Security.
- Vance wrote at length about his support for cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
- In 2011, Vance praised former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman for his support for cutting programs like Social Security and Medicare.
- In 2011, Vance attacked former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for not having a plan to cut Social Security and Medicare.
- In 2010, Vance criticized Republicans for failing to balance the budget by cutting Social Security.
- In 2022, Vance backed away from his past support for cutting Social Security and Medicare.
- Vance wrote at length about his support for cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
- JD Vance flip-flopped on his opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
- In 2017, Vance praised the Affordable Care Act for extending health care to a large number of previously uncovered people.
- In 2022, Vance called the Affordable Care Act a “disaster” and advocated for its repeal and replacement.
- JD Vance previously supported action to curb climate change, but has since refused to say whether he believed in climate change and he was in the pocket of Big Oil as a senator.
- In 2017, Vance criticized Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.
- In 2022, when asked if he believed in climate change, Vance said it was “complicated.”
- As a candidate and a senator, Vance was in the pocket of Big Oil.
- JD Vance flip-flopped on Trump’s trade policies.
- Vance previously criticized the effectiveness of Trump’s trade war.
- In 2022, Vance praised Trump’s trade policies and argued they were the solution to bring back American manufacturing.
- JD Vance flip-flopped on white privilege.
- In 2017, Vance acknowledged white privilege.
- In 2021, Vance criticized the concept of white privilege.
¶ Vance Flip-Flopped On His Support For Red Flag Laws
¶ 2018: Before Running For U.S. Senate, Vance Supported Red Flag Laws
2018: Vance Supported Red Flag Gun Laws, Arguing, “We Should Make It Easier To Take Those Guns Out Of The Hands Of People Who Are About To Use Them To Murder Large Numbers Of People.” According to the American Journal News, “The author and venture capitalist appeared at a March 2018 Darke County Republican Party dinner as the featured speaker. According to a local newspaper report on the event, Vance appeared to endorse new laws to disarm those who are an imminent danger to others. ‘We should make it easier to take those guns out of the hands of people who are about to use them to murder large numbers of people,’ he argued at the time. ‘We've got to have the right balance between protecting citizens, protecting our schools, and protecting the kids that go to them, but also protecting our really important and fundamental constitutional liberty.’” [American Journal News, 3/21/22]
¶ 2022: Vance Opposed Gun Safety Efforts And Criticized Red Flag Laws
2022: Vance’s Campaign Website Said He Would “Fight The Gun Grabbers” Who Were “Making It Harder To Buy Firearms And Ammunition, And Imposing New, Unconstitutional Regulations On American Citizens.” According to the American Journal News, “Vance's campaign issues page contains similar language. ‘Joe Biden and anti-democracy multinational companies are trying to find new ways to take guns away from law-abiding citizens. They're making it harder to buy firearms and ammunition, and imposing new, unconstitutional regulations on American citizens,’ Vance's campaign website reads. ‘I will fight the gun grabbers, whether they're federal bureaucrats enacting regulations or multinational companies punishing people for exercising their rights.’” [American Journal News, 3/21/22]
¶ Vance Repeatedly Attacked Red Flag Laws And Other Common Sense Gun Safety Measures In The Wake Of The Uvalde Mass Shooting
In Response To A Post From Biden Promoting Common Sense Gun Safety Legislation, Including Red Flag Laws, Vance Tweeted, “None Of These Would Improve The Gun Violence In This Country.” According to a tweet from JD Vance, “None of these would improve the gun violence problem in this country. All of them satisfy the urge to ‘do something’ without actually doing anything useful, at great cost to the rights of people who follow the law. Let's take just one example, ‘red flag’ laws.” [Twitter, @JDVance1, 6/2/22]
Vance Claimed That Red Flag Laws Infringed On The Liberty Of Law-Abiding Citizens. According to a tweet from JD Vance, “So all of us agree that we don't want insane people to go and buy a gun and kill people. The question is how to actually accomplish that goal. Importantly, it's already a violation of federal law to sell a gun to a crazy person. So what do red flag laws do? They allow the government to eliminate peoples' rights without any due process. Say your neighbor calls the police and says you're a bad guy who's about to commit a crime? Or maybe your ex complains about you after an argument? Now the cops can show up and remove your firearms.” [Twitter, @JDVance1, 6/2/22]
Vance Suggested, “We Need To Be Willing To Institutionalize People More” As A Solution To Gun Violence, Claiming, “That Would Be Far More Effective Than Any ‘Red Flag’ Law.” According to a tweet from JD Vance, “Yet we need to be willing to institutionalize people more, both to clean up our streets and also to help some obviously very sick people. That would be far more effective than any ‘red flag’ law. And we'd respect important rights in the process.” [Twitter, @JDVance1, 6/2/22]
¶ Vance Flip-Flopped On His Support For Cutting Social Security And Medicare
¶ Vance Wrote At Length About His Support For Cuts To Social Security And Medicare
2010: Vance Argued, “Medicare And Social Security Benefits Are The Biggest Roadblocks To Fiscal Sanity” And Said The “Budget Situation Is Bleak, And It Grows Worse Over Time” Thanks To “Welfare Entitlements To Seniors.” According to a post by JD Vance on a blog titled The Hillbilly Elite, “When you look at where federal dollars go, it becomes pretty obvious why it’s so hard to balance the budget. The largest program is Medicare, with defense and Social Security coming in close seconds. Combined, these three programs consume more than half of the federal budget. No political party has shown much interest in cutting defense or welfare entitlements to seniors, so you’d have to cut virtually everything else to eliminate the deficit: no federal transportation, education funding, veterans benefits, etc. Most of these programs are relatively small, and they’re also pretty efficient—the government gets a lot of value from the dollars spent. (The obvious exception is education.) Social Security, and especially Medicare, grow rapidly relative to tax revenue increases. Some policy experts estimate that Medicare will consume well over half of the budget—by itself—before my generation sees any benefits. Basically, our budget situation is bleak, and it grows worse over time. The political obstacles intimidate more than the practical problems. The party of, umm, limited government—the Republican Party—is also the party of the aging white person. The party’s only solid constituency thus depends on the Medicare and Social Security Benefits that are the biggest roadblocks to any kind of real fiscal sanity. The Democrats are similarly hopeless. Case in point: the largest entitlement expansion since the Johnson administration.” [JD Vance Blog Post – Hillbilly Elite, 12/11/10]
2011: Vance Endorsed Cuts To Social Security And Medicare. According to the American Journal News, “In a column published on April 5, 2011, on the FrumForum, a group blog edited by former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum that described itself as ‘dedicated to the modernization and renewal of the Republican Party and conservative movement,’ Vance, under a previous surname taken from a stepfather, praised a budget proposal about to be released by then-House Budget Committee Republican Chair Paul Ryan. […] Robert Greenstein, president of the progressive-leaning nonprofit Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said at the time that Ryan's proposal was ‘a dramatic reverse-Robin-Hood approach that gets the lion's share of its budget cuts from programs for low-income Americans — the politically and economically weakest group in America and the politically safest group for Ryan to target— even as it bestows extremely large tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans.’ ‘The plan contains $1.4 trillion in Medicaid cuts over ten years (which includes repeal of the health reform law’s Medicaid expansion); large cuts in food stamps, low-income housing, Pell Grants, and other programs for people with limited incomes; and repeal of the health reform law’s subsidies to help low- and moderate-income people purchase health insurance,’ Greenstein wrote. Vance wrote of the proposal, ‘Early reports suggest that along with serious changes to Social Security and Medicare, the budget will trim nearly $4 trillion from the 10-year budget deficit. I don't know how the Left will react, but I'm confident that they'll overreact. And I'm hoping that when the dust settles, we're having a more intelligent conversation about spending cuts than we've had during my lifetime.’ Vance added, ‘The way forward is as obvious as it is politically difficult: streamline the tax code, reform current entitlements and avoid enacting new ones.’” [American Journal News, 7/7/22]
2011: Vance: “The Way Forward Is As Obvious As it Is Politically Difficult: Streamline The Tax Code, Reform Current Entitlements And Avoid Enacting New Ones.” According to Cleveland.com, “‘I am not one of those conservatives who shudders at any mention of tax increases, but like every thoughtful American, I realize that soaking the rich is a painfully inadequate solution,’ Vance wrote in 2011. ‘The way forward is as obvious as it is politically difficult: streamline the tax code, reform current entitlements and avoid enacting new ones.’” [Cleveland.com, 5/12/22]
¶ 2011: Vance Praised Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Over His Support For Cutting Programs Like Social Security And Medicare
2011: Vance Praised Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Over His Support For Cutting Programs Like Social Security And Medicare. According to the American Journal News, “On Sept. 7 of that year, he authored a post endorsing former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and explicitly praising him for supporting Ryan's budget and entitlement cuts. ‘As governor, he enacted free-market health care reforms, balanced the budget, and thus far is the most public advocate of the Ryan plan to reduce long-term entitlement spending,’ Vance wrote. He dismissed another Republican candidate, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, as ‘a man with no serious plan to curb entitlement spending.’” [American Journal News, 7/7/22]
¶ 2011: Vance Attacked Former Texas Governor Perry For Not Having A Plan To Cut Entitlements
2011: Vance Attacked Former Texas Governor Rick Perry As “A Man With No Serious Plan To Curb Entitlement Spending.” According to the American Journal News, “On Sept. 7 of that year, he authored a post endorsing former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and explicitly praising him for supporting Ryan's budget and entitlement cuts. ‘As governor, he enacted free-market health care reforms, balanced the budget, and thus far is the most public advocate of the Ryan plan to reduce long-term entitlement spending,’ Vance wrote. He dismissed another Republican candidate, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, as ‘a man with no serious plan to curb entitlement spending.’” [American Journal News, 7/7/22]
¶ 2010: Vance Lambasted Republicans For Failing To Balance The Budget By Cutting Social Security
2010: Vance Wrote A Blogpost Titled “Hillbilly Elite” In Which He Argued That Republicans Failed To Balance The Budget By Cutting Social Security Because They Were Beholden To “The Aging White Person.” According to a post by JD Vance on a blog titled The Hillbilly Elite, “Social Security, and especially Medicare, grow rapidly relative to tax revenue increases. Some policy experts estimate that Medicare will consume well over half of the budget—by itself—before my generation sees any benefits. Basically, our budget situation is bleak, and it grows worse over time. The political obstacles intimidate more than the practical problems. The party of, umm, limited government—the Republican Party—is also the party of the aging white person. The party’s only solid constituency thus depends on the Medicare and Social Security Benefits that are the biggest roadblocks to any kind of real fiscal sanity.” [JD Vance Blog Post – Hillbilly Elite, 12/11/10]
¶ 2022: Vance Backed Away From His Past Support For Cutting Social Security And Medicare
2022: Vance Said That He No Longer Supports Cuts To Social Security Or Medicare And That “Privatizing Social Security Is A Bad Idea.” According to HuffPost, “Ohio GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance has in the past advocated for major reforms to Social Security and Medicare in order to restore ‘fiscal sanity’ to the United States. But Vance, the ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author who won the GOP nomination in May, no longer supports cutting either program, he told HuffPost this week. ‘I don’t support cuts to social security or Medicare and think privatizing social security is a bad idea,’ Vance told HuffPost via email, in response to questions about his past advocacy for cutting both programs.” [HuffPost, 7/13/22]
¶ Vance Flip-Flopped On His Opposition To The Affordable Care Act
¶ 2017: Vance Praised The Affordable Care Act For Extending Health Care To A Large Number Of Previously Uncovered People
2017: Vance Praised The Affordable Care Act For Solving “A Very Important Problem Of Access” To Health Care. According to CNN, “I was not a defender of Obamacare. I felt Obamacare had a lot of issues, but it did solve a very important problem of access. And folks have got to realize that you're not going to be able to take health care away without really upsetting a lot of folks. The answer is not repealing Obamacare and not having a replacement, but actually doing the hard legislative work to come up with something better than Obamacare and reforms Obamacare.” [CNN, 2/11/17]
2017: Vance On The Affordable Care Act: “It Extended Health Care To A Large Number Of People, And Those People Don’t Want To See It Go Away.” According to CNN, “VANCE: ‘It reminds me of something a friend of mine said earlier on in the health care debate in 2009, which is once you grant an entitlement to health care, to anything else, it's hard to take it away legislatively. What we're seeing is, despite the fact people have concerns and reservations with Obamacare, fundamentally, it extended health care to a large number of people, and those people don't want to see it go away. And so, the Republican strategy has to be about not just taking the law away, it has to be about how do you reform it successfully. And as they're finding out, it's a lot harder to do when you're the party in power and not just in opposition.’” [CNN, 2/11/17]
¶ 2022: Vance Called The ACA A “Disaster” And Advocated For Its Repeal And Replacement
2022: Vance Said The Affordable Care Act Was A “Disaster” And Called For Its Repeal And Replacement. According to the Chronicle-Telegram, “Asked a question related to healthcare, Vance said ‘Obamacare was a disaster’ but it must be repealed and replaced by something with ‘some substance to it, or we are going to get creamed electorally and we’re not actually going to do that job that the people sent us to do.” [Chronicle-Telegram, 2/2/22]
¶ Vance Previously Supported Action To Curb Climate Change, But Since Refused To Say Whether He Believed In Climate Change And Was In The Pocket Of Big Oil As A Senator
¶ 2017: Vance Disagreed With Trump’s Decision To Pull Out Of The Paris Climate Agreement
2017: Vance Opposed Trump’s Decision To Pull Out Of The Paris Climate Agreement. According to CNN, “Are these people en mass going to go back to work because the president pulled out of the Paris climate agreement?’ VANCE: ‘Well, no, because the Paris climate agreement, of course, was nonbinding. And so a lot of the commitments that the United States made, even if you think that the United States shouldn't have made those commitments, they were effectively voluntary, and so it's really tough to argue that pulling out of that accord is going to bring a lot of people back to work.’” [CNN, 6/2/17]
2017: Vance On Trump’s Decision To Pull Out Of The Paris Climate Agreement: “I Think The President Is Doing Something That He May See As An Act Of Political Theater.” According to CNN, “J.D. VANCE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: ‘Well, it's certainly the promise that he made. And if you look at his remarks yesterday when we pulled out of the Paris Accord, what President Trump said is, look, this is a trade off between a global agreement and American jobs. Unfortunately for the president, I think both the political benefits and good for the president, the political costs of pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords is actually pretty minimal because if you look not just at his core base, but if you look at voters in general, most voters just don't care that much about climate policy, so I think the president is doing something that he may see as an act of political theater. An act of political theater that may bring some real political benefits to him. But, I just don't see the evidence in that, either in talking to people or in just looking at the data in how people prioritize climate policy.”’ [CNN, 6/2/17]
2017: Vance: “I Don't Think Pulling Out Of The Paris Accord Does Much Good.” According to CNN, “VANCE: ‘Well, Chris, you made a really important point, which is that a majority of the public does support the deal, but the strength of that support is actually pretty weak, so it's not a high priority issue, and consequently, I think the politics are pretty ambivalent here for the president. But, the most important is, actually, the one that you made just there, is you got to actually bring jobs back to these communities and that implicates productivity. That implicates our education system. It, frankly, implicates issues that are much more difficult and much more complex than just pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords. And so, I think while the president may get a short-term, very minor political advantage with his core base of supporters, at a fundamental level over the long term, people are going to be looking around and saying, is my life actually getting better? Are these things actually improving? And unfortunately, I don't think pulling out of the Parris Accord does much good. And I don't think that much of what we've seen so far in the first 120 days does much good. This is a really long term question that the president has to answer better.’” [CNN, 6/2/17]
¶ 2022: Vance Said It’s “Complicated” When Asked Whether He Believed In Climate Change
2022: In Response To The Question, “Do You Believe In Climate Change,” Vance Said, “Well, That’s A Complicated Question.” According to Spectrum New 1, “Taylor: ‘Do you believe in climate change?’ J.D.: ‘Well, that's a complicated question. I'm sure we can’t get through it the whole — I mean, certainly the climate is changing. I think the big question is, how much is man causing it? And second, if you believe that man is causing it, do you actually have a real solution to solve the issue? I always ask people who say that climate change is this apocalyptic problem we have to deal with is one, what do you feel about China? And two, what do you feel about nuclear? So often, the people who believe that climate change is going to cause an end of planet Earth, they're not serious about actually making our planet more clean, which is what nuclear and dealing with China would do.’” [Spectrum News 1, 1/15/22]
2022: Vance Refused To Say Whether Humans Contributed To Climate Change. According to Spectrum New 1, “Taylor: ‘Do you believe in climate change?’ J.D.: ‘Well, that's a complicated question. I'm sure we can’t get through it the whole — I mean, certainly the climate is changing. I think the big question is, how much is man causing it? And second, if you believe that man is causing it, do you actually have a real solution to solve the issue? I always ask people who say that climate change is this apocalyptic problem we have to deal with is one, what do you feel about China? And two, what do you feel about nuclear? So often, the people who believe that climate change is going to cause an end of planet Earth, they're not serious about actually making our planet more clean, which is what nuclear and dealing with China would do.’” [Spectrum News 1, 1/15/22]
¶ As A Candidate And A Senator, Vance Was In the Pocket Of Big Oil
The Oil And Gas Industry Spent More Than $283,000 On Vance’s 2022 Senate Campaign. According to POLITICO, “Vance’s climate and energy views took a 180 once he was running for the Senate. The oil and gas industry spent more than $283,000 on Vance’s 2022 campaign — more than they gave to all but 18 other members of Congress, according to the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.” [POLITICO, 7/16/24]
Vance’s Sponsored Legislation That Favored The Fossil Fuel Industry. According to POLITICO, “His [Vance’s] legislative record reflects his shift to fossil fuel ally. He sponsored a bill that would require the president to seek congressional approval before delaying oil and gas leasing, and his Drive America Act would swap the climate law’s electric vehicle tax credits with ones for gasoline- and diesel-powered cars.” [POLITICO, 7/16/24]
¶ Vance Flip-Flopped On Trump’s Trade Policies
¶ Vance Criticized The Effectiveness Of Trump’s Trade War Policies
2016: Vance On Trump’s Trade Proposals: “I Am Pessimistic That You Can Flip The Trade Switch And Make All These Steel Jobs Come Back To Middletown.” According to the Washington Post, “Vance voted for independent Evan McMullin, not Trump, last month. ‘I always understood why he was so appealing to so many folks back home,’ he said of the president-elect. ‘It’s not surprising they voted for him. … My fear with Trump was always that he didn’t have great solutions. I am pessimistic that you can flip the trade switch and make all these steel jobs come back to Middletown.”’ [Washington Post, 12/21/16]
Vance Agreed That Trump Was “Fighting Yesterday’s War” By Trying To Renegotiate Trade Deals. According to CNN, “AXELROD: ‘-- discussion because you -- I mean, obviously, Donald Trump got elected on large -- in large part, I think. And one of the great motivators was his argument that trade laws had caused all these jobs. And America had been taken advantage of. And he was going to -- and he was going -- and he's acting on that now. We can see him dissolving trade treaties, trying to renegotiate trade treaties. The question is, is he fighting yesterday's war here?’ VANCE: ‘Well, I think he is.”’ [CNN, 2/9/17]
¶ 2022: Vance Praised Trump’s Trade Policies And Argued They Were The Solution To Bring Back American Manufacturing
2022: Vance Said Trump’s Trade Deals “Were The Right Policies” And Supported “Punitive Tariffs” For Companies That Shift Manufacturing To China. According to jdvance.com, “Over the last four years, President Trump scrapped terrible trade deals and renegotiated them, imposing punitive tariffs on companies that manufacture in China and other nations. These were the right policies, and the effort to rebuild our industrial base is only beginning.” [JDVance.com, accessed 6/29/22]
2022: Vance Claimed Trump “Scrapped Terrible Trade Deals And Renegotiated Them” And Praised Trump For Imposing Tariffs. According to JDVance.com, “Over the last four years, President Trump scrapped terrible trade deals and renegotiated them, imposing punitive tariffs on companies that manufacture in China and other nations. These were the right policies, and the effort to rebuild our industrial base is only beginning.” [JDVance.com, accessed 8/5/22]
2022: Vance Claimed Trump Reoriented Trade Policy In A “Pro-Manufacturing Direction.” According to NBC News, “Vance said his opinion of Trump improved after seeing him ‘reorient our trade policy in a pro-manufacturing direction’ and make border security a priority.” [NBC News, 7/7/22]
¶ Vance Flip-Flopped On White Privilege
¶ 2017: Vance Acknowledged White Privilege In An Interview
2017: Vance Said There Were “Obviously Still Advantages To Being White” And That “There Are Still Disadvantages To Being Black.” According to Vox, “VANCE: But to connect it to the conversation about white privilege, I think it's always important to note that there are obviously still advantages to being white, there are still disadvantages to being black, even when you control completely for class, income, and so forth.” [Vox, 2/2/17]
¶ 2021: Vance Criticized The Concept Of White Privilege
¶ 2021: Vance Said The Narrative Of “White Privilege” Was “Disgusting”
2021: Vance Said The Narrative Of “White Privilege” Was “Disgusting.” According to the Daily Beast, “Last March, as the Silicon Valley veteran began dusting off his blue-collar bona fides, he gave a Breitbart interview that resulted in the headline, ‘J.D. Vance: Narrative of ‘White Privilege’ Is ‘Disgusting.’’ Vance inverted the failure to grasp the nuances of the privilege debate, criticizing liberals for the same failure that had evoked his sympathy when applied to the West Virginia kid.” [Daily Beast, 1/14/22]
¶ 2021: Vance Suggested That Discussions Of White Privilege Could Be Illegal
2021: Vance Suggested That Discussions Of White Privilege Could Be Illegal. According to the Daily Beast, “In a May 2021 speech to the Claremont Institute—a right-wing think tank that hung intellectual muscle on Trump’s baseless claims of a rigged election—Vance floated the idea that discussions of white privilege were so toxic that they could be illegal. ‘If you are actively teaching racism in American schools, in American corporations, if you’re creating a hostile work environment because you have to tell everybody that they need to deconstruct their privilege, or they need to sacrifice or repent of their whiteness, then you are committing what should be a violation of the law in this country, and people should be able to sue you,’ Vance said.” [Daily Beast, 1/14/22]
¶ 2021: Vance Complained The “Liberal Narrative” Was To “Assume Every Black Person Is Disadvantaged And Every White Person Is Privileged”
2021: Vance Complained The “Liberal Narrative” Was To “Assume Every Black Person Is Disadvantaged And Every White Person Is Privileged.” According to the Daily Beast, “In another interview over the summer—in which the author again complained that criticism of white privilege harmed the reception of his movie—Vance bemoaned that ‘the liberal narrative’ is ‘to assume every black person is disadvantaged and every white person is privileged.’” [Daily Beast, 1/14/22]