“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical @%*hole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.”
“I’m a Never Trump guy.”
“My god what an idiot.”
Vance expressed a similar sentiment in other interviews and since-deleted tweets from that time, including publicly mulling the idea of supporting Hillary Clinton, calling Trump “noxious” and “reprehensible.”
“There is definitely an element of Donald Trump’s support that has its basis in racism,” he said during a PBS Newshour interview in September 2016. In another interview he said that “race is definitely a part of the Trump phenomenon,” and, in another, that “some people who voted for Trump were racist and they voted for him for racist reasons.”
“It’s not just that Donald Trump doesn’t speak to issues of special concern of minority voters or Black voters, it’s that he seems to like actively antagonizing a lot of the Black voters. Unfortunately, that’s been the Republican Party strategy for 30 years. I say that as a Republican who wants the party to get more Black voters. And Trump seems to be taking that strategy just to the next level. It shows in the polls, right? He’s not going to do especially well on Election Day.”
"Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us."
"Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us."
"In 4 years, I hope people remember that it was those of us who empathized with Trump's voters who fought him the most aggressively."
"Trump's actual policy proposals, such as they are, range from immoral to absurd." The same year, as it became clear Trump would become the GOP presidential nominee, Vance wrote in The Atlantic that "Trump is cultural heroin," who "makes some feel better for a bit."
"He cannot fix what ails them, and one day they'll realize it," added Vance.
Ohio Value Voters President, John Stover states, “Vance cannot be trusted to stand upon principals when he practices “situational politics.” In 2016 and 2017, Vance led all others with his derogatory comments against Trump. Now, he claims to be 100% behind our former President. We read in God’s word, in the book of James 1:8, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Ohio Value Voters has endorsed Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate and urge all Ohioans to cast your vote for him. Josh is endorsed by the conservative lion of the Senate, Ted Cruz. Josh Mandel will serve our state with conservative principals and defend our constitutional rights.
