Vance Privately Sought To Help Clinton Defeat Trump In 2016

 

Vice President J.D. Vance privately sought to help Hillary Clinton defeat Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, despite publicly opposing both candidates, according to a new Vanity Fair report detailing Vance’s political evolution.

Vance, then a recent Yale Law School graduate and outspoken Trump critic, voted for independent candidate Evan McMullin in 2016. But according to Vanity Fair, Vance also tried to connect with Clinton’s campaign through an intermediary.

Vance told the intermediary that he disliked Clinton but considered Trump a greater threat, according to the report. He also offered advice on how Clinton could improve her campaign in key Midwestern states.

Vance later communicated directly with Jake Sullivan, one of Clinton’s senior campaign advisers, Vanity Fair reported. Vance urged the campaign to focus more heavily on the industrial Midwest and criticized Clinton’s handling of her comments about Trump supporters.

The account, reported by journalist Chris Whipple in a Vanity Fair profile of Vance’s years at Yale, offers new details about the future vice president’s opposition to Trump before his dramatic political realignment.

Vance had been sharply critical of Trump during the 2016 campaign, at one point describing him in extremely negative terms. His position changed in the years that followed. By the time Vance launched his 2022 Senate campaign in Ohio, he had become a Trump supporter and received Trump’s endorsement.

Trump selected Vance as his running mate in 2024, and Vance became vice president after Trump returned to the White House.

The newly reported Clinton contacts highlight the extent of Vance’s political transformation from a Trump opponent who sought to prevent his election to one of the president’s closest political allies.

The Vanity Fair report does not establish a formal Clinton-Vance political alliance or conspiracy. It describes Vance’s private efforts to influence Clinton’s campaign while he was simultaneously publicly rejecting both major-party candidates.