J.D. Vance came under fire on X (formerly known as Twitter) for using a clip of a former Miss Teen USA contestant for his own purposes. Vice President J.D. Vance often uses the platform to comment on matters, especially when he was campaigning with Trump.
However, one of his posts caused him to be under a lot of fire, but he refused to back down. He held his own against criticism.
Before he was elected, J.D. Vance was very vocal on social media. For instance, he used a clip of a 2007 Miss Teen USA contestant to poke fun of the Democratic presidential candidate at the time, Kamala Harris. However, his joke did not go down well with people, who quickly pointed out how the entire experience had been traumatizing for the teen contestant in the clip, Caitlin Upton.
Because of the backlash and humiliation she had faced due to the clip, she had even contemplated suicide, a fact many people pointed out to Vance at the time. The moment that occurred in 2007 had been wiped from public consciousness, however, Vance reposting the clip during his 2024 campaigning, reminded people of the entire thing once again.
In a subsequent interview with CNN, J.D. Vance clarified that he did not realize that Upton had struggled with the ridicule she faced due to the videos and that it had affected her mental health to the point she considered suicide. However, he said, he still will not apologize for sharing the clip.
When he shared the video, he wrote along with it, “BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview.”
In the video, Caitlin Upton is seen answering the question, “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?”
The young contestant struggled to answer the question, leading her to ramble and fail to give a coherent answer. The moment went viral and later Upton spoke about how it impacted her life. She said, “lost a lot of close friends over it” as well as being on the receiving end of “the harshest, meanest comments I had ever heard.”
She shared that at one point someone even “go die for your stupidity.”
“I definitely went through a period where I was very, very depressed. But I never let anybody see that stuff, except for people I could trust. I had some very dark moments where I thought about committing suicide,” she shared.
One person replied to J.D. Vance, saying, “You forced former Miss South Carolina to relive public humiliation, bullying and cruelty that once lead her to consider suicide.”
Others reminded Vance how Upton had supported Donald Trump in the past and he still chose to make fun of her.
“You’re making fun of her? It seems very on brand for you to send a message like this to women.”
The post has now been deleted but Upton commented on how it made her feel to see it reshared, “It’s a shame that 17 years later this is still being brought up,” she wrote, according to Deadline. “There’s not too much else to say about it at this point. Regardless of political beliefs, one thing I do know is that social media and online bullying needs to stop.”
In an interview with CNN, Vance said he hopes Upton is doing well but refused to apologize for sharing the video. He said, “Politics has got way too lame,” and “I’m not going to apologize for posting a joke.”
“You can have some fun while making an argument to the American people about improving their lives,” Vance shared his beliefs, adding how he himself has “said a lot of stupid things on camera” but “the best way to deal with it is to laugh at ourselves.”
“I’m not going to apologize for posting a joke, but I wish the best for Caitlin,” he said decidedly in his interview. “I hope that she’s doing well. And again, what I’d say is, one bad moment shouldn’t define anybody, and the best way to deal with this stuff is to laugh at ourselves.”