CNN host John Berman confronted Donald Trump’s running mate Senator JD Vance (R-OH) over his decision to share a viral clip of former South Carolina beauty queen Caitlin Upton to mock Vice President Kamala Harris — the attention from which had once driven Upton to consider suicide.
When pressed on whether he knew this context, Vance admitted he didn’t but refused to apologize when prompted by the host. Instead, he doubled down, insisting it’s important to “have some fun” in politics while slamming Berman for focusing on “a meme” rather than real issues.
The awkward exchange came after Vance posted the famous clip of Upton on X, formerly Twitter, in a bid to ridicule Harris for her Thursday CNN interview, posting the video of Upton’s now famous meandering speech to land a jab at his Democratic rival with the comment: “BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview.”
During an interview with CNN on Friday, Berman quoted back a 2015 New York Magazine interview with Upton who said that following the online attention she had become “very, very depressed” and “thought about committing suicide.”
Pivoting to Vance’s post, Berman asked: “So when you posted this last night, were you aware that the woman you are posting a picture of had contemplated committing suicide for the attention that it received?”
The senator replied: “No, certainly not John and my heart goes out to her and I hope that she’s doing well.”
Vance continued in his defense: “Look, I’ve said a lot of things on camera. I’ve said a lot of stupid things on camera. Sometimes when you’re in the public eye, you make mistakes. And again, I think the best way to deal with it is to laugh at ourselves, laugh at this stuff, and try to have some fun in politics. I posted a meme from 20 years ago and I think the fact that we’re talking about that instead of the fact that American families can’t afford groceries or health care, young families can’t afford to buy a home to raise their families in… And those are the real crises that we should focus on. And there’s nothing that says that we can’t tell some jokes along the way while we deal with the very serious business of bringing back our public policy.”
He added: “Politics has gotten way too lame, John, way too boring. You can have some fun while making a good argument to the American people about how you’re going to improve their lives.”
Berman pressed again and asked: “I just want to be clear, though. You said you didn’t know. Would you like to apologize to Caitlin Upton for posting that up there last night, given what you’ve now learned?”
Vance replied: “John, I’m not going to apologize for posting a joke, but I wish the best for Caitlin.”
Watch above on CNN.
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