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JD Vance Walks Back Claim That Jailed 1/6 Suspects Haven't Been 'Charged' After Brutal Factcheck

JD Vance Walks Back Claim That Jailed 1/6 Suspects Haven't Been 'Charged' After Brutal Factcheck
Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images

In his bid to be the Republican nominee for one of Ohio's seats in the United States Senate, venture capitalist and Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance has increasingly embraced far-right views.

He's defended far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson's promotion of the white supremacist "great replacement" conspiracy theory. He's said professors are the "enemy," despite it being a professor who convinced him to write the book that made him a household name. Vance has also encouraged Americans to embrace the "virtues" of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenage vigilante who killed two people during the unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

And on January 6—the first anniversary of the deadly failed insurrection against the U.S. Capitol mounted by pro-Trump extremists—Vance defended the rioters, making a wildly false claim in the process.



Vance falsely asserted that "dozens" of the insurrectionists are being imprisoned without ever being charged for a crime. In reality, the U.S. government has arrested more than 700 people for their roles in the Capitol riot. Every person in jail has been charged with a crime.

CNN fact checker Daniel Dale was quick to point this out.

Around the same time Dale fact-checked Vance's claim, the Senate candidate tweeted that he meant to say the rioters in D.C. prisons haven't been "convicted" of a crime.

Even so, it's a stunning display of hypocrisy from Vance. Just last month, he decried Vice President Kamala Harris, reminding his followers that Harris tweeted the link to a bail fund for racial justice protesters during her presidential candidacy in 2020. He's also repeatedly spoken out against "soft-on-crime bail policies."

People weren't buying the Senate hopeful's attempt to walk back his comments.





People also pointed out that Vance—a graduate of Yale Law School—should know the difference between "charged" and "convicted."




Awkward.