Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) doubled down on defending his wife, Usha Vance, against the white supremacist attacks she has faced since he was tapped as former President Trump’s running mate last month.
“Look, my attitude to these people attacking my wife is, she’s beautiful, she’s smart. What kind of man marries Usha? A very smart man and a very lucky man, importantly,” Vance said Sunday on ABC News’s “This Week.”
“And my view is, look, if these guys want to attack me or attack my views, my policy views, my personality, come after me. But don’t attack my wife. She’s out of your league.”
This comes weeks after prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes went after Vance and his wife for her Indian heritage following her husband’s nomination to the Republican ticket.
“Who is this guy, really? Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity?” Fuentes said last month.
“This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl noted Fuentes dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022. Trump claimed Fuentes was brought by rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and that he did not know who Fuentes was.
“Well, Donald Trump doesn’t know anything about, and frankly, doesn’t care for [Fuentes],” Vance responded.
Further commenting on the dinner, Karl said, “And of course, it was Kanye West, the guy that’s praised Hitler, who arranged it all. That was back a year and a half ago. And Trump still hasn’t given a full-throated denouncement of this guy, who is, said that terrible stuff, but he’s a, I mean, he’s a white supremacist.”
“Look, I think … President Trump’s issued plenty of condemnations on this,” Vance told Karl.
Karl noted Trump did not specifically condemn Fuentes, which Vance appeared to brush off.
“The one thing I like about Donald Trump, Jon, is that he actually will talk to anybody. But just because you talk to somebody doesn’t mean you endorse their views. And look, I mean, Donald Trump’s spent a lot of quality time with my wife. Every time he sees her, he gives her a hug, tells us she’s beautiful, and jokes around with her a little bit,” Vance answered.
“I’m not at all worried about Donald Trump,” he added. “I’m worried sometimes about these ridiculous attacks. But again, this is what you sign up for when you come into politics. I wish people would keep it focused on me, but whatever. They’re going to say what they’re going to say. My wife’s tough enough to handle it, and that’s a good thing.”
