The Associated Press has removed a story that fact-checked a wild sex claim about Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick J.D. Vance.
The news agency came under heavy criticism after it published an article about the Ohio senator on Wednesday with the headline: “No, JD Vance Did Not Have Sex with a Bank.”
The next day, however, AP had removed the article from its archives and the page address indicated that the article was no longer available.
An AP spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Thursday that the fact-checking on Vance did not go through the standard editing process.
The agency says it is investigating how the message was published.
The Associated Press has removed an article in which it fact-checked a wild claim about Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick. JD Vance
The now-deleted article came after memes circulated on social media repeating a false rumor that the 39-year-old Vance had written about having sex with a couch in his best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy.
Notable names like comedian Kathy Griffin seemed to fall for the fake news, writing: ‘I don’t think we should have a couchf***er as VP. That’s just me. Sorry JD.’
DailyMail.com has contacted the Associated Press for comment on this story.
The false information reportedly began circulating on X after the now-closed account @rickrudescalves wrote, “I can’t say for sure, but he may be the first vice presidential candidate to admit in a New York Times bestseller that he fucked an inside-out latex glove that was stuck between two couch cushions.”
The news agency came under heavy criticism after it published an article about the Ohio senator on Wednesday titled: ‘No, JD Vance Did Not Have Sex With a Bank’
The AP has removed the article from its archives, with the page address indicating it is now no longer available
The X account then falsely referenced the unsubstantiated claim on pages 179 through 181 of Vance’s 2016 memoir.
Some X users have theorized that the AP removed the fact check because it could not substantiate the claims they made.
Journalist Tom Gara wrote: ‘This headline is simply not supported by any evidence, which is a major problem for a fact check. It should be corrected to say, “No, JD Vance did not write about having sex with a bank.”
Meanwhile, author Noah Rothman said: ‘Last night the AP published a “fact check” from complete unknown strangers claiming that J.D. Vance had fornicated with a bank, not because anyone believed it, but because it gets that nonsense into the bloodstream.
Vance, R-Ohio, and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, arrive on the floor during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention
Vance’s bestselling book about his roots in rural Kentucky and working-class Ohio made him a national celebrity soon after its publication in the summer of 2016.
‘Today it’s gone. So dirty.’
Vance’s best-selling book about his roots in rural Kentucky and working-class Ohio made him a national celebrity soon after its publication in the summer of 2016, becoming a cultural talking point after Trump’s stunning victory in November.
Netflix paid Imagine $45 million for exclusive screening rights in January 2019. The film, starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams, debuted on the streaming platform in November 2020.
After it was announced that Vance would be running alongside Trump for the November election against President Joe Biden, the film became the third most-streamed movie on Netflix.