Moment Trump’s VP frontrunner JD Vance said he believed woman who claimed ex-President groped her as video from 2016 is unearthed

One of the favorites to be Donald Trump’s running mate in the presidential election once hinted that he believed a woman who accused the former president of sexual assault.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), now one of Trump’s leading vice presidential contenders, has apparently endorsed Jessica Leeds, who Trump is accusing while the presumptive Republican nominee was campaigning for the 2016 election.

Leeds, a former stockbroker who testified in E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault trial against Trump, alleged that the ex-president abruptly groped her on a plane in the 1970s.

During an October 2016 appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball With Chris Matthews, Vance was asked about the allegations. He suggested that Trump often lies and that he was inclined to “believe that woman on the tape.”

The interview, along with other negative comments from Vance, including one where he called Trump an “idiot” and compared him to Adolf Hitler, have resurfaced as Trump is expected to announce his vice presidential nomination in the coming days.

During the 2016 interview, Vance was shown footage from Leeds detailing the alleged attack, Medialite reported.

“These are not memories you want to dwell on,” she said, adding that it was “nerve-wracking” to have to retell the incident.

“You suppress it. It’s not part of your active thinking every day. But you don’t forget it.”

Leeds alleged that Trump groped and attempted to kiss her while they sat next to each other in first class on a plane to New York City in 1979.

“Somehow the armrest disappeared into the chair. And it was a real shock when all of a sudden he had his hands all over me. He was like an octopus. It was like he had six arms. He was everywhere,” she said.

She accused Trump of putting his hand up her skirt, before slapping him away and walking to another chair.

Matthews asked Vance, who rose to fame in 2016 with his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, “what do you think” of Leeds’ story.

Vane responded, “It’s kind of – it makes me think this is essentially a little bit of he said/she said, right?

“And at the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump who always tells the truth? I’m just kidding, or do you believe that woman on the tape?”

The Republican lawmaker also once liked a tweet accusing Trump of “serial sexual abuse,” according to Raw story.

But Vance has since changed his position and appears to be ignoring his earlier criticisms of the ex-president.

During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union program in May, Vance told host Dana Bash: “Look, my view of Donald Trump — and I’ve been very clear about this — is that I was wrong about him.

“I didn’t think he would be a good president, Dana, and I was very, very proud to be proven wrong. It’s one of the reasons I’m working so hard to get him elected.”

He also appears to have changed his mind about Trump’s accusers. Earlier this year, after a judge ordered the ex-president to pay Carroll $83.3 million for defamation, Vance told The hill that the jurors in the trial came from “far left jurisdictions.”

The jury found that Trump intentionally damaged Carroll’s reputation in 2019 after she went public with her allegations.

The jury awarded her $18 million in compensation for the personal damages she suffered, and added another $65 million to punish Trump.

The amount was in addition to the $5 million in damages Trump was ordered to pay Carroll in May 2023 following a civil lawsuit in which Leeds testified.

Carroll’s lawyers had called Leeds to testify in an attempt to establish an alleged pattern of Trump’s attacks on women.

The jury in the civil case rejected Carroll’s claims that she was raped, but found Trump liable for sexual assault and for defaming her after she went public with her allegations.

Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly said he will announce his running mate next week at the Republican Party convention in Milwaukee.

Trump appeared to tease during a rally in Miami on Tuesday night that he might choose Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as his running matewhich apparently made it onto the final shortlist.

The presumptive GOP nominee repeatedly mentioned Rubio by name during his rally, saying there had been “a lot in the press” about the former presidential candidate’s prospects.

“They probably think I’m going to announce Rubio as my vice president,” Trump even admitted at one point.

He also pressed Rubio on his policy proposal to eliminate the tip tax if he returns to the White House, telling him that “you may or may not be there to vote on it, but you will be involved in it.”

Trump’s running mate selection reportedly also includes Vance and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, alongside out-of-state names such as Vivek Ramaswamy and Byron Donalds who have also been mentioned in recent months.