The Revelation Embarrassing Vance: How He Tried to Help Hillary Clinton Beat Trump

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, who opposed both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, contacted members of the Democratic campaign during the race and offered advice intended, according to a report published today (Thursday) in Vanity Fair, to improve Clinton's chances.

Vance, who voted for independent candidate Evan McMullin in that election, asked an intermediary in the campaign to connect him with Jake Sullivan, Clinton's senior policy adviser. According to the source, after being told that Sullivan was busy, Vance called again and said: "I hate Hillary. But I hate Trump more. Trump can't win. He can't win. Hillary is going to lose, but she doesn't have to."

According to the intermediary, Vance argued that Clinton needed to quickly visit the swing states of Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin: "She needs to come here instead of being with Beyoncé in Miami. She needs to come and apologize for the Iraq War." Clinton, who served as New York's junior senator, voted in 2002 in favor of the resolution authorizing the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq.

Vance and Sullivan ultimately spoke directly about six weeks before the election. A source close to Sullivan said he does not recall Vance raising the issue of swing states, but said that he did urge Clinton to "fix this 'deplorables' thing," after she referred at a fundraising event to some Trump supporters as a "basket of deplorables." According to that source, Vance stressed: "She has to focus."

The vice president's spokesperson, Taylor Van Kirk, rejected the way the events were portrayed: "A lot of people sought the vice president's advice in 2016. He never worked for a campaign, but he urged both Republicans and Democrats to care about working-class towns like Middletown, Ohio. We 100 percent reject the characterization that he tried to help Hillary win."