If you have spent even two minutes of the past five years reading J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, or watching Ron Howard’s adaptation it, you’re probably going to want to find the nearest blunt object and get ready to tear your eyeballs out. As Daily Beast is reporting, Vance—the author/venture capitalist-turned-Ohio Senate candidate—has some pretty revolting ideas about rape. Namely, that it’s really just “inconvenient.” As is incest. We’ll say!
Vance uttered the abominable adjective during an interview with Columbus, Ohio’s Spectrum News 1, which was published on Wednesday. When asked to share his thoughts on Texas’ abhorrent new near-total abortion ban, and specifically whether he thought victims of rape or incest should be forced to carry their babies to term, Vance—who is one of a dozen Republican senatorial candidates currently hoping to be on the official ballot—didn’t hold back. After noting that “the question betrays a certain presumption that’s wrong,” Vance went on to explain his totally f*#%ed-up argument:
“It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term; it’s whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society. The question to me is really about the baby. We want women to have opportunities, we want women to have choices, but, above all, we want women and young boys in the womb to have a right to life.”
“Inconvenient.” Let’s not forget that this man is a bestselling author, so is very familiar with knowing which words to use and where to put them. And we have a few ideas as to where Vance can shove the word “inconvenient.” (He also noted that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”) In case you’re wondering: Yes, Vance is a father—to two sons.
Vance’s press secretary Taylor Van Kirk issued a statement decrying Daily Beast’s story, which states:
“Nowhere in the interview cited does JD actually say what the Daily Beast is dishonestly claiming he said. The transcript of the interview bears this out as that phrase is never uttered and JD even rejects the entire premise of the question he was asked by the interviewer. The Daily Beast’s pathetic attempt to put words in his mouth show that they’ve traded in any semblance of journalistic integrity to be full on leftwing political activists.”
For their part, Daily Beast reminded its readers that a recording of the interview is available—right here, and below! (The abortion conversation begins around the 9:25 mark, with the “inconvenient” comment being made 12 minutes in.)
(Via Daily Beast)