Sofa so bad for JD Vance as Trump’s VP pick faces swirling speculation

It all started with a tweet about a couch. Within hours of Donald Trump announcing the Ohio senator JD Vance as his running mate in the presidential race, a rather lurid accusation cropped up on social media.

The user of a since-deleted X account wrote last month, "can't say for sure but he might be the first vp pick to have admitted in a ny times bestseller to fucking an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions (vance, hillbilly elegy, pp. 179-181)."

The fake page citation from Vance's bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy lent credibility to what turned out to be a baseless claim, as detailed in a now-removed fact check from the Associated Press. Soon, the internet was awash in memes mocking Vance's relationship with various pieces of furniture. "I did not have sectional relations," one X user joked, paraphrasing Bill Clinton's infamous quote about his extramarital affair. Another user added: "Who hasn't been excited by the thrill of the chaise?"

Even Kamala Harris's newly launched presidential campaign appeared to get in on the fun, tweeting: "JD Vance does not couch his hatred for women."

The couch debacle only underscored Vance's overall dismal introduction to the country after his somewhat forgettable speech at the Republican national convention last month, prompting some to wonder if Trump should make the historic decision to ditch his running mate just three months before election day. Vance enters the final 100-day stretch of the election season as one of the most unpopular running mates in recent history. According to a CNN analysis, Vance is the least liked non-incumbent vice-presidential nominee since 1980.

And the backlash goes deeper than couch memes. Critics have dug up his past comments supporting a nationwide abortion ban and attacking women without children. In a clip from 2021 that has circulated widely over the past two weeks, Vance told the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the US was managed by "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too".

That comment struck many Americans as so out of touch that it sparked censure from some surprising figures, including the generally apolitical celebrity Jennifer Aniston. "Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day," Aniston wrote in an Instagram post. "I hope she will not need to turn to [in vitro fertilization] as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too."