Sen. JD Vance of Ohio said that a lawyer who may have been sent by the Trump campaign asked him if he had a “secret family” during the vice presidential campaign in an interview. what happened with his wife, Usha Vance, who is sitting next to him.
“At one point, the attorney said, ‘No, I’m going to ask some uncomfortable questions,'” Vance recounted on the Full Send Podcast in an episode that aired Friday. I was like, ‘ All right, do that.’
The lawyer, Vance said, then asked, “Do you have a secret family?”
Vance, who described the detailed review of his life as “surprising” and “surprising,” said the question surprised him. He quickly denied having such a family after it became clear what the lawyer meant.
“I’m like, ‘Are you serious? I have a secret family? Like, what do you mean?’
The attorney, whom Vance did not name, said some public figures have children or partners who are not publicly known.
“He said, ‘Well, sometimes people will have another partner, or they’ll have other children in a place like Alaska,'” Vance said.
Vance said he replied, “Brother, I’ve never been to Alaska.”
The whole questioning was unusual, Vance added, as his wife sat next to him.
“‘Oh, by the way, if I did, I wouldn’t admit it in front of my wife,'” Vance said, laughing.
The Ohio senator said that if someone has kept a secret like that for so long, he probably won’t reveal it openly.
“It’s one of those questions that if you’ve gotten to that point in your life and you’re so unfaithful that you have a secret family in Alaska, I think a lot of people would hide it at that point. ,” he said.
Although little publicity is usually given to the vice president’s vetting, politicians who have gone through it have often described it as difficult and confusing. Potential vice-presidential candidates are asked to provide copies of every statement they have made as well as bank records. Vance said he was also asked if any family members would criticize him publicly.
The reason that campaigns are actively vetting potential running mates is that they want to prepare for the media scrutiny that will come. Typically, presidential candidates have been running for the White House for a year or more and are well known on the national stage. Vice presidential candidates, on the other hand, are often less well-known, and their selection occurs only a few months into the campaign. If elected, Vance, who has spent about 18 months in the Senate, will be one of the youngest vice presidents in history.
In an interview, before being nominated, Vance said he was asked the usual questions, such as whether he had a criminal history.
“Really, like, you know, have you committed a crime? Have you ever lied about this – really, you have those conversations,” said Vance during a June interview on Fox and Friends.
There were also examples of politicians who tried to hide children from the public eye. A recent example is former Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, whose 2022 Georgia Senate campaign was rocked by allegations that he tried to hide three children. Walker, a staunch Trump ally, has denied having secret children, but the scandal is one of many that helped end his campaign to oust Sen. Raphael Warnock, Democrat.
According to a 2011 Washington Post article, at least eight other politicians also tried to keep the children they had with other women from the public eye. Another example is Sen. John Edwards, former North Carolina, Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2004. After years of denial, Edwards admitted in 2010 that he fathered a child with a campaign videographer during the see.
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