Sen. J.D. Vance's (R-OH) law school roommate, Georgia State Sen. Josh McLaurin (D), on Tuesday shared with CNN's Kaitlan Collins conversations he had with the 2024 GOP vice presidential nominee prior to his entry to politics and rise in the Republican Party.
Noting that he attended Vice President Kamala Harris' Atlanta rally Tuesday evening, where "the vibes were excellent," McLaurin told Collins, "this is kind of a plunge into a different reality when you start talking about where the top of the Republican ticket is — the vibes are very different."
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Collins then said, "[People who are watching this] are curious about your background and your history with JD Vance before he was Sen. JD Vance," asking, "When this was all beginning to be uncovered, were you surprised by this or do you remember him ever talking about this before?"
McLaurin replied, "I'm the one who published the 'America's Hitler' text. He wrote to me in 2016 that he feared that Trump might be 'America's Hitler.' So obviously it's a huge flip-flop for him now — years later — to be Trump's biggest cheerleader on the national stage. I reached out to him in 2016 because we were friendly at the end of law school, and after — we graduated in 2013, 2014 — I graduated a year later."
He continued, "But in 2016, I thought I had an ally in him, because even though I was a Democrat and he was a Republican, I think we both found Trump to be appalling at that time — really scary. I reached out to him and I asked for his thoughts on Trump, and he was very thorough and incisive. He told me that Trump was the fruit of the Republican Party's collective neglect. That a demagogue would come along, and exploit that failure. I mean, that's very sophisticated analysis that still holds true today. So I wasn't ready for the big flip-flop that he made years later."
McLaurin emphasized, "By 2021, when I heard him make that 'childless cat ladies' comment for the first time, I was kind of shocked because, for one thing, I was shocked that somebody who apparently had political aspirations would want to insult millions of Americans who, if you're running for US Senate — or especially on the stage he's on now — you just can't afford to be to have that much contempt for everyday people. So one thing that Democrats have to do is stay focused on everyday people, the issues that really matter to them, the economy, reproductive rights, and not get distracted the way that Republicans are by these sort of weird cultural wars."
Watch the video below.
