In an interview on Fox News Monday, author and Ohio Senate Republican candidate J.D. Vance said he has “regrets” over criticism of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mediaite reports.

“Like a lot of people, I criticized Trump back in 2016,” he told Fox News’ Alicia Acuna. “And I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said in 2016,  because I’ve been very open that I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy. I think he was a good president. I think he made a lot of good decisions for everybody, and I think he took a lot of flak.”

Too bad that Vance, who’s now a venture capitalist and author of the best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy doesn’t realize he was correct the first time around in 2016 when he posted on Twitter that he found Trump “reprehensible” and said, “God wants better of us.” Despite that, however, Trump won Ohio, with 51 percent of the vote against Hillary Clinton’s 43 percent. He won by a narrower margin in 2020, 53—45 percent.

Vance is running to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R) in 2022. On the Republican side, his opponents include former state treasurer Josh Mandel, who faced off and lost against Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown in 2012.

In Monday’s interview, Vance also told Acuna “I think … the most important thing, is not what you said five years ago, but whether you’re willing to stand up and take the heat and take the hits for actually defending the interests of the American people.”

Hillbilly Elegy was widely acclaimed and while it is, in many ways a nicely written book (I’ve read it myself) it offers a myopic look into the lives of Appalachia’s poor because we only see it through Vance’s eyes, and only in regards to his own family.

If you’re curious about the lives of the working poor in this devastated part of the country, I suggest you take a look at this.

JD Vance on Fox News on deleting 2016 tweets criticizing Trump & saying he'd vote for somebody else: "Like a lot of people, I criticized Trump back in 2016. I'd ask folks not to judge me based on what I said in 2016 … I regret them. I regret being wrong about the guy." pic.twitter.com/uOMdqeOQh9

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 6, 2021

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