'He Didn't Know Me': Donald Trump Defends VP Pick J.D. Vance After His Spiteful Comments About the Ex-President Were Exposed

Prior to becoming Donald Trump's VP pick, J.D. Vance was not a fan of the ex-president — something he didn't try to hide.

Now that the comments have been exposed, the 78-year-old still defended Vance, 39.

“We’ve always had a good chemistry,” Trump told Fox News host Jesse Watters in an interview that was taped on Saturday, July 20, and aired on Monday, July 22. “And originally J.D. was probably not for me, but he didn’t know me. And then when we got to know each other he liked me, maybe more than anybody liked me. And he would stick up for me, and he would fight for the worker as much as I fight for the worker.”

“We just had an automatic chemistry,” Trump continued. “And I actually endorsed him in Ohio, for the Senate. And he ended up winning against a very tough field. Very tough field.”

As OK! previously reported, Vance was not a fan of Trump just a few years ago.

“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical a------- like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler. How’s that for discouraging?” he wrote in 2016.

However, he's since changed his tune — something Sean Hannity pressed him on during the Republican National Convention.

"You know, you literally said, you texted a friend, that Trump is a cynical a-------- like [Richard] Nixon… that he’s America’s Hitler, and you compared him to cultural heroine in the Atlantic Monthly. And I’ll tell you Trump’s response, but you said that then. What do you say to people that say, well, wait a minute? What did he mean?" the Fox News host asked Vance.

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"Well, Sean, I don’t hide from that. I was certainly skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016, but President Trump was a great president, and he changed my mind. I think he changed the minds of a lot of Americans because, again, he delivered that peace and prosperity," he explained. "If you go back to what I thought in 2016, another thing that was going on, Sean, is I bought into the media’s lies and distortions. I bought into this idea that somehow he was going to be so different, a terrible threat to democracy. It was a joke."

He added, "Joe Biden is the one who’s trying to throw his political opposition in jail. Joe Biden is the one who’s trying to undermine American law and order. President Trump did a really good job. And I actually think it’s a good thing when you see somebody, you were wrong about him, you ought to admit the mistake and admit that you were wrong."