Trump ramps up his defense of Vance after one of the rockiest VP rollouts in recent memory

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump is used to defending himself. But this week, the Republican presidential nominee has been put in the rare position of having to defend someone else — his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

When Vance was first introduced at the Republican National Convention last month, many GOP officials said they didn’t know much about him. Since then, the void has been filled with multiple reports of controversial statements — especially Vance's previous suggestion that Vice President Kamala Harris and other so-called “childless cat ladies” want to make the country miserable — that have made his rollout among the most turbulent in recent history.

“I’m just speaking for myself. And I think I’m speaking for him, too,” Trump said during a contentious interview Wednesday at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago. “My interpretation is he’s strongly family-oriented. But that doesn’t mean that if you don’t have a family, there’s something wrong with that.”

Conservative commentators, Republican strategists and GOP elected officials on Capitol Hill publicly and privately agree that Vance’s introduction to America has not gone well, with Democrats highlighting his past statements on abortion rights and a suggestion that parents should have more of a vote than adults without children. Harris and her allies have started calling both Vance and Trump “weird,” messaging that has taken off online.