"Reprehensible": J.D. Vance's journey from "Never Trump" to VP nominee

• Vance, a 39-year-old best-selling author and former venture capitalist, would be the second youngest vice president in history if Trump wins in November.

Context: Much of Vance's flip-flopping on Trump occurred as he was running for Senate in the 2022 midterm elections.

• Before he received Trump's endorsement, Vance repeatedly apologized for statements he made against the former president and deleted critical tweets about him.
• He's also said that his opinions of Trump were wrong at the time and should not be held against him.

What they're saying: In his first interview as vice president nominee, Vance acknowledged his past opposition to Trump, saying he was "certainly skeptical" of him but that the former president "changed my mind."

• "I actually think it's a good thing, when you see somebody, you were wrong about them, you ought to admit the mistake and admit that you were wrong," Vance said.

Vance was "a Never Trump guy"

In an interview with Charlie Rose in 2016, Vance said he was "a Never Trump guy" and that he "never liked him."

• "One of the things that's really driving attraction to Donald Trump is not any special quality of Donald Trump himself but of the fact that folks feel very resentful at the media establishment, the political establishment, the financial establishment and so forth," Vance said in the interview.
• "One of the biggest drivers of Trump support, and one of the things that's most predictive of Trump support, is that you express cynicism about the future," he added.

He said Trump could be "America's Hitler"

During the 2016 election, Vance wrote that he went "back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical a–hole like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he's America's Hitler."

• The comparison between Trump and Adolf Hitler was included in a message Vance sent to Democratic Georgia state Rep. Josh McLaurin, his old college roommate.

Vance tweeted that Trump is "reprehensible"

After launching his Senate bid, Vance deleted a series of social media posts critical of Trump.

• In one from the 2016 presidential election, he called Trump "reprehensible" for his rhetoric toward immigrants and Muslims, according to CNN.
• In another, Vance said he was voting for Evan McMullin, a former CIA operations officer who ran as an independent in the 2016 presidential election.

Zoom in: When Trump's infamous "Access Hollywood" tape was released, Vance warned fellow Christians in a since deleted tweet that "everyone is watching when we apologize for this man."

• He had also liked posts critical of Trump around that same time, including one accusing Trump of committing "serial sexual assault."

Vance compared Trump to the opioid crisis

"Trump's promises are the needle in America's collective vein," Vance wrote in a 2016 Atlantic essay, in which he compared Trump's movement to a "quick high" and the antithesis of "real medicine" that would not solve problems that average Americans face.

• "There is no self-reflection in the midst of a false euphoria," Vance, whose mother struggled with opioid addiction, wrote. "Trump is cultural heroin. He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they'll realize it."

Go deeper: What happens to J.D. Vance's Senate seat if Trump wins