The political trajectory of J.D. Vance from Trump critic to Trump acolyte is well-known, and has been a frequent topic on the late-night shows, especially in the days since Vance was selected by Trump as his running mate and heir apparent to the MAGA movement.
Less well-known is Vance’s own history with late night: a single appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, back when he still considered himself a Never-Trumper.
Vance’s sit-down with Meyers came at the tail-end of Late Night’s March 15, 2017 episode, and if it was ever posted by the show to YouTube, it’s long gone now. (Likewise, it’s not available on NBC.com and Peacock only streams episodes from the show’s two most recent seasons.)
Fear not, though: LateNighter has unearthed video of the interview. Not that there’s anything terribly earth-shattering to be found in it, beyond the odd juxtaposition of seeing future adversaries engaged in friendly conversation:
In the interview, which focused on Vance’s then-still relatively new bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, the future senator discusses the “weird” dynamics of being asked to appear on TV to explain why members of his community—the white working class in Kentucky and Ohio—found Donald Trump so appealing.
“It’s pretty bizarre,” Vance told Meyers. “When people call me and want me to talk about Trump and politics, my initial reaction is ‘Wouldn’t you rather talk to somebody who’s smarter, or more well-informed?'”
As his criticism of Trump softened, Vance became even more of a TV fixture (albeit not on late-night television). Between 2019 and 2023, he logged a whopping 42 guest appearances on Tucker Carlson Tonight. In 2021, he traveled to Mar-a-Lago to personally apologize to Trump before running for office himself, winning his Ohio Senate seat with Trump’s endorsement.
Needless to say, Vance and Meyers are far less chummy these days.
Earlier this week, after Vance posted on social media that those advancing the premise that Trump is “an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs” had “led directly” to last Saturday’s assassination attempt, Meyers issued a blistering response.
“At a time when things are bad, you are choosing to make things worse,” Meyers said on his show Monday night. “You are choosing to inflame the national mood at a dangerous moment rather than show the leadership and basic decency it would take to calm things down. You should be ashamed. Please stop.”
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