Daily Beast: “In advance of announcing his run for Senate, Hillbilly Elegy author turned venture capitalist J.D. Vance deleted dozens of old tweets blasting former President Donald Trump. But Vance, who is warring with fellow Ohio Republicans for the MAGA vote, forgot to scrub one Twitter element of his anti-Trump past: his ‘likes.’ Vance’s Twitter likes, which were still visible as of Monday afternoon, include two tweets supporting Hillary Clinton’s 2016 candidacy, a post implying Trump supporters are antisemitic, and multiple tweets indicting Trump’s character. One tweet even accuses then-candidate Trump of sexual assault, and another calls him ‘psychologically disturbed.’ He also liked two tweets mocking Melania Trump. Most of the controversial Twitter likes came around the time of the leaked ‘Access Hollywood’ tape in early October 2016, where Trump was caught on microphone saying he could grab women by their genitals with impunity because, ‘When you’re a star, they let you do it.'”

“On Oct. 8, 2016 – the day after the video leaked – Vance liked a tweet calling Trump a ‘thug’ who ‘[committed] sexual assault.’ The post compared Trump’s behavior to his false allegations against a group of Black teenagers in New York in the 1990s. ‘Maybe the Central Park 5 could take out a full-page ad to condemn the coddling of thug real estate barons who commit serial sexual assault,’ the tweet, from Washington Post columnist Radley Balko, said. Vance also liked a tweet from that same day announcing that the Beckley Register-Herald – a newspaper in the heart of West Virginia coal country – had endorsed Clinton. Vance’s like was one of 20 for the tweet. The investment banker and Yale Law grad also liked yet another tweet from that day, declaring that ‘Trump is making the GOP the latest victim of his bankrupted endeavors,’ and linking to a Business Insider article headlined, ‘Donald Trump is on the Verge of Poisoning the Entire GOP Brand for Years.'”