Newly uncovered texts reveal JD Vance, Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, had extensive conversations with Charles (“Chuck”) Johnson, a prominent right-wing activist known for Holocaust denial and promoting false smear campaigns.
The texts, obtained by The Washington Post, were exchanged via the encrypted app Signal and cover a range of topics including the Ukraine war, US-Israel relations, and Jeffrey Epstein.
Vance’s spokesperson, William Martin, acknowledged the authenticity of the messages but claimed that Johnson’s outreach was frequent and often unsolicited. Martin, asserted that Vance only engaged with Johnson to counter his more extreme assertions.
“JD usually ignored him, but occasionally responded to push back against things he said,” Martin told the Post.
However, the texts suggest more than mere rebuttals. They show Vance actively seeking Johnson’s opinion on various issues, including controversial topics, and making comments that appear aimed at impressing the far-right activist.
In October 2023, Vance expressed a dismissive attitude towards Ukrainian officials seeking military aid, stating, “Dude I won’t even take calls from Ukraine. Two very senior guys reached out to me. The head of their intel. The head of the Air Force. Bitching about F16s.”
The exchanges also reveal Vance’s frustration with Johnson’s probing questions about his political donors and positions, as well as Johnson’s confrontational tone. In one instance, Vance told Johnson to stop sending “weird messages” and expressed anger over Johnson’s “threatening tone.”
Vance’s connections to far-right elements of the Republican Party have already set him apart within the Senate GOP, making his selection as Trump’s running mate a clear signal to the party’s most ardent supporters. This association with extremist views raises further scrutiny of how thoroughly Vance was vetted before being chosen as Trump’s vice presidential candidate.
Johnson’s history of conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial is well-documented. He gained notoriety for attempting to discredit Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer with falsified documents and, in a 2017 Reddit post, expressed skepticism about the Holocaust’s death toll, writing, “never believed the six million figure”. He later claimed that he was merely trying to test Reddit’s speech policies.
Vance has boasted about his connections to various fringe right-wing subcultures. He endorsed a book by Jack Posobiec, a far-right activist known for promoting the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, and has defended Alex Jones, the radio host infamous for his false claims about the Sandy Hook school shooting.
In a 2021 speech to the conservative Teneo Network, recently highlighted by ProPublica, Vance argued, “Believing important truths should be the mark of whether we accept somebody, and if they believe some crazy things on the side, that’s fine. We need to be okay with nonconventional people.”
The exposure of these texts adds to the controversy surrounding Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate. Vance’s ties to far-right figures and his previous inflammatory comments have already been a point of contention, drawing criticism from both political opponents and within the Republican Party.
