J.D. Vance came under fire on X (formerly known as Twitter) for using a clip of a former Miss Teen USA contestant for his own purposes. Vice President J.D. Vance often uses the platform to comment on matters, especially when he was campaigning with Trump.

However, one of his posts caused him to be under a lot of fire, but he refused to back down. He held his own against criticism.

Keep reading to learn more about what transpired.

Before he was elected, J.D. Vance was very vocal on social media. For instance, he used a clip of a 2007 Miss Teen USA contestant to poke fun of the Democratic presidential candidate at the time, Kamala Harris. However, his joke did not go down well with people, who quickly pointed out how the entire experience had been traumatizing for the teen contestant in the clip, Caitlin Upton.

Because of the backlash and humiliation she had faced due to the clip, she had even contemplated suicide, a fact many people pointed out to Vance at the time. The moment that occurred in 2007 had been wiped from public consciousness, however, Vance reposting the clip during his 2024 campaigning, reminded people of the entire thing once again.

In a subsequent interview with CNN, J.D. Vance clarified that he did not realize that Upton had struggled with the ridicule she faced due to the videos and that it had affected her mental health to the point she considered suicide. However, he said, he still will not apologize for sharing the clip.
When he shared the video, he wrote along with it, “BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview.”

In the video, Caitlin Upton is seen answering the question, “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?”

The young contestant struggled to answer the question, leading her to ramble and fail to give a coherent answer. The moment went viral and later Upton spoke about how it impacted her life. She said, “lost a lot of close friends over it” as well as being on the receiving end of “the harshest, meanest comments I had ever heard.”