Senator JD Vance (R-OH) responded to the heavy criticisms levied against him by outgoing Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) in an in-depth profile with The Atlantic.
Romney said he at first liked Vance after reading his book, Hillbilly Elegy, but said he started to sour on him after he started his run for Senate, going as far as to say, "I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more than JD Vance":
Then, in 2021, Vance decided he wanted to run for Senate, and reinvented his entire persona overnight. Suddenly, he was railing against the “childless left” and denouncing Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a “fake holiday” and accusing Joe Biden of manufacturing the opioid crisis 'to punish people who didn’t vote for him.' The speed of the MAGA makeover was jarring.
'I do wonder, how do you make that decision?' Romney mused to me as Vance was degrading himself on the campaign trail that summer. 'How can you go over a line so stark as that—and for what?' Romney wished he could grab Vance by the shoulders and scream: This is not worth it! 'It’s not like you’re going to be famous and powerful because you became a United States senator. It’s like, really? You sell yourself so cheap?' The prospect of having Vance in the caucus made Romney uncomfortable. 'How do you sit next to him at lunch?'
Vance told a Politico reporter that he wished Romney could have talked to him "like a man" instead of running to the media.
JD VANCE just now: “If he has a problem with with me, I kind of wish he just acted like a man and spoke to me directly.” https://t.co/22mK5vEdz3
— Daniella Diaz (@DaniellaMicaela) September 14, 2023
"Mitt Romney is one to talk about changing his mind publicly. He’s been on every side of 35 different issues," Vance told Breitbart News on Thursday. "My job is to work for the people of Ohio, not get involved in petty personal disputes. I’ve been focused on that and will continue to do so in the future."