Why Is J.D. Vance Still Following This Hitler Apologist?

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance still follows a self-proclaimed historian who this week claimed that Winston Churchill was the “chief villain of World War 2”—not Adolf Hitler.

Vance follows Darryl Cooper from both of his accounts on X (formerly Twitter).

Cooper drew increased attention Tuesday after X CEO and fascism enthusiast Elon Musk promoted Tucker Carlson’s interview with the controversial figure on his podcast, calling it “Very interesting. Worth watching.” After the interview was criticized by figures on the right and left, Musk deleted his tweet, but not before both he and Carlson were attacked for giving pro-Nazi propaganda a platform, especially since Carlson said Cooper “may be the best and most honest popular historian in the United States.”

As more scrutiny was focused on Cooper’s views, particularly his white nationalist sympathies, X user @styledape discovered two prominent followers of Cooper’s @martyrmade X account: @JDVance and @SenVancePress.

The fact that Vance follows such a personality suggests that he may hold similar views to Cooper, which begs the question of why the Ohio senator would continue to follow him on two major social media accounts. Then again, Vance’s addition to Donald Trump’s presidential ticket has been followed by some damaging revelations from the past few years. 

For example, Vance’s comments attacking people without children, and derisively referring to “childless cat ladies” have given his campaign quite a bit of negative attention,  even drawing the ire of some of his fellow conservatives. He’s praised a book by conspiracy theorist and Pizzagate promoter Jack Probesic and was caught bashing immigrants with another right-wing podcast host in 2021. Maybe Vance needs to go through the skeletons in his closet before another scandal hurts his vice presidential prospects.