Former Yale colleague and friend of JD Vance says emails show political transformation on ‘literally every issue imaginable’

CNN
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A Yale Law School friend of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who revealed years of emails the two previously exchanged, said Monday that the Republican vice presidential nominee is a “chameleon” who has changed his views on “literally every issue imaginable.”

Sofia Nelson, a transgender public defender in Detroit, shared dozens of emails she and Vance sent between mid-2014 and early 2017. The New York Times was first to report on the emails.

At the time, Vance was sharply critical of former President Donald Trump, his current running mate, calling the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia “a very shrill old man” and saying he hated the police. He was also personally warm toward Nelson, expressing concern about the language he had used to describe his identity in his best-selling book.

Now, Nelson told CNN’s Erin Burnett: “I see nothing of the man I knew and cared about. It’s truly heartbreaking to see him become so callous and divisive.”

Nelson’s comments come as Vance’s political transformation from a vocal critic of Trump in public and private to, in just a few years, one of the former president’s most vocal defenders on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail is being explored, with Election Day just over three months away.

“It is regrettable that this individual chose to leak decade-old private conversations between friends to The New York Times,” a spokesperson for Vance said in a statement. “Senator Vance values ​​his friendships with individuals across the political spectrum. He has been open about the fact that some of his views from a decade ago began to change after he became a father and started a family, and he has fully explained why he changed his mind about President Trump. Despite their disagreements, Senator Vance cares about Sofia and wishes Sofia the best.”

The emails emerged as Vance, then a venture capitalist, emerged as a political commentator and best-selling author.

In 2016, immediately after the book “Hillbilly Elegy” was published, Vance sent Nelson an excerpt — along with a note about how he had described Nelson, among a group of 16 friends at Yale.

“I send this to you not just to brag, but because I’m sure if you read it you’ll notice the reference to an ‘extremely progressive lesbian.’ I’m sure most readers will have no idea who this refers to, but you will,” he wrote.

“I recognize now that this may not accurately reflect how you think of yourself, and for that I am truly sorry. … I hope you recognize that the description came from a place of ignorance when I first began writing years ago. I hope you won’t be offended, but if you are, I am truly sorry!” he wrote.

Nelson responded: “My identity is complicated and a topic for another day, but progressive lesbian is probably a pretty accurate assessment for mainstream consumption. If you had written radical pragmatist genderqueer, no one would know what you meant!”

Nelson said Vance sent her baked goods after her gender-affirming surgery and expressed his support.

“I knew JD was a genuine and caring person. He was compassionate toward people who were different from him. And that email, I believed at the time, genuinely reflected his views,” Nelson said on “OutFront.”

Nelson, who attended Vance’s wedding, told Burnett that they wanted to make it clear that they still care about the senator, his wife, Usha, and his family. They have some hope, they said, “that he’s going to recover or something.”

Their friendship fractured, Nelson said, when Vance supported legislation — first in Ohio, then nationally — that would criminalize gender-affirming care for minors. He introduced a bill, called the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, to impose such a federal ban last year.

“That was incredibly hurtful, and I communicated that to him,” Nelson said. “I communicated that I was disappointed, hurt and scared. Because I remember what it was like to be a kid and think there was something wrong with me.”

The emails reveal a figure who at the time described himself as a conservative but was harshly critical of Trump.

In December 2015, Vance said he wanted Trump to “reduce racism.”

“He’s a f—ing disaster,” Vance wrote in October 2016. “He’s just a bad man. A morally reprehensible human being.”

The following month, he wrote that racially offensive views are “certainly disproportionate” among Trump supporters.

Vance also touched on a number of other political and cultural issues in their exchanges. In 2014, Vance told Nelson that police officers should be required to wear body cameras.

“I hate the police,” Vance said. “Given the number of negative experiences I’ve had over the last few years, I can’t imagine what a black person goes through.”

Vance’s positions on many issues have changed dramatically since then. He campaigned for the Ohio Senate seat in 2022 as a populist and Trump ally, and has frequently discussed publicly how his views of the former president have evolved.

“What I see is a chameleon — someone who is able to change his positions and his values ​​depending on what will give him political power and wealth. And I find that really unfortunate because it reflects a lack of integrity,” Nelson said.

“This isn’t someone who has evolved on one or two issues with new information,” they said. “This is someone who has changed their views on literally every imaginable issue that affects everyday Americans in this country and changed the way they talk about people.”