JD Vance sex slur is deleted by AP after wire agency decided to 'fact-check' lurid claim about GOP VP pick's sexual preferences
The Associated Press has deleted an article where they fact-checked a wild sex claim about Donald Trump's VP choice JD Vance.
The wire agency sparked backlash after it published a piece on the Ohio senator Wednesday that was titled, 'No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch.'
However, by the next day, the AP had removed the article from its archives, with the page address showing it is now unavailable.
A spokesperson for the AP told DailyMail.com on Thursday that the fact-check on Vance did not go through the standard editing process.
The agency said it's looking into how it was published.
![The Associated Press has deleted an article where they fact-checked a wild claim about Donald Trump 's VP choice JD Vance](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/25/16/87765333-13672623-image-a-37_1721921144551.jpg)
The Associated Press has deleted an article where they fact-checked a wild claim about Donald Trump 's VP choice JD Vance
The now-deleted article came after memes began circulating on social media repeating a false rumor that claimed Vance, 39, wrote about having sex with a couch on his best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy.
High-profile names such as comedienne Kathy Griffin appeared to fall for the fake news, writing: 'I don’t think we should have a couchf***er as our vice president. That’s just me. Sorry JD.'
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Associated Press for comment on this story.
The false information reportedly began circulating on X after the now-private account @rickrudescalves wrote: 'Can’t say for sure but he might be the first VP pick to have admitted in a NY Times bestseller to f***ing an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions.'
![The wire agency sparked backlash after it published a piece on the Ohio senator Wednesday that was titled, 'No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/25/16/87767095-13672623-image-a-45_1721922280801.jpg)
The wire agency sparked backlash after it published a piece on the Ohio senator Wednesday that was titled, 'No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch'
![The AP removed the article from its archives, with the page address showing it is now unavailable](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/25/16/87766275-13672623-The_AP_removed_the_article_from_its_archives_with_the_page_addre-m-44_1721922040182.jpg)
The AP removed the article from its archives, with the page address showing it is now unavailable
The X account then provided a fake reference for the unfounded claim as pages 179 to 181 of Vance’s 2016 memoir.
Some X users have theorized that the AP removed the fact-check because it actually cannot back up the claim it made.
Journalist Tom Gara wrote: 'This headline is simply not supported by any evidence, which is a huge problem for a fact check. It should be corrected to "No, JD Vance did not write about having sex with a couch."
Meanwhile author Noah Rothman said: 'Last night, the AP published a “fact-check” of utterly unknown nobodies who alleged that JD Vance fornicated a couch, not because anyone believed that but because it introduces that nonsense into the bloodstream.
![Vance, R-Ohio, and his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance arrive on the floor during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/25/17/87769507-13672623-image-a-48_1721925525846.jpg)
Vance, R-Ohio, and his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance arrive on the floor during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention
![Vance’s bestseller about his roots in rural Kentucky and blue-collar Ohio made him a national celebrity soon after its publication in the summer of 2016](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/25/17/87769509-13672623-image-a-49_1721925529489.jpg)
Vance’s bestseller about his roots in rural Kentucky and blue-collar Ohio made him a national celebrity soon after its publication in the summer of 2016
'Today, it’s gone. So sleazy.'
Vance’s bestseller about his roots in rural Kentucky and blue-collar Ohio made him a national celebrity soon after its publication in the summer of 2016, and became a cultural talking point after Trump’s stunning victory that November.
Netflix paid Imagine $45 million for the exclusive screening rights in January 2019. The movie, starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams, debuted on the streaming platform in November 2020.
After the announcement that Vance would be on the ticket with Trump for November's showdown election with President Joe Biden, the movie became the third most streamed movie on Netflix.