There’s no couching the facts: JD Vance was an awful VP pick. On a daily basis, the Ohio senator gets exposed for being a weirdo and a fraud.

And this past weekend was no different!

Though the memes about Vance fornicating with a sofa were based off a false rumor, his apparent search history is almost as bizarre. On Friday, digital sleuths resurfaced one of Vance’s tweets from February, in which he may have revealed an unusual interest in women… and dolphins?

In a seeming attempt at humor, Vance highlighted a post from an account called “Crazy Clips.” The off-putting video shows a woman on a boat coming face-to-face with a dolphin. The description reads as follows: “Woman gets violated by a dolphin and enjoys it.”

Always the jokester, Vance replied with a pithy comment. “Maybe the internet was a mistake,” he wrote.

While that may be true, the true mistake in regards to Vance’s post may have been sharing his observation. The words “woman” and “dolphin” are highlighted, which indicates that Vance, or somebody using his account, was searching for the two words. X’s search function bolds key words in relevant tweets.

For example: here’s a look at a page if somebody searches “JD Vance.”

As one can see, the words “JD” and “Vance” are in black lettering. Now take a look at the aforementioned dolphin tweet. Notice anything?

🤔🤔🤔

Though Vance was ridiculed at the time for his seemingly explicit dolphins-based search history, his ascension to the top of the GOP ticket sheds new light on his peculiar fixations.

The Hillbilly Elegy author has a long list of problematic statements and personal ties, including a relationship Heritage Foundation President and Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts. Vance wrote the forward for his book, saying the anti-LGBTQ+ religious zealot represents a “new future of conservatism.”

Opposing Project 2025, which aims to further strip women of their reproductive freedom and LGBTQ+ folx from civil rights protections, has become a rallying cry for Democrats and people who don’t want to live in the Middle Ages.

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Along those lines, some of Vance’s past comments on Fox News and other right-wing platforms are also alienating normal people who Republicans need to support their ticket. Back in 2021, Vance mocked liberal women as “childless cat ladies” in an interview with Tucker Carlson, declaring that women who “don’t give birth” shouldn’t involve themselves in politics.

In a horrible attempt to clean up those comments, Vance told host Megyn Kelly he has “nothing against cats.” The remark landed as well as his strange rift about racist Mountain Dew.

Once a moderate Republican who compared Trump to Hitler, Vance has abandoned many of his previous convictions. And his former friends are speaking out.

Sofia Nelson, who was peers with Vance at Yale Law School and identifies as transgender, recently provided three years’ worth of their email exchanges to the New York Times. The messages paint Vance as an accepting and empathetic person, a far contrast from the antigay firebrand he plays on the campaign stump.

In his conversations with Nelson, Vance expresses nuanced views on topics such as racial relations and police brutality, remarking that he “hates the police.”

“I hate the police,” he wrote in the wake of the 2014 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. “Given the number of negative experiences I’ve had in the past few years, I can’t imagine what a Black guy goes through.”

But maybe the biggest contrasts between Vance’s speech as a private citizen and slander as a U.S. senator are his views on LGBTQ+ issues. Though Vance was always conservative, Nelson says the now-regressive pol showed support for queer people.

When Nelson came out as trans, Vance was compassionate and kind.

“The content of the conversation was,” Nelson said in an interview with the NYT, “‘I don’t understand what you’re doing, but I support you.’ And that meant a lot to me at the time, because I think that was the foundation of our friendship.”

The two were so close, Nelson was even referenced in Hillbilly Elegy. Vance referred to Nelson as an “extremely progressive lesbian,” and sent along a note of apology.

“Hey Sofes, here’s an excerpt from my book,” Mr. Vance wrote. “I send this to you not just to brag, but because I’m sure if you read it you’ll notice reference to ‘an extremely progressive lesbian.’” 

“I recognize now that this may not accurately reflect how you think of yourself, and for that I am really sorry,” he wrote. “I hope you’re not offended, but if you are, I’m sorry! Love you, JD.”

Nelson thanked Vance for his note.

“If you had written gender queer radical pragmatist, nobody would know what you mean,” Nelson replied.

Given their longstanding friendship–Nelson says they stayed in regular contact through 2020–Nelson was shocked when Vance came out in favor of Arkansas’ proposed ban on providing gender-affirming care for minors.

Vance voiced support for the ban on social media, prompting Nelson to reach out via text.

When Vance said he finds the trans thing with kids” to be an “unstudied form of experimentation,” Nelson said Vance’s about-face was deeply sad.

“I have a 1:30,” Mr. Vance wrote back. “I will always love you, but I really do think the left’s cultural progressivism is making it harder for normal people to live their lives.”

Apparently, “cat ladies” and LGBTQ+ people don’t fit into Vance’s definition of “normal.” No word on people with an interest in dolphins, however…

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