JD Vance has 'six-figure stake' in online video platform known to welcome Neo-Nazi content: report

01 August 2024

Following last month's Republican National Convention, CNN's Harry Enten submitted that Senator JD Vance (R-OH) "is the worst vice presidential pick of my lifetime," according to The New Republic.

Enten posted on social media that the Ohio senator "is making history as the least liked VP nominee (non-incumbent) since 1980 following his/her party's convention," as the "first to have a net negative favorable rating."

One could argue Vance's low ratings stem from his "extreme comments about 'childless cat ladies,' abortion, and more," as Talking Points Memo (TPM) noted Thursday — or it could even be that the Republican lawmaker invests in one of the most extreme video platforms on the internet.

Per TPM, "Vance has had a six-figure stake in Rumble," which "has played host to Russian propaganda and to far-right personalities like Stew Peters and Tim Pool," and "also featured even more extreme content, including explicitly neo-Nazi images and themes like this song touting the 'Reich' and calling for Jews to be placed in ovens from a 'dissident rapper' with a dedicated page on the site."

Last week, journalist Carlos Berrios Polanco brought attention to a tweet Vance posted on September 11, 2021 — without comment — of a photo of himself "holding his infant child while looking at a table displaying several revolvers of various calibers."

AlterNet previously noted: "One vendor at a nearby table is seen sitting next to framed Nazi memorabilia, including a flag bearing a swastika, and two different Nazi war ensigns known as 'Reichskriegsflagge' and a variety of Nazi war medals. One of the guns on the table Vance is standing over is a Luger pistol commonly used by Nazi soldiers during World War II."

"They really did not do any social media vetting or clean up on this guy at all. Kind of hilarious if it wasn't so bleak," Polanco wrote via X, retweeting the photo.

TPM notes that Vance's hand in Rumble "is notable because it represents a direct financial link between Vance and a key outlet for some of the most extreme elements of the far right."

Per the report, the VP hopeful's "stake in Rumble was the subject of a New York Times piece during his Senate race in 2022. That story focused on Rumble hosting the Kremlin-backed propaganda network RT, but gave less attention to the extensive hate speech on the site."

TPM reports Harris' spokesperson, Joseph Costello, told the news outlet in a statement: "The American people deserve a president who works to bring people together and who gives hate no safe harbor. Every day the words and actions of Donald Trump and JD Vance prove they belong nowhere near the White House."

TPM's full report is available here.

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