Fact Check: Is footage of JD Vance appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show real? Viral video debunked

Donald Trump's running mate JD Vance has been caught up in controversies recently, right from his "childless cat ladies" comment from an interview in 2021 to footage of him appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

On July 28, 2024, the Facebook account of Manny Upshaw posted a video of a young boy preaching religious verses in a high-pitched tone.

The video claims that it is the footage of JD Vance from when he was a teenager and while the boy's speech is not clearly audible, he goes silent when a person from the audience asks him what the verse he quoted means.

While many internet users shared the video and commented on the same thinking it is Vance, fact checking website Snopes debunked the rumors and clarified that the young boy in the video is not JD Vance.

As per the website, the boy in the video is Duffy Strode, son of Christian fundamentalists from North Carolina. The video from The Oprah Winfrey Show was aired in 1988 as Oprah interviewed the Strode family who had become popular for making their children preach.

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"He is a smart guy without the benefit of having family members with contact" - Trump comments on running mate JD Vance

Donald Trump made an appearance at the annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago on July 31, 2024 wherein he talked about JD Vance.

During the conference, Trump was asked why he chose Vance as his running mate, to which he replied that Vance is a strong believer of work and working men and women who have received unfair treatment.

Commenting on his views for Vance and his reasoning for choosing him as running mate, Trump stated:

"He wrote a book, it became a bestseller. The movie became a smashing hit. He is a smart guy without the benefit of having family members with contact like a well-connected father...he went to Yale law school, he started from a difficult family and then went to military and then got into Yale, then he became very successful in business"

Moreover, Trump also made a controversial statement regarding Vance's position in case he became President. The question asked by Fox News host Harris Faulkner stated if JD Vance would be ready to assume presidency on day 1 if needed.

Trump said that while he has great respect for Vance and other candidates, he thinks it is well-documented historically that the vice president virtually has no impact in terms of the election.

Donald Trump chose not to comment on JD Vance's readiness and diverted the question by saying:

"It's all about the presidential pick. Historically, the choice of the vice president makes no difference. You're voting for the president. And you can have a vice president who's outstanding in every way—and I think JD is, I think that all of them would have been—but you're not voting that way, you're voting for the president."

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Donald Trump also defended JD Vance's "childless cat lady" comment from 2021 which he used for Kamala Harris. Clarifying what his running mate might have tried to convey by making that statement, Trump said that Vance likes family.

The Republican presidential elect nominee said that Vance grew up in an interesting family situation and his remark came from the ideology that having a family is good.