Vance Dismisses Trump’s Racist Obama Video as ‘Not a Controversy

Vice President JD Vance said President Trump does not need to apologize for posting a now-deleted racist video that showed former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle.

“Should he apologize for posting a video and then deleting it? No, I don’t think so,” Vance said in Azerbaijan on Wednesday at the conclusion of a trip abroad.

Trump se has denied to apologize for posting the video on Truth Social last week, telling reporters that he “didn’t make a mistake” and instead blaming a White House staffer.

“Someone was careless and didn’t see a very small part,” Trump said.

The president faced bipartisan criticism over the video and several close allies called on him to remove it and apologize.

Vance on Wednesday downplayed the reaction. “It’s not a real controversy. We have much, much more real problems to focus on,” he insisted.

The US vice president concludes this Wednesday an international trip that also included Armenia, where Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, attended a wreath-laying ceremony “to honor the victims of the Armenian genocide of 1915.”

Following that act, Vance’s X account posted and then deleted an acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide.

The original publication departed from the Trump administration’s policy, which does not use the word “genocide” to refer to the systematic killings and deportations of Armenians in what is now Turkey.

The White House rapid response account on X also posted — but later deleted — Vance’s comments about the memorial visit.

Asked about this matter, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that there have been no changes in government policy.

“As for the Armenian tweet you refer to, I refer to the message issued by the White House on Armenian Remembrance Day, and there have been no changes in policy at this time,” he said at Tuesday’s press conference.

The official account of the vice presidency later republished a message from Vance’s press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, which showed the vice presidential couple at the ceremony and included a photo of Vance’s handwritten note in the guest book.

The Armenian National Committee of the United States rated elimination as “a denialist action consistent with President Trump’s shameful retreat from honest American remembrance of a crime recognized by all 50 states, the US Congress, the White House and more than a dozen of our NATO allies.”

Vance — the first U.S. vice president or sitting president to visit the country — told reporters that Armenians asked him to visit the site, calling the massacre “a very terrible thing that happened a little over 100 years ago.”

A spokesperson for Vance told CNN: “This is a staff-run account that exists primarily to share photos and videos of the vice president’s activities. For the vice president’s position on the substance of the matter, I refer to his previous comments on the airport tarmac in response to the pool question.”

Vance indicated that he visited the site “as a sign of respect, both for the victims and for the Government of Armenia.”

The-CNN-Wire
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