AP Declares That ‘JD Vance Did Not Have Sex With A Couch’ In Fact Check

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A mysterious Associated Press story tried to set the record straight about social media rumors that Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) once had coitus with a sofa.

Someone at the wire service fact-checked the claim and declared in a headline on Wednesday: “No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch.” The oddly blunt headline was screen-captured by MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas and others, but was no longer on the AP’s site by Thursday morning. A representative for the AP spoke to Semafor reporter Max Tani, who reports that the initial story “didn’t go through the wire service’s standard editing process,” and that the organization was “looking into” how the piece even got published.

The wild assertions originally sprang from people on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that Vance, now the running mate of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, wrote in his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” that he simulated the act with a rubber glove sandwiched between a set of couch cushions as a young man.