As Vance visited Ohio to tout the Trump administration’s economic agend a on Monday at a steel mill, a small group of protesters assembled across the street from those gathered, holding a sign that read: “JD protects pedophiles,” in a nod to the president’s association with accused sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

JD Vance is weaving a tangled web as he attempts to defend Donald Trump over the relentless Jeffrey Epstein saga. The vice president waded in again on Thursday after The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times published damning reports about a birthday book for Epstein that Trump was said to have contributed to.