Associated Press pulls story fact-checking whether JD Vance had s*x with a couch

!chuds journo moment

Pulled AP article: https://archive.is/3gAIn

The Associated Press has deleted a report debunking a false claim that Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance once wrote about having s*x with a couch.

Vance, the former Bay Area resident who was recently tapped to be former President Donald Trump's running mate, is the subject of a viral online rumor spawned by a July 15 post on X. The post, from user @rickrudescalves, said Vance admitted to "f---king an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions" in his bestselling 2016 memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy."

This reporter has read "Hillbilly Elegy," and no such passage exists. Regardless, the post quickly went viral, causing several news outlets to publish reports debunking the claim. Mysteriously, though, the AP deleted its report Thursday.

A statement from the AP, which other news outlets pay in order to run articles written by the wire service's journ*lists, didn't offer many details as to why its story debunking the claim was deleted.

"The story, which did not go out on the wire to our customers, didn't go through our standard editing process," an Associated Press spokesperson told SFGATE in an email. "We are looking into how that happened."

A representative for Vance did not immediately reply to a text from SFGATE.

The numerous articles fact-checking and debunking the couch claim have done little to stop the spread of memes. On Thursday, X was inundated with posts mocking Vance. One showed a man trapped under a couch with the caption, "J.D. Vance when she wants to get on top." Another post simply said, "JD Vance upsetting his wife on purpose so he has to sleep on the couch."

Vance, who was selected to be Trump's vice president just last week, has endured a rough start on the campaign trail. The couch claim started gaining traction just days after Vance had an awkward moment at a rally in Virginia after cracking a strange joke about Diet Mountain Dew.

"I had a Diet Mountain Dew yesterday and one today. I'm sure they're going to call that racist, too," he said, claiming that Democrats believe it's racist to do anything. "But, it's good."

One X user combined the couch claim with Vance's soda joke. The user, @travishelwig, posted a photo of himself holding a bottle of Diet Mountain Dew in front of a couch. The caption read, "had a couple hits of this and now im looking at this couch a little different."