CNN News Central host John Berman interviewed GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance on Friday and suggested to him that he was making fun of suicide as he previewed CNN’s interview with Kamala Harris by tweeting out an old clip of a Miss Teen USA beauty pageant.
Most of the interview was devoted to Donald Trump’s abortion and IVF stances, but towards the end Berman recalled, “Last night after CNN released a small clip of the Harris interview, you, on Twitter, posted a clip from a Miss Teen USA beauty pageant from 2007, Caitlin Upton, and you wrote, ‘I have gotten a hold of the full Kamala Harris-CNN interview.’”
BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview. pic.twitter.com/c6nfcJrFJy
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 29, 2024
The clip showed Caitlin Upton struggling to give an explanation for why one-fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a map.
Berman added:
Now, this thing that surfaced around the internet for a few years she had, you know, she had, you know, struggled answering a question back in this beauty pageant, I'm not sure you're aware in 2015, Caitlin Upton did an interview in New York Magazine about all the social media attention this clip got, and she said, ‘I definitely went through a period where I was very, very depressed, but I never let anybody see that stuff except for people I could trust. I had some very dark moments where I thought about committing suicide.’
He then asked, “So, when you posted this last night, were you aware that the woman you are posting a picture of had contemplated committing suicide for the attention that it received?”
It should be noted current MSNBC host, Washington Post associate editor, and PBS talking head Jonathan Capehart has compared Republican women to Upton as well. As for Vance, he handled the no-win question well, “No, certainly not, John, and my heart goes out to her, and I hope that she's doing well. Look, I've said a lot of things on camera. I've said a lot of stupid things on camera. Sometimes, when you're in the public eye, you make mistakes. And again, I think the best way to deal with it is to laugh at ourselves, laugh at this stuff, and try to have some fun and politics.”
He then turned the tables on Berman:
I posted a meme from 20 years ago, and I think the fact that we're talking about that instead of the fact that American families can't afford groceries or health care, young families can't afford to buy a home to raise their families, those are the real crises that we should focus on, and there's nothing that says that we can't tell some jokes along the way while we to deal with a very serious business of bringing back our public policy. Politics has gotten way too lame, John, way too boring. You can have some fun while making a good argument to the American people about how you're going to improve their lives.
For his part, Berman tried again, “Okay, I just want to be clear, though, you said you didn't know. Would you like to apologize to Caitlin Upton for posting that last night given what you've now learned?”
Vance replied, “John, I'm not going to apologize for posting a joke, but I wish the best for Caitlin. I hope that she's doing well. And again, what I'd say is one bad moment shouldn't define anybody and the best way to deal with this stuff is to laugh at ourselves.”
Reading the interview Upton did with New York Magazine makes it clear she had to put up with a lot of garbage for one embarrassing moment that, unfortunately, happened to occur in front of the whole world. However, it does appear that Upton agrees with Vance, as she was able to laugh through an Access Hollywood interview in 2021 about the incident. As for the left, several Twitter users criticized her for supporting Trump in light of Vance’s tweet.
Here is a transcript for the August 30 show:
CNN News Central
8/30/2024
8:42 AM ET
JOHN BERMAN: Last night after CNN released a small clip of the Harris interview, you, on Twitter, posted a clip from a Miss Teen USA beauty pageant from 2007, Caitlin Upton and you wrote, “I have gotten a hold of the full Kamala Harris-CNN interview.”
Now, this thing that surfaced around the internet for a few years she had, you know, she had, you know, struggled answering a question back in this beauty pageant, I'm not sure you're aware in 2015, Caitlin Upton, did an interview in New York Magazine about all the social media attention this clip got, and she said, “I definitely went through a period where I was very, very depressed, but I never let anybody see that stuff except for people I could trust. I had some very dark moments where I thought about committing suicide.”
So, when you posted this last night, were you aware that the woman you are posting a picture of had contemplated committing suicide for the attention that it received?
JD VANCE: No, certainly not, John, and my heart goes out to her, and I hope that she's doing well. Look, I've said a lot of things on camera. I've said a lot of stupid things on camera. Sometimes, when you're in the public eye, you make mistakes. And again, I think the best way to deal with it is to laugh at ourselves, laugh at this stuff, and try to have some fun and politics.
I posted a meme from 20 years ago, and I think the fact that we're talking about that instead of the fact that American families can't afford groceries or health care, young families can't afford to buy a home to raise their families, those are the real crises that we should focus on, and there's nothing that says that we can't tell some jokes along the way while we to deal with a very serious business of bringing back our public policy.
Politics has gotten way too lame, John, way too boring. You can have some fun while making a good argument to the American people about how you're going to improve their lives.
BERMAN: Okay, I just want to be clear, though, you said you didn't know. Would you like to apologize to Caitlin Upton for posting that last night given what you've now learned?
VANCE: John, I'm not going to apologize for posting a joke, but I wish the best for Caitlin. I hope that she's doing well. And again, what I'd say is one bad moment shouldn't define anybody and the best way to deal with this stuff is to laugh at ourselves.
