As he was named as VP hopeful Monday, Vance's past hurtled back to haunt him. His attacks against Trump may have changed, but they could quickly end up in attack ads for Joe Biden's presidential campaign.
Here's a list of the attacks Vance has made and the ones he "liked" on social media.
"I'm a Never Trump guy," Vance told Charlie Rose in a 2016 interview. "I never liked him."
In August 2016, he told ABC News that he didn't see Trump "offering many solutions."
“I can’t stomach Trump,” he told NPR later in 2016. “I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.”
Then, his former roommate shared a text message Vance sent attacking Trump as “cynical” and speculating he could become “America’s Hitler.”
“I go back and forth between thinking Trump might be a cynical a--hole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he might be America’s Hitler,” Vance wrote, according to Democratic state Sen. Josh McLaurin in a tweet with screen captures. “How’s that for discouraging?”
“Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us. When we apologize for this man, lord help us," Vance wrote in a since-deleted Tweet about the "Access Hollywood" tape.
"My god what an idiot," Vance also wrote in a deleted tweet in Oct. 2016, Politico recalled.
“Someone should have asked Jeffrey Epstein, John Weaver, or Leon Black about the CRAZY CONSPIRACY that many powerful people were predators targeting children," Vance also deleted.
Speaking to Daily Beast columnist Matt Lewis, Vance said, “The reason, ultimately, that I am not,” supporting Trump “is because I think that [Trump] is the most-raw expression of a massive finger pointed at other people.”
“There is no moral equivalence between the anti-racist protestors in Charlottesville and the killer (and his ilk)," Vance said of the attackers in Charlottesville during the "Unite the Right" rally.
CNN also documented a series of tweets that Vance "liked" on the platform before the social media site removed that ability.
One said Trump committed “serial sexual assault." It also called him “one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs.”
Other tweets Vance "liked" criticize Trump’s immigration policies and talked about antisemitism from the MAGA world. He even liked something that questioned the morality of those voting for Trump over Clinton, CNN said.
A separate post mentioned the fears some have about Trump having access to the nuclear codes. Vance liked it as well.
Vance also liked a meme showing Trump and O.J. Simpson with two women.
“Here is an old picture of one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs. Also in picture: OJ Simpson," it read.
One tweet he liked read, “Does any dad (or future dad) want to look his daughter in the eye and explain why he voted for Trump instead of 1st woman president?”
In Aug. 2016 Vance even liked comments about him as a possible appointee for Hillary Clinton's administration.
As the tide began to change about Clinton, Vance's "likes" began to change, the report continued. He began agreeing with #NeverHillary posts.
"While promoting his memoir and appearing on news programs in 2016," CNN recalled that "Vance liked a series of tweets calling then-candidate Trump a 'monster' and a 'nemesis of the GOP.' He also liked a tweet acknowledging 'threats and derogatory terms Trump supporters hurl at Jews.' He even liked a tweet from CNN anchor Jake Tapper criticizing Trump’s tweet about a woman’s appearance amidst then-first lady Melania Trump’s campaign against cyberbullying."
CNN categorized the "harshest tweets Vance liked" coming from a comment about the "Access Hollywood" tape, saying, “Maybe the Central Park 5 could take out a full-page ad to condemn the coddling of thug real estate barons who commit serial sexual assault."
CNN lists many, many more.
Allies of Vance and Vance himself have tried to explain it away by saying his opinion changed.
Donald Trump Jr. told CNN, “long past all of this."
