JD Vance is firing back at CNN after the network published a report Tuesday that detailed workers rights abuse claims at a tech startup where the vice presidential candidate invested and served on the board.
The only problem? Vance says he was nowhere near AppHarvest and had left the company and its board in April of 2021, before the conditions detailed in the CNN report.
“This is twice in one week where CNN has blatantly ignored its own reporting in an attempt to smear JD Vance,” Team Vance National Press Director, Taylor Van Kirk, told The Post.
“The American people know that CNN only operates as an arm of Kamala’s campaign and peddles garbage meant to mislead.”
Vance’s spokesman said the network intentionally obscured important facts while reporting the story of an investment Vance made the now-bankrupt tech startup.
The Vance team claimed CNN is “laundering” opposition research from the Kamala Harris campaign for president and that the network “purposely buried the key fact that JD was unaware of problems the company experienced after he left the board in April of 2021.”
Team Vance admits the senator was one of the company’s first investors in 2018, but is refuting CNN’s claims he oversaw a toxic workplace.
They say instead:
- Vance left AppHarvest’s board in April of 2021, well before any of the alleged toxic activity at the company took place.
- Vance was not involved in any of the operational decisions at AppHarvest that are mentioned in the CNN story.
- A member of AppHarvest’s senior management team told CNN that J.D. had departed the company before the problems began – but CNN buried that fact at the very bottom of their article.
CNN did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.
On Sunday, Vance confronted CNN directly about obscure reporting during a televised interview with reporter Dana Bash.