A report claims Vice President JD Vance reached out to members of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign in an attempt to offer strategic advice on defeating Donald Trump. According to a source who served as an intermediary with the Clinton campaign, Vance directly contacted Jake Sullivan, then a senior policy adviser to Clinton, asking to be connected.

The intermediary recalled that Vance emphasized his primary motivation was countering Trump’s candidacy rather than supporting Clinton. “He called me again and he said, ‘I hate Hillary. But I hate Trump more. Trump can’t win. He can’t win. Hillary’s going to lose, but she doesn’t have to,’” the source stated.

When initially dismissed for being too busy, Vance followed up insisting Trump posed an existential threat. The report further notes Vance reportedly urged Sullivan to focus on addressing rising populist sentiment in key battleground states—specifically Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania—by having Clinton “apologize for sending so many people [to war]… my community, all the people in all these states whose sons and fathers died.”

Vance’s spokesperson denied any intent to help Clinton win, stating, “We 100 percent reject the characterization that he was trying to help Hillary win.” A separate source close to Sullivan confirmed Vance urged her team to address Clinton’s infamous “basket of deplorables” remark by emphasizing accountability for policies affecting working-class communities.

Clinton ultimately lost all four states Vance identified as critical to her campaign strategy, a result widely attributed to perceptions of establishment elitism and Trump’s mobilization of anti-establishment sentiment during the election cycle.