As Vance visited Ohio to tout the Trump administration’s economic agend a on Monday at a steel mill, a small group of protesters assembled across the street from those gathered, holding a sign that read: “JD protects pedophiles,” in a nod to the president’s association with accused sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Vice President JD Vance returned to Ohio July 28 to tout President Donald Trump’s agenda in a congressional district that Republicans hope to flip in 2026.

They decided “to go easy on the guy,” Vance claimed, saying that Trump should be commended for pursuing the case. Despite a 2008 plea deal with federal prosecutors in Miami, the Epstein case wasn’t widely known until The Miami Herald published its investigation in 2018, during the first Trump administration.