The Associated Press (AP) deleted an article fact-checking the false claim that Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) made love to a couch, a move that has bolstered the belief among some that the allegation is actually true.
Earlier this month, a false claim went viral on X that Vance, who was recently chosen to be Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate, admitted to having sex with a couch in his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.
The claim quickly went viral and produced countless memes on social media. But, as reported by the Daily Dot, the allegation isn’t true and no such passage exists in Vance’s book.
Yet the AP’s now-removed fact-check is leading some to revive not just the claim but the memes as well.
“AP fact-checked what was a joke from left-wing Twitter – but the link for this is dead now and I can no longer find the story on the AP website. What is going on?” asked CNN’s Andy Kaczynski.
Others joked that the AP’s retraction was even funnier than the meme itself, which many were aware was a joke from the beginning.
“The AP retracting their Fact Check of JD Vance having relations with a glove wedged in the cushions of a couch is ten times funnier than them publishing it in the first place which in turn is ten times funnier than the actual allegation,” another said.
The AP eventually came forward to state that it deleted the fact-check due to issues with the article’s editorial process.
“The story, which did not go out on the wire to our customers, didn’t go through our standard editing process,” an AP spokesperson said. “We are looking into how that happened.”
But for those in on the joke, the AP’s statement only added fuel to the fire.
“The only thing that @AP can definitively say based on their own reporting is that JD Vance didn’t write about having fucked a ‘couch’ or ‘sofa’ in his memoir,” another said. “There is no evidence whatsoever that he’s not shagging the settee.”
Although the Vance-couch saga has been debunked, it doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Couch memes will almost certainly follow Vance until the internet gloms on to something else.
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