Stephen Colbert took a deep dive into a bizarre story making the rounds: a claim that Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) had sex with a couch.
“Where does someone even get an idea like that?” Colbert said. “I blame those filthy Ikea instructions!”
The “Late Show” host saluted The Associated Press for running a fact check debunking the claim, saying there’s no evidence Vance ― who is Donald Trump’s running mate for the White House ― ever described such an act, as some rumors have claimed.
“This just shows how big a problem misinformation can be. Even a well-meaning fact check can wind up amplifying a false story, so all of us, all of us, please, have responsibility to stop the spread of vicious rumors like ‘JD Vance had sex with a couch,’” he said. “Because it’s simply not true, which is why we have to refuse to use the hashtag #CushionPushinJDVance.”
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before plenty of people were using that hashtag on X, formerly Twitter.
But then Colbert discovered a “disturbing twist” to the story: The AP pulled down its fact check.
“Which can mean only one of two things: Either the original story does not meet the AP’s rigorous standards,” he said. “Or JD Vance had sex with a couch!”
(Semafor’s Maxwell Tani reported that the story “didn’t go through the wire service’s standard editing process, and the AP is looking into how it was published,” after speaking with an AP spokesperson.)
See more in Colbert’s Thursday night monologue: