And now from the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago and CNN audio,

The Axxwiles.

With your host, David Axelrod.

Seven years ago I did an Axe Files podcast

with J.D. Vance, when he was the young author

of a best-selling memoir,

the book Hill Billy Elegi describes the struggles of the white working class in his own troubled family in rural Ohio.

At the time we spoke, months after Donald Trump's election as president,

Bance was in the middle of a transition from vehement Trump critic to describing himself

as Trump curious. Well now that transition is

fully complete. This week Trump chose now Senator JD Vance just 39 years old

as his running mate for vice president.

So I thought it would be fun and useful to revisit the conversation we had back then and compare

it to who he is today.

Here's that conversation.

J.D. Vance, welcome.

You know, they say everything in life is timing.

So you wrote a book, a memoir of your life growing up in and around Appalachia,

and it was an incredible journey. Now every elite in the country looks

at you as sort of Margaret Mead or their Sherpa to lead them through this world that they

don't understand that Donald Trump obviously did.

And we'll talk about him and all of that, but the book itself itself apart from the timing is a beautiful book and it's an

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