(NewsNation) — A resurfaced clip of JD Vance saying some people who voted for former President Donald Trump in 2016 did so “for racist reasons,” is an accurate quote from a brief moment of a larger conversation about the political climate at the time.

The resurfaced interview is making headlines as Vance, once a Trump critic, now campaigns alongside the GOP nominee as his running mate.

The comment comes from a more than hourlong 2017 conversation at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. The quote in question was part of Vance’s response to a question about whether race was a factor in Trump’s 2016 victory.

He went on to say the political climate leading up to the election was “hyper-racialized,” but that race wasn’t at the center of Trump’s campaign messaging.

“It strikes me as a little bizarre to chalk it up to racial animus because one: The country is less racist now than it was 15 years ago and we weren’t electing Donald Trump 15 years ago,” Vance said in the video. “And two: That wasn’t the core part of his message and that wasn’t what of lot of his voters were really connecting with.”

Did JD Vance really say that?

Yes. Vance said some of Trump’s 2016 supporters voted for him for racist reasons.

“Race definitely played a role in the 2016 election,” he said. “I think race will always play a role in our country. It’s just sort of a constant fact of American life. And definitely, some people who voted for Trump were racist and they voted for him for racist reasons.”

“I always resist the idea that the real thing driving most Trump voters was racial anxiety or racial animus — partially because I didn’t see it. Right?” he continued. “I mean, the thing that really motivated people to vote for Trump first in the primary and then in the general election was three words: Jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Was JD Vance calling Trump and his voters racist?

Yes and no. Vance called “some” of Trump’s 2016 supporters racist. However, he went on to say he didn’t blame Trump’s voters for what he called a “hyper-racialized” political climate at the time.

“I definitely buy that this was a racialized discourse unlike any that we’ve had in a really long time, but I don’t blame Trump’s voters for that,” he said. “The people that I blame for that are actually typically well-educated coastal elitists — people like Richard Spencer and the alt-right.”

According to Vance in 2017, Trump’s rallies were “maybe 5% of him being really outrageous and offensive.”

The other 95% “was him talking about, ‘Here are all of the things that are wrong in your community, here’s why they’re wrong, and I’m going to bring back jobs,’ ” Vance said.

Wasn’t Vance critical of Trump at the time?

Yes. At the time of the interview, Vance was gaining recognition for the publication of his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”

Trump was simultaneously stepping into his presidential role and Vance was openly critical of the former reality TV star. During a 2016 interview now making the rounds on TikTok, Vance called himself a “never-Trump guy.”

That changed in 2021 as Vance eyed an Ohio Senate seat that he won and still claims. Vance deleted tweets from 2016 calling Trump “reprehensible” and an “idiot,” Politifact reported.

The public didn’t forget about Vance’s former stance, however, and the then-budding politician acknowledged his criticism of Trump during a 2021 Fox News interview.

“Like a lot of people, I criticized Trump back in 2016 and I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said back in 2016 because I’ve been very open about the fact that I did say those very critical things and I regret them,” Vance said. “I was wrong about the guy. I think he made a good president.”