JD Vance sex slur is deleted by AP after wire agency decided to 'fact-check' lurid claim about GOP VP pick's sexual preferences

The Associated Press has deleted an article where they fact-checked a wild claim about Donald Trump's VP choice JD Vance.

The wire agency sparked backlash after it published a piece on the Ohio senator Wednesday that was titled, 'No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch.' 

However, by the next day, the AP had removed the article from its archives, with the page address showing it is now unavailable.

A spokesperson for the AP told DailyMail.com on Thursday that the fact-check on Vance did not go through the standard editing process.

The agency said it's looking into how it was published.

The now-deleted article came after memes began circulating on social media  repeating a false rumor that claimed Vance, 39, wrote about having sex with a couch on his best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy.

High-profile names such as comedienne Kathy Griffin appeared to fall for the fake news, writing: 'I don’t think we should have a couchf***er as our vice president. That’s just me. Sorry JD.'

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Associated Press for comment on this story. 

The false information reportedly began circulating on X after the now-private account @rickrudescalves wrote: 'Can’t say for sure but he might be the first VP pick to have admitted in a NY Times bestseller to f***ing an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions.'

The X account then provided a fake reference for the unfounded claim as pages 179 to 181 of Vance’s 2016 memoir.

Vance’s bestseller about his roots in rural Kentucky and blue-collar Ohio made him a national celebrity soon after its publication in the summer of 2016, and became a cultural talking point after Trump’s stunning victory that November.

Netflix paid Imagine $45 million for the exclusive screening rights in January 2019. The movie, starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams, debuted on the streaming platform in November 2020.

After the announcement that Vance would be on the ticket with Trump for November's showdown election with President Joe Biden, the movie became the third most streamed movie on Netflix.