Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was already struggling as a candidate for national office, but the past week or so has been especially brutal.

It was six days ago, for example, when the Ohio senator sat down with a prominent conservative pundit, who asked what can be done to address the cost of child care. Vance’s answer was, by any fair measure, ridiculous. A day later, the GOP candidate lamented that deadly mass shootings in schools are a “fact of life” — a comment that sparked fierce and immediate pushback.

On Monday, Vance threw his support behind a ridiculous and racist conspiracy theory about immigrants abducting and eating pets, and on Tuesday, he endorsed a brazenly illegal response to Trump’s 2020 election defeat

Hours later, the Ohioan’s week managed to get even worse during the presidential debate, as his running mate distanced himself from Vance’s recent rhetoric.

The trouble began when ABC News’ Linsey Davis asked Donald Trump whether he would veto a national abortion ban if it got to his desk during a possible second term. The former president largely dodged the question, saying he wouldn’t have to veto such a measure.

So, Davis tried again, reminding the GOP nominee that his running mate, just last month, told NBC News that Trump would, in fact, veto a federal abortion ban. At that point, the former president replied:

He quickly added, “We don’t have to discuss it,” dodging the underlying question again.

The exchange suggested that, as far as Trump is concerned, Vance isn’t an entirely reliable source for information about the former president’s position and plans.If this sounded at all familiar, it wasn’t your imagination. As longtime readers might recall, something similar happened eight years ago.

During the second presidential debate in 2016, ABC News’ Martha Raddatz reminded Trump that his own running mate had said, in the context of a discussion about U.S. policy in Syria, that “provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength.” In an unusual display, Trump denounced the position.

In fact, the then-Republican candidate said of Pence, “He and I haven’t spoken, and I disagree. I disagree.”

In other words, in 2016, Trump became the first presidential candidate to ever distance himself from his own running mate during a general-election debate. Eight years later, he did it again.

Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”