WILLIAMSPORT, Pennsylvania – After repeatedly refusing to say whether he thinks ex-President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance of Ohio on Wednesday took the plunge into election denialism by telling a Pennsylvania crowd that he does not believe Trump lost.
During a Trump campaign appearance at the the Liberty Arena in Williamsport, a reporter asked the U.S. senator from Cincinnati about the message sent to independent voters by his refusal to answer the question “Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?”
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Although Vance repeatedly dodged that question in a New York Times interview published over the weekend, Vance insisted he’d “answered this question directly a million times.”
“No,” said Vance. “I think there are serious problems in 2020. So, did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use.”
Refusal to acknowledge Trump’s 2020 loss to President Joe Biden is a foundation of the former president’s so-called “Big Lie,” that the election was somehow stolen from him. Dozens of courts, Trump’s own departments of Justice and Homeland Security, and some Republican officials have rejected the baseless claim.
The “Big Lie” is blamed as a contributing factor to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, where Trump supporters tried to pressure ex-Vice President Mike Pence to interfere with Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory. Before Trump selected him to be his running mate, Vance said that if he had been vice-president at the time, he wouldn’t have resisted his boss’ entreaties to reject electoral votes from several swing states that Biden won to keep Trump in the White House.
Vance also refused during his debate with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to acknowledge that Trump lost the election.
In his answer to the question on Wednesday, Vance said that he’s focused on the the fact that in 2020 large technology companies censored Americans from “talking about things like the Hunter Biden laptop story and that had a major, major consequence on the election. Censorship is bad, and that’s the substance of what we’re focused on, and that’s what we care the most about.”
Vance was referring to a story, initially published by the New York Post, which referenced emails on a laptop owned by Hunter Biden that it said discussed Biden’s overseas business dealings. Critics of the president argue, without conclusive proof, that shows corruption. Some social media companies took down references to the story, arguing that it could be Russian disinformation.
At Wednesday’s appearance in Pennsylvania, Vance went on to say that he cares more about issues like Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ record as the current U.S. Vice President and what she’ll do if she’s elected president, than he does about something that happened 3.5 years ago.
He also said that he’s been repeatedly asked about the 2020 election over the past two weeks, and expressed disappointment he hasn’t been asked questions about why Pennsylvanians can’t afford gasoline.
“I’ve been asked very, very few questions about why Pennsylvanians can’t afford food and can’t afford housing,” Vance continued. “We can agree to disagree on a whole host of issues, but our message to Pennsylvania independents, to Pennsylvania Republicans and to Pennsylvania Democrats is very simple: If you want to secure southern border and you want to be able to afford the American dream again, Donald Trump and I have a plan for you, and we will fight for you, and that’s our message to voters.”
