In the months since he became Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance has repeatedly dismissed questions about whether the Republican presidential candidate lost the 2020 election, saying he was focused on the future.
At a meeting in Pennsylvania Wednesday, where Vance was asked by a reporter about his lack of clear answers so far, he was more explanatory.
“What message do you think it sends to independent voters if you don’t directly answer the question, ‘Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?’” the reporter asked, drawing boos from the crowd before Vance responded and said he answered the question has answered. million times.”
“No. I think there were serious problems in 2020,” Vance said. “So, did Donald Trump lose the election? Not because of the words I would use, okay?”
The answer was the most specific Vance has given on the subject, and fraudulently decided to deviate from the series of dodges he has offered about the election that Trump continues to say without evidence in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.
During a debate with Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz this month, Vance was asked about the 2020 election but responded that he was “focused on the future.”
Vance’s refusal to say whether Trump lost was widely considered his weakest debate moment with Walz, the governor of Minnesota, calling the response “a scathing non-answer.” The campaign for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris quickly turned the exchange into a television commercial.
During an interview with The New York Times, Vance refused to acknowledge that Biden had won five times.
Trump’s continued denial that he lost the election to Biden is a widely held view among the Republican’s supporters. He warned an audience in Nevada last week: “We never want to see what happened in 2020 happen.”
Trump has continued to say without evidence that he expects his opponents to “cheat” in the 2024 election and has urged his supporters to turn out in large numbers to make his vote count “too big to manipulate” .
