Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) refused five times in a new interview with The New York Times to answer questions about whether former President Trump lost in 2020.
Vance spoke with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, host of the outlet's podcast. ”interview,” and had a long discussion about his career and campaign.
When Garcia-Navarro asked directly for the first time whether Trump had lost the 2020 election, Vance deflected, saying he was “focused on the future.”
Asked a second time for a yes or no answer, Vance turned to complaining about Facebook's censorship of a 2020 article about Hunter Biden's laptop. He brought up the issue again in his third and fourth questions, suggesting that censorship cost Trump votes. .
In her fifth question, Garcia-Navarro pointed out that “there is no evidence, legal or otherwise, that Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election,” but Vance said she He again refused to answer, accusing him of “repeating slogans.”
The interview is the latest example of the Republican ticket being tangled up in the final weeks of the 2024 campaign as President Trump refuses to acknowledge defeat in the 2020 election.
Even though there was no evidence of widespread fraud and dozens of legal claims by his team were rejected by courts, including the conservative-leaning Supreme Court, Trump maintained during his campaign that the election was rigged and fraudulent. He has repeatedly claimed that there was.
During the vice presidential debate earlier this month, Vance refused to answer when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) pressed him on the question of whether Trump had lost.
“This was a threat to our democracy in a way we've never seen before,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, responded to Vance. “And it comes out because Donald Trump still can't continue to say he didn't lose the election. I just want to ask: Did he lose the 2020 election?”
Trump refused to accept defeat in 2020 and spread false claims of fraud for weeks, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when Trump supporters attacked President Biden. Attempted to prevent victory from being declared. Trump has since been indicted on charges of trying to stay in power, but those cases have largely stalled.
