Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance boldly said “no,” Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election, when pressed on the issue at a campaign event Wednesday in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
The Ohio senator has avoided directly denying the results over the past few weeks.
When quizzed by The New York Times about the results over the weekend, for example, he refused multiple times to answer the question, on one occasion claiming he was “focused on the future”—echoing an answer he gave to Democratic opponent Tim Walz at the vice presidential debate.
“That’s a damning non-answer,” Walz said at the time.
However when taking questions from members of the media Wednesday, he was asked what message he thought it sent to independent voters when he does not directly answer the question.
“On the election of 2020 I’ve answered this question directly a million times,” Vance huffed.
“No, I think there are serious problems in 2020, so did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use. OK? Look, I really couldn’t care less if you agree or disagree with me on this issue.”
“Here’s the thing that I focus on. Because what the media will do, they’ll focus on the court cases, or they’ll focus on some crazy conspiracy theory,” he continued, before launching into his own conspiracy.
“What I know, what verifiably I know happened, is 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.”
When reached by the Daily Beast, Harris-Walz 2024 spokesperson Matt Corridoni said in a statement, “There we have it–JD Vance finally admitted he denies the 2020 election results. As Governor Walz said on the debate stage weeks ago, Donald Trump selected Vance for this exact reason – he knows Vance will be a loyal soldier in Trump’s pursuit for absolute, unchecked, limitless power.”
Later, quizzed on the issue again, Vance said he answered the question “a million times” during his Senate Republican primary campaign in 2022 and “ten times” recently, claiming, “I think big tech rigged the election in 2020. That’s my view and if you disagree with me, that’s fine.”
When asked why he decided to answer it now, he claimed he had given the exact answer for years, blaming the American media for “focusing on what happened four years ago.”
“Do your job and focus on the problems the American people care about rather than bulls— from four years ago,” he quipped.
Trump has repeatedly claimed he won the 2020 election, citing false claims of widespread voter fraud—despite numerous investigations and inquiries failing to turn up any evidence.
In April last year, Fox News was forced to pay Dominion Voting Systems nearly $800 million, just moments before a trial between the voting machine company and the conservative network over the network’s alleged parroting of election lies spread by Trump and others in his orbit.
Despite this settlement and dozens of failed court cases, Trump continues to push election lies in the run up the the 2024 election.
“Donald Trump picked JD Vance to be his running mate because he knew Vance would go along with his dangerous election denialism and baseless attacks on our democracy no matter what. It’s pathetic–and voters are ready to remind Trump why he lost in 2020 again this November,” DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd said in a statement emailed to the Daily Beast.
