After refusing to answer questions about it on the debate stage Tuesday night, the GOP’s vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), falsely claimed Thursday that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, as well as refused to say if he’ll accept a loss.
Trump’s running mate, who has propped up the GOP presidential nominee’s election conspiracy theories in the past, continued to do so when Jason Selvig of The Good Liars, a political comedy duo, asked him if he believes Trump’s repeatedly disproven claims that President Joe Biden stole the election from him.
“Did Donald Trump win the 2020 election?” Selvig asked Vance.
“Yes,” Vance replied. When Selvig repeated the question, Vance gave an affirmative “yep.”
Selvig then asked Vance whether he’ll concede if Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ nominee for president, gets more votes than the Trump campaign. Vance refused to answer.
“I really feel bad for you, man,” Vance said to Selvig after he repeated the question.
Vance has been facing pressure to address where he stands on Trump’s election conspiracy theories since his recent debate against Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. On stage, Walz asked Vance if he still believes Trump was the true victor of the 2020 election, alluding to comments Vance made earlier this year questioning the election’s results and saying Trump should ignore “illegitimate” U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the matter.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance replied before pivoting to an attack on Harris.
Walz quickly called him out.
“That is a damning non-answer,” he said. “I’m pretty shocked by this. [Trump] lost the election. This is not a debate. It’s not anything anywhere other than in Donald Trump’s world.”
When a reporter asked Vance the next day why he dodged the question, he accused the press of being hyperfocused on the issue.
“The media is obsessed with talking about the election of four years ago,” Vance replied, adding, “I’m focused on the election of 33 days from now because I want to throw Kamala Harris out of office and get back to commonsense economic policies.”
Vance’s insistence that the media move on from the matter stands in stark contrast to messaging from Trump, who still regularly brings up his beliefs about the 2020 election at his rallies.
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