Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks during a campaign event Wednesday in Williamsport, Pa.
Matt Rourke/AP
For weeks, Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance has faced repeated questions on the campaign trail about whether he believes former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. On Wednesday, he flatly answered “no.”
Vance’s comment came during an appearance in Williamsport, Pa., after a reporter asked him, “What message do you think it sends to independent voters when you do not directly answer the question, did Donald Trump lose in 2020?”
“I’ve answered this question directly a million times,” Vance said. “No, I think there are serious problems in 2020. So did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use.”
As Trump’s running mate, Vance had repeatedly sought to redirect questions about the former president’s loss in 2020 into a critique about censorship in that year’s election. During the vice presidential debate earlier this month, Vance was asked by his Democratic opponent, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whether Trump lost the race.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance said. Walz called the response a “damning non-answer.”
During an interview with The New York Times published this past weekend, Vance was asked five times about the outcome of the 2020 race. Vance did not answer yes or no, but instead returned to his critique that social media companies censored reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop — a decision that Vance has argued tilted the race.
“Is it OK that big technology companies censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, which independent analysis have said cost Donald Trump millions of votes?” Vance said during the interview.
The Harris campaign was quick to attack Vance for his remarks in Williamsport.
“JD Vance finally admitted he denies the 2020 election results,” the campaign said in a statement. “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.”
Addressing the issue a second time Wednesday at a campaign stop in North Carolina, Vance said he was “sure there are as many opinions about what happened four years ago as there are people in this audience.”
He continued, “If you disagree with me on an issue, or you disagree with me about what I just said, or you disagree about a particular policy view of the Trump administration, that’s fine, because I believe in the United States of America, it’s OK to disagree. What I think that we’re all united on is that we need to get Kamala Harris out of the Oval Office so that Americans can afford to live a good life again.”
