JD Vance refused five times to acknowledge Donald Trump lost 2020 election in podcast interview
NEW YORK– NEW YORK (AP) — J.D. VanceThe Republican vice presidential candidate again refused to recognize that president Joe Biden won the 2020 election against the former president Donald Trumpavoiding the question five times in an interview with The New York Times newspaper reported Friday.
The Ohio senator repeated the response he used during his speech debate in return for Tim Walzthe Democratic vice presidential candidate, who said he was “focused on the future.”
“There’s an obsession here to focus on 2020,” Vance said in the interview. “I’m much more concerned about what happened after 2020, which is a wide open border and groceries that are unaffordable.”
Vance’s refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 election echoes the rhetoric of his running mate. Trump has been criminally charged knowingly pushing false claims of voter fraud and that he had “resorted to crimes” in his failed attempt to cling to power after losing to Biden. Judges, election officials, cybersecurity experts and Trump’s own attorney general have all rejected his claims of massive voter fraud.
Vance spoke for an hour with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, the host of the newspaper’s podcast “The Interview,” which will be published Saturday. Every time she asked if that was the case, he gave an evasive answer Trump lost the last elections.
He blamed social media companies restrictive messages about the contents of one laptop once owned Hunter Bidenthe president’s son, asking whether censorship by technology companies cost Trump millions of votes.
“I answered your question with another question,” Vance said. “You answer my question and I’ll answer yours.”
When Garcia-Navarro said there was “no evidence, legal or otherwise” of election fraud, Vance dismissed the fact as “a slogan.”
“I don’t worry about the catchphrase people use: ‘Well, every lawsuit went this way,’” Vance said. “I’m talking about something very discreet: a problem of censorship in this country that I think has affected things in 2020.”
Vance’s refusal to say whether Trump was widely viewed as his weakest moment in the debate against Minnesota Governor Walz, who called Vance’s response “a damn non-answer.” Vice President Kamala Harris campaign, the exchange quickly turned into a television commercial.