Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, has supported Trump’s efforts to undermine the 2020 election and has yet to commit to fully accepting the results of the 2024 election.
Vance’s record stands in sharp contrast to that of former Vice President Mike Pence, who faced no pressure from President Trump and his allies to refuse to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
Vance, a freshman senator who will take office in 2023, told ABC News in February that there were problems with the 2020 election and supported the Electoral College’s plan to fill the electoral votes from states that Trump narrowly lost.
“I think there are political solutions to these problems,” Vance said, “so I think contesting which electoral rolls were legitimate is a fundamental political solution to the problems that existed in 2020.”
“If I were vice president, I would have told Pennsylvania, Georgia and many other states that they needed to have multiple electors, and I think Congress should have taken the debate from there,” Vance said.
In Georgia, Trump and his associates are facing fraud charges related to a bogus electoral college scheme that is also the central issue in the federal criminal case against Trump.
Vance questioned whether Mike Pence was really in danger.
In a May interview with CNN, Vance criticized journalists for their “obsession” with the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters, which happened before he took office. He also said Trump had not endangered anyone’s lives and criticized the Justice Department for being too harsh on the mob that stormed the halls of Congress, many of whom attacked police officers, leaving at least seven people dead in connection with the attack.
Outside the Capitol, some protesters erected gallows and chanted “Hang Mike Pence.” Later, after protesters broke into the Capitol, Trump took to social media to claim that Pence was a coward for not certifying the fake electors.
“I simply cannot believe that Mike Pence’s life was put at risk,” Vance said, adding that Democrats are “acting as if January 6th was the most terrifying day of my life. January 6th was a terrible day. There was violence. But it’s completely absurd to say that anyone’s life was put at risk because of Donald Trump’s call for peaceful protest.”
Witnesses said rioters came within 40 feet of Pence’s hiding place after breaching the Capitol on January 6. The Secret Service asked Pence to leave the Capitol building and move to a safe location, but he refused, not wanting to give the world the image of the vice president fleeing the seat of government.
Vance qualified his remarks about accepting the 2024 election.
In a separate interview with CNN’s Dana Bash in May, Vance placed conditions on whether he would accept the results of the 2024 election. Trump has never conceded defeat in the 2020 election. Before his 2016 victory, Trump said he would only accept the results if he won.
“I think Donald Trump will be the (winner),” Vance said, “and if it’s a free and fair election, I think Dana, all Republicans will enthusiastically accept the results, and I say again, I think the results will show that Donald Trump has been elected and re-elected president.”
He likened Republican fears about 2020 to the Democratic challenge to the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore. (After losing a legal battle at the Supreme Court, Gore conceded and, as vice president, certified Bush’s victory.)
“If I believe there is a problem, I need to be prepared to pursue that problem and litigate,” Vance said. “Obviously, if there is a free and fair election, I will accept the results.”
