In New Interview, JD Vance Dodges Questions About Trump Defeat in 2020 | US Election 2024 News

The US vice-presidential candidate brushed aside scrutiny of Trump’s electoral denial record, calling it an “obsession”.

US Senator JD Vance already drew attention in last week’s vice presidential debate when he refused to acknowledge that his running mate, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, lost the 2020 elections.

But Vance has continued to dodge the issue, most recently during a podcast interview with The New York Times.

In excerpts published Friday, Vance dodged questions about Trump’s 2020 defeat no fewer than five times, according to the newspaper.

“There’s an obsession here to focus on 2020,” Vance said on the podcast, The Interview, which airs Saturday. “I’m much more concerned about what happened after 2020, which is a very open border, groceries that are not affordable.”

When pressed about the outcome of the 2020 election, Vance claimed that censorship could have cost Trump millions of votes.

“I’m talking about something very low-key — a censorship issue in this country that I think affected things in 2020,” Vance said.

He accused, for example, social media companies of blocking negative stories about President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

Podcast host Lulu Garcia-Navarro noted that there was “no evidence” that voter fraud had occurred, a reality that Vance dismissed as a “slogan.”

Vance’s refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 results mirrors the rhetoric of Trump himself, who has repeatedly claimed the election was stolen.

Trump, the incumbent at the time, lost that race to Biden, a Democrat and former vice president. Biden obtained 306 Electoral College votes, out of a total of 538, which earned him the presidency. Trump only captured 232.

After the results, Trump called the election “stolen.” On January 6, 2021, he held a rally in Washington, DC, to encourage his followers to “stop the theft” and demonstrate in front of the United States Capitol.

Thousands did, and violence erupted in and around the Capitol building, where Electoral College votes were being certified by Congress.

Trump has also been accused of pressuring his then-Vice President, Mike Pence, not to certify the votes, as required by the Constitution. Pence played a ceremonial role on Jan. 6, overseeing the tally.

When Pence refused to heed Trump’s call to circumvent the vote, Trump blasted his second-in-command as lacking “courage.”

After leaving the White House, the Trump campaign and allies lost dozens of lawsuits alleging fraud in the 2020 election. Trump himself faces criminal charges for allegedly meddling in the election, with the Jan. 6 included as evidence.