Trump’s VP Contenders Line Up to Defend His Dangerous MAGA Agenda At Tonight’s Debate

Today, Donald Trump’s VP contenders are humiliating themselves in Atlanta to push Trump’s baseless lies during and around the presidential debate. In response, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump’s potential running mates are humiliating themselves in Atlanta tonight for one reason: to prove to Trump that they will put his failed agenda, his deranged commands, and his MAGA extremism over the American people. No matter what. From banning abortion to election denialism to gutting earned benefits and health care access to defending Trump’s hateful rhetoric, the MAGA agenda that Trump and his lackeys are pushing is deeply unpopular and out-of-touch with voters — and no amount of desperate spin from his VP contenders will change that. While Trump’s VP wannabes run to the far-right to try and pass his MAGA litmus test, President Biden and Vice President Harris will stay laser-focused on continuing to deliver for the American people.”

Here’s what to expect from VP contenders tonight as they desperately try to pass Trump’s MAGA veepstakes litmus test:

Election denialism, whitewashing the violence on January 6, and anti-democracy rhetoric as Trump pledges to be a dictator on “day one.”

NBC News: “Burgum, like other contenders, has declined to comment on whether he would accept the 2024 election results.”

HuffPost: “[J.D. Vance] said he would accept a Biden win only if he considered the election to be legitimate.”

New York Times: “Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has been floated as a possible running mate for former President Donald J. Trump, on Sunday refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 presidential election and repeated conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.”

Washington Post: “Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) was pressed at least six times in a TV interview Sunday on whether he would accept this November’s results. He repeatedly declined to do so.”

NBC News: “In an appearance on NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ in January, Stefanik declined to commit to accepting the 2024 election results.”

Laura Coates, CNN: “Will you accept the results of the 2024 election regardless of who wins, yes or no?”

Ben Carson: “I will accept the results if it’s done in a fair and transparent way. … let me put it this way: In the 2020 election, there were a lot of irregularities.”

Abby Phillip, CNN: “If Donald Trump loses the election in 2024, will you accept the results of that election?”

Byron Donalds: “My answer has been very clear on this.”

Phillip: “It’s a yes or no question.”

Donalds: *refuses to commit to accepting the results*

Daily Beast: “Sen. Tom Cotton Says He’ll Accept 2024 Election Results—With a Condition”

The Hill: “JD Vance says he is ‘skeptical’ Pence’s life was in danger on Jan. 6”

Newsweek: “‘There was no way they were going to overthrow the government,’ said Rubio. … ‘I also do not think people should be misled to think this somehow was on the verge of overthrowing the government.’ Rubio also explained another reason why the events of January 6 should not be considered an insurrection.”

Tim Scott: “99 percent of the people who showed up were there to exercise their First Amendment rights. What I said then is what I’ll say now. I don’t hold those people at harm.”

Politico: “Elise Stefanik calls Jan. 6 defendants ‘hostages’”

Associated Press: “Noem defends Trump legacy, deflects blame for Capitol mob”

Roll Call: “Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas consistently has staked out a tough-on-crime stance during his time in the Senate, but he and other congressional Republicans have sided with the defendants in a Supreme Court case about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.”

Efforts to cover for their extreme, anti-choice attacks on reproductive freedoms.

CBS News: “Burgum signed into law one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country, an abortion ban that allows limited exceptions up to six weeks’ gestation, and only for medical emergencies at any other point in the pregnancy.”

Newsweek: “J.D. Vance Backs ‘National Standard’ for Abortions”

Business Insider: “Sen. Marco Rubio supported banning almost all abortions in a newly uncovered 2010 questionnaire”

Washington Post: “‘If I were president of the United States, I would literally sign the most conservative pro-life legislation that they can get through Congress,’ Scott added, regarding a federal ban.”

Byron Donalds: “As we celebrate this Holy Week and reflect on its true meaning, we recognize the profound dignity of EVERY human life, from the womb to the tomb. Today, @GovRonDeSantis signed the 15 week abortion ban, protecting the unborn in Florida and our most important God-given right—LIFE.”

WWNY: “Stefanik backs federal ban on most abortions after 15 weeks”

CNN: “[Kristi Noem] defends state’s abortion ‘trigger’ ban when asked if 10-year-old should be forced to give birth”

Office of Senator Lindsey Graham: “Graham Reintroduces 20-Week Abortion Ban”

“The legislation is cosponsored by U.S. Senators… Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee)… Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas)… Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)… Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee)… Marco Rubio (R-Florida)… Tim Scott (R-South Carolina)…”

Tom Cotton: “Lindsey Graham has proposed something the Senate has voted on in the past which is reasonable restrictions on late-term abortions…” 

Bloomberg: “Carson Doesn’t Support Exceptions for Abortions in Rape, Incest”

Promises to bring back Trump’s disastrous MAGAnomics scam that rigged the economy for the ultra-rich while leaving working families behind.

Tim Scott: “We make the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act tax cuts permanent.”

Doug Burgum: “I believe in these economic policies, I believe the tax bill is a great thing.”

Marco Rubio: “Overall, the Republican tax-cut bill has been good for Americans. That is why I voted for it.”

Tom Cotton: “Trump’s tax cuts helped deliver the strongest economy in recent history.”

CNBC: “Ben Carson leads prayer for tax cuts at Trump Cabinet meeting”

KOTA: “Republicans are calling President Trump’s tax plan the biggest tax overhaul in history. … Representative Kris[ti] Noem was a big part in pushing this bill.”

Fox Business: “Trump’s tax policies have worked out for all of America: Rep. Byron Donalds

Vivek Ramaswamy on a suggestion to make permanent or expand the Trump tax cuts: “I’d go a little further, Larry, than that, to be honest with you.”

Alabama Political Reporter: “Katie Britt on Monday released a memo with her policy positions … [including] a bill to make permanent the individual tax cuts and extend the expanded standard deduction contained in President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.”

Dodging their plans to rip away affordable health care from millions of Americans, end protections for people with preexisting conditions, and gut Social Security and Medicare.

HealthInsurance.org: “In late 2017, Burgum and 19 other Republican governors wrote a letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to repeal the ACA.”

New York Times: J.D. Vance claimed the Affordable Care Act “failed to take care of” high healthcare costs.

New York Times: Tim Scott voted for all three major Republican-led proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017.

CBS News: “Rubio Prepared To Shut Down Gov’t And Default On Debt Over Obamacare”

Press-Republican: “[Stefanik] said she is in favor of repealing ‘Obamacare’ … ‘It’s an overreach of government, and it is costing businesses too much,’ she said.”

Byron Donalds: “The Affordable Care Act is a ruse by the federal government to seize control over the health care and insurance industry.”

Associated Press: “Tom Cotton said he supported Senate leaders’ backup plan that calls for immediately repealing major parts of the health care law without an immediate replacement.”

Washington Times: “Ben Carson: Obamacare worst thing to happen to the U.S. since slavery”

WNAX: “SD Congresswoman Kristi Noem Supports Obamacare Repeal”

Vivek Ramaswamy: “I think Obamacare has been a disaster.”

Defending and echoing Trump’s hateful, racist, and downright dangerous rhetoric.

The Hill: “Vance slams ‘poisoning our blood’ comparisons between Trump comments, Nazis”

“‘[Trump] said illegal immigrants were poisoning the blood of this country, which is objectively and obviously true’… Vance said.”

Florida Politics: “Marco Rubio defends Donald Trump remarks that immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood’ of the U.S.”

Politico: “Stefanik silent after Trump says immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood’ of US”, because in the end, he’s talking about the country, not the population.’”

New York Times: “Byron Donalds, Trump V.P. Contender, Suggests Jim Crow Era Had an Upside”

Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “In response to a question from the crowd, Cotton said he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. ‘We have 5,000 years of recorded history on that, and untold years of unrecorded history,’ he said. ‘The best way to raise children is in a two-person, one man and one woman, stable family.’”

Washington Examiner: “[Kristi Noem] said she had ‘never supported gay marriage’ and that ‘a lot of my faith has to do with that.’”

Newsmax: “Rubio at Faith & Freedom Summit: Marriage Is Between a Man and a Woman”

Newsweek: “[Tim Scott] supports ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ opposes same-sex marriage, and considers homosexuality a morally wrong choice, like adultery. ‘We are by nature sinful,’ he said sadly. All these positions stem from what he calls ‘timeless principles.’”

Washington Examiner: “Vivek Ramaswamy says ‘LGBTQIA+ movement’ has become a ‘cult’: ‘It’s not about logic’”