In response to Vance doubling down on his praise of Project 2025 and refusal to certify election results, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“JD Vance still won’t commit to certifying election results – he’s too busy doubling down on his praise of the far-right architects of the dangerous Project 2025 agenda. There may be plenty that Vance ‘likes about’ Project 2025’s wildly unpopular plans to strip Americans’ rights and gut our system of checks and balances. But unfortunately for the Trump-Vance ticket, the only things voters like less than Vance are his extreme anti-democracy rhetoric and the radical, out-of-touch Project 2025 ideas that he and Trump are pushing.”

NEW: Vance refused to commit to certifying election results (again) and doubled down on praise of Project 2025 leadership.

NOTUS: “‘Asked if that means he would go so far as to put Trump’s desires above his constitutional authority — as Pence has said he was asked to do on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump wanted him to send the election back to the states — Vance wouldn’t entertain the ‘hypothetical.’”

[…]

“Asked if he regretted his kind words about [the Heritage Foundation], given the political problems Project 2025 is causing for Trump and Republicans, Vance was clear: ‘No.’

“‘The Heritage Foundation has some good ideas, and also has some ideas that … I think are bad ideas. And regardless of whether you think they’re good ideas or bad ideas, it has nothing to do with the Trump campaign,’ Vance said.

“He noted that Project 2025 was a 900-page document, and he was clear that he hadn’t read ‘the whole thing,’ but he certainly wasn’t about to disavow the entire effort.

REMINDER: Vance is an extreme election denier who won’t commit to accepting this November’s election results.

HuffPost: “[Vance] said he would accept a Biden win only if he considered the election to be legitimate. … Vance’s comments illustrate a new tactic by Republican lawmakers, who are now placing conditions on accepting election results.”

New York Times: “J.D. Vance Says He Would Accept the Election Results, With a Caveat”

Vances echoes Trump’s baseless lies about the 2020 election and attempts to whitewash the violent January 6 insurrection.

Vance: “I think the entire post-2020 thing would have gone a lot better if there had actually been an effort to provide alternative slates of electors, and to force us to have that debate. I think it would’ve been a much better thing for the country. … [Trump] was trying to take a constitutional process to its natural conclusion.

“I think it would’ve been extraordinarily disappointing to a whole host of people that I care a lot about if Trump had just taken it [and conceded the 2020 election before January 6].”

Vance: “No real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming [Trump for January 6].”

ABC News: “JD Vance says [he] wouldn’t have certified 2020 race until states submitted pro-Trump electors”

New York Times: “[Vance] has said that, unlike Vice President Mike Pence in 2020, he would have helped Mr. Trump overturn the results, by accepting Trump electors that had not been elected by voters.”

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

Politico: “[Vance] downplayed the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when Pence was forced to evacuate the building as rioters called for his hanging.”

Vance praised Project 2025 – which is “undeniably a Trump-driven operation” – as containing “good ideas,” and has cozied up to Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.

Axios: “This is undeniably a Trump-driven operation. The biggest tell: Johnny McEntee — one of Trump’s closest White House aides, and his most fervent internal loyalty enforcer — is a senior adviser to Project 2025. One of the most powerful architects is Stephen Miller, a top West Wing adviser for the Trump administration.”

Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”

The New Republic: “Project 2025 Leader Is Overjoyed by Trump’s Vice Presidential Pick”

Nick Corasaniti, New York Times: “[Kevin Roberts] reacted to the news [of Vance’s VP selection] ‘with a broad smile on my face’ and said that ‘privately, we were really rooting for him.’”

Gram Slattery, Reuters: “Vance is very close to Heritage and even wrote the forward for a book from the think tank’s president. Project 2025 is of course organized by Heritage.”