In response to new reporting on JD Vance criticizing Donald Trump for his failed economic record during his four years in office, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Just like millions of Americans, JD Vance knows that Donald Trump ‘thoroughly failed to deliver’ on his empty promises during his four years in office and instead pushed an extreme agenda to rig the economy for the ultra-wealthy on the backs of the middle class. After previously calling out Trump’s disastrous record and toxic extremism, Vance is now a loyal MAGA minion who is pushing Trump’s Project 2025 plans to double down on his failed agenda while echoing his baseless lies about his loss in the 2020 election. Vance may be willing to sell out working families for his personal political gain, but voters are not going back to four more years of Trump’s never-ending failures.”

THEN: JD Vance said Donald Trump “thoroughly failed to deliver” on his economic promises and predicted that he would lose the 2020 election.

Washington Post: “JD Vance, in 2020 messages, said Trump ‘thoroughly failed to deliver’”

“Vance harshly criticized his future running mate’s record of governance and said Trump had not fulfilled his economic agenda. 

“‘Trump has just so thoroughly failed to deliver on his economic populism (excepting a disjointed China policy),’ Vance wrote in February 2020.

“He also offered a prediction: Joe Biden, he believed, was going to win the 2020 election. 

“‘I think Trump will probably lose,’ he wrote in a message in June 2020, a few months before ballots were cast in an election that Vance would later claim, falsely and repeatedly, was stolen by the Democrats…

“The messages show that Vance still took a dim view of Trump’s achievements long after 2016 — and after almost four years of observing how the man he now calls ‘the best president of my lifetime’ behaved in office.”

NOW: Vance is a cheerleader for Trump’s failed economic record that ballooned the national debt, created new incentives for companies to ship jobs overseas, and left him with the worst jobs record in modern American history.

Vance: “The left attacked Donald Trump for those tax cuts said they would make the deficit worse when in reality we took in more revenue because the government got out of the way on the regulatory side and the tax cuts spurred a lot of growth which means more people working, which meant more economic production which meant the entire economy was healthier … I think we have a pretty common sense regulatory and tax agenda.”

New York Times: “The 2017 corporate tax cuts signed into law by Mr. Trump have not increased government revenue … In fact, they have had the opposite effect.”

Fortune: “Trump to leave office with the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover”

Bloomberg: “Trump’s Jobs Record Fell Short of Promises Even Before the Virus”

The Guardian: “Donald Trump’s $1.5tn tax cuts have helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history.”

Washington Post Analysis: “One of President Donald Trump’s lesser-known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt. The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. … The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration.”

Washington Post: “Trump promised ‘America First’ would keep jobs here. But the tax plan might push them overseas.”

NOW: Vance is pushing Trump’s extreme Project 2025 agenda that would double down on his failures by gifting more tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations at the expense of America’s middle class.

Vance on Trump’s plan that would raise tariffs and raise costs for hardworking Americans: “This is a fascinating proposal and we could talk for a while about it.”

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

New York Times: “Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, denied in an interview with NBC News on Sunday that tariffs had caused higher costs for Americans, as economists have documented.”

Axios: “Trump’s inflation bomb: How his second-term plans could make it worse”

The Atlantic: “Trump’s Plan to Supercharge Inflation”

Wall Street Journal: “A drumbeat of reports from Wall Street economists have warned that Trump’s plans could substantially slow economic growth while driving up consumer prices.”

CBS News: “Millions of low- and middle-class households would likely face significantly higher taxes under the Project 2025’s proposals.”

CNBC: “Trump budget would spike deficits by nearly 5 times Harris proposal, says Penn Wharton”

Washington Post: “Trump and his advisers have discussed deeper cuts to both individual and corporate tax rates that would build on his controversial 2017 tax law … Further cutting corporate taxes … would primarily benefit large firms.”

NOW: Vance says he would not have certified the 2020 election, won’t commit to accepting this November’s election results, and continues to whitewash the violent January 6 insurrection.

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”

Spectrum News: “Vance again says he wouldn’t have certified 2020 election if he was vice president”

Jason Calacanis, All-In Podcast: “Would you have certified the [last result of the election]?”

Vance: “Again, I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors and let the country have the debate about what actually matters and what kind of an election that we have.” 

Calacanis: “You wouldn’t have certified, to be clear?”

Vance: “I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors, that’s what I would have done.”

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

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].”

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.”

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

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.”