As JD Vance brings his anti-democracy MAGA extremism to Michigan today, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“JD Vance may be more loyal to Donald Trump than he is to our democracy, but no matter what he says, over 80 million voters sent Trump packing in 2020. Trump picked Vance for his extreme election denialism and his willingness to do what his last VP wouldn’t – and voters will reject the Trump-Vance ticket and their dangerous anti-democracy agenda this November for the same reasons.”

LAST NIGHT: JD Vance REFUSED to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election while whitewashing January 6 and declining to say if he would challenge this November’s election results…

NBC News: “‘Damning non-answer’: Vance refuses to acknowledge Trump lost the 2020 election”

“JD Vance refused to acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election during the vice presidential debate Tuesday and downplayed the seriousness of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which injured more than 140 law enforcement officers. He also declined to say whether he would seek to challenge the results of this year’s election.”

ABC News: “JD Vance refuses to say Trump lost in 2020, downplays events of Jan. 6”

Politico: “Vance refuses to admit that Trump lost the 2020 election”

“Vance omitted Trump’s attacks on his then-Vice President Mike Pence while a violent riot raged, as well as his months of fomenting false claims that the election was stolen and urging his supporters to ‘stop the steal.’ … Vance has previously said in interviews that he would have done in 2020 what Pence refused to do: facilitate challenges to the election at the Jan. 6 session of Congress, despite constitutional and legal restraints meant to prevent it.”

NBC News: “When asked if he would challenge this year’s election results, Ohio Sen. JD Vance avoided a direct answer, instead defending Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021.”

… and Trump once again refused to commit to accepting this November’s election results.

Washington Post: “Donald Trump continued to stir doubt Tuesday about whether he will accept the outcome of the November presidential election. Asked in Milwaukee whether he trusts the election process, the former president told reporters, ‘I’ll let you know in about 33 days.’

“Trump, who has repeatedly denied his 2020 reelection loss, made the comment after saying in response to a previous question that he wants a ‘fair, honest election.’”

Vance is an extreme election denier who won’t commit to accepting this November’s election results, said he would not have certified the 2020 election, 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”

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.”

Bloomberg: “[Vance] has asserted that the 2020 presidential race was stolen from Donald Trump.”

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].”

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 also has no problem with Donald Trump’s Project 2025 plans to use the government to go after his political opponents and replace civil servants with MAGA loyalists.

Kristen Welker, NBC: “Senator, if former President Trump were to win, if you were to be his vice president, would you support him appointing a special prosecutor to go after his political enemies, the Bidens?”

Vance: “Donald Trump is talking about appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Joe Biden for wrongdoing. … I think what Donald Trump is simply saying is we ought to investigate the prior administration.”

Vance: “I think that what Trump should do, like if I was giving him one piece of advice, is fire every single civil servant… replace them with our people.”

The Atlantic: “At the top of Vought and Dans’s must-do list for the next president: reissuing an executive order that Trump signed during his final months in office—and which President Joe Biden promptly reversed—that would allow the government to remove civil-service protections from as many as 50,000 federal jobs. The move would create a new class of employees known as Schedule F whom the president could fire at will.”

Associated Press: “Trump-era conservatives want to gut the ‘administrative state’ from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing.”

Trump is still pushing baseless lies about his loss by over 7 million votes in the 2020 election.

Associated Press: “[Trump] is flooding the airwaves and his social media platform with distortions, misinformation and unfounded conspiracy theories about his defeat.”

NBC News: “Re-litigating the 2020 election, repeating false claims it was stolen and casting aspersions on the security of mail voting remain major fixtures for [Trump] on the stump. … He regularly refers to the 2020 election as ‘rigged’ on his social media channels.”

Trump continues to praise and promise pardons for the violent insurrectionists he rallied to storm the Capitol on January 6, calling them “hostages” and “patriots.” 

Washington Post: “Trump vows pardons, government apology to Capitol rioters if elected”

Rachel Scott, ABC News: “140 police officers were assaulted [on January 6]. Their injuries included broken bones, at least one officer lost an eye, one had two cracked ribs, two smashed spinal discs, another had a stroke. Were the people who assaulted those 140 officers, including those I just mentioned, ‘patriots’ who deserve pardons?”

[Trump refuses to answer]

Scott: “But sir, my question is on those rioters who assaulted officers. Would you pardon those people?”

Donald Trump: “Oh absolutely I would. If they’re innocent, I would pardon them.”

Scott: “They’ve been convicted.”

Trump: “Those people were treated very harshly… nobody was killed on January 6. But I think that the people of January 6 were treated very unfairly… they were there to complain about an election, and you know it’s very interesting, the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to.”

The Hill: “Trump describes imprisoned Jan. 6 rioters as ‘hostages’”

TIME: “Trump has sought to recast the insurrectionist riot as an act of patriotism. ‘I call them the J-6 patriots,’ Trump tells TIME. When asked whether he would consider pardoning every one of them, he says: ‘Yes, absolutely.’”

NBC News: “Former President Donald Trump promised Wednesday night that if he is elected he will pardon a ‘large portion’ of the people convicted of federal offenses for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.”

Trump: “January 6, it was the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to. And they were there proud, they were there with love in their heart. That was an unbelievable — and it was a beautiful day.”

Trump has threatened political violence and warned of a “bloodbath” if he loses in November, and he is vowing to be a dictator on “day one” if he wins.

Associated Press: “Trump threatens to jail adversaries in escalating rhetoric ahead of pivotal debate”

TIME: “Exclusive: Donald Trump Says Political Violence ‘Depends’ on ‘Fairness’ of 2024 Election”

Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN: “Many people have lost American presidential elections over the last 230 years – Trump is the only one to say about violence if he loses ‘it depends.’”

The Atlantic: “Trump Says He’ll Be a Dictator on ‘Day One’”

NBC News: “Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses the election”