In response to Donald Trump, JD Vance, and their MAGA mouthpieces pushing an extreme anti-democracy agenda this morning, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“After a week of refusing to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, JD Vance spent this morning echoing Trump’s baseless election-denying lies while Trump himself threatened to use the military against ‘the enemy within’ in the latest example that Trump will always put himself ahead of the rule of law and the American people. Voters are sick and tired of hearing the Trump-Vance ticket and their MAGA mouthpieces attack our elections and undermine our democracy – and they will send a clear message this November when they stand up against this assault on our Constitution at the ballot box.” 

JD Vance once again refused to say Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, pushed election conspiracies, and dodged a question on Trump saying he’ll go after political opponents.

Martha Raddatz, ABC News: “Will Donald Trump go after his political opponents? He’s suggested that in the past.”

Vance: *Dodges*

[…]

Raddatz: “In interview after interview, question after question, and in the debate, you refuse to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. So I’m just going to assume that if I ask you fifty times whether he lost the election, you would not acknowledge that he did. Is that correct?”

Vance: “Martha, you’ve asked this question. I’ve been asked this question ten times in the past couple of weeks. Of course, Donald Trump and I believe there were problems in 2020 […]”

[…]

Raddatz: “Did Donald Trump lose? That’s the question. And you know that’s the question.”

Vance: “Martha, I’ve said repeatedly, I think the 2020 election had problems. You want to say rigged, you want to say he won, use whatever vocabulary term you want.”

Trump threatened to weaponize the National Guard and military against American citizens to destroy the “enemy from within.”

Trump: “I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within… totally destroying our country… [I]n terms of Election Day, I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the big– and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by [the] National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

Vance then refused to say where millions of patients would go if the Trump-Vance ticket was successful in their plan to defund Planned Parenthood, while conceding that “a lot of Americans” disagree with their anti-choice agenda to ban abortion nationwide.

Martha Raddatz, ABC News: “You said during the debate that you and Trump have more to do to earn back people’s trust, specifically as it relates to women and reproductive rights. Fifty-six percent of those polled support restoring abortion access to what it was under Roe v. Wade. So what would you say, specifically to the women watching this morning who believe they should have their own say over their own bodies and not the government, either state or federal?”

Vance: “Well, Martha, first of all, what I’d say is that I think renationalizing this entire debate is a big mistake, and I understand that a lot of Americans, according to that poll, apparently disagree with me and President Trump here … And I think that what we had in this country for 50 years was a culture war over this particular issue because we had nationalized it.”

Shannon Bream, Fox News: “And quickly, on Planned Parenthood, you guys have talked about defunding them, taking away government funding. They say that no U.S. taxpayer funding can flow to abortion at any stage, but they say they do hundreds of thousands of cancer screenings, birth control, which they say actually prevents another 500,000 abortions a year, and all kinds of other testing and medication, contraception. Where would those patients go if Planned Parenthood lost the funding?”

Vance: *Refuses to answer*

MAGA Mike Johnson and Byron Donalds refused to commit to certifying the 2024 election results.

Kristen Welker, NBC News: “Mr. Speaker, very quickly let me ask you, I’m gonna be speaking with Congresswoman Liz Cheney just moments from now. She’s been very outspoken, obviously an opponent of Donald Trump, as well as House Republicans. She’s expressed concerns that if Trump doesn’t win, that you would not certify the election results. So here, now, can you say if Donald Trump does not win, do you commit to certifying the election results?”

Mike Johnson: “A free and fair and legal election will be certified.”

Welker: “Regardless of who wins, you’ll certify the results?”

Johnson: “If the election is free and fair and legal and we pray and hope that it is — there’s a lot of work being done to make sure that’s true.”

Welker: “When people hear you say ‘if it is free and fair,’ does that not undermine people’s confidence in the election results, Mr. Speaker?”

Johnson: “No, it shouldn’t, no, no, it shouldn’t.”

Welker: “Former President Trump has yet to concede in 2020.”

Johnson: “No, no, the point is the process works, we have the peaceful transfer of power. We did in 2020.”

Margaret Brennan, CBS News: “But, back in 2020 you supported a legal challenge to the outcome of the election. The Supreme Court rejected that attempt to challenge it. Since then, the Electoral Count Reform Act has been passed. Are you certain that at the nation’s capitol, the lawmakers who you work with won’t be challenging the outcome?”

Mike Johnson: “Look, we will see what happens.”

Brennan: “And 62 legal challenges, as you know, failed with the Trump challenges.”

Dana Bash, CNN: “My question is, are you going to follow the new law? Are you going to follow the new law about certifying?”

Byron Donalds: “And I’ve been very clear, Dana. As long as states and jurisdictions follow election procedures in their states, there will be no problem from me or anybody on Capitol Hill.”

Bash: “Alright, well that’s a giant loophole that you’re leaving there, which, there’s no evidence that that has not happened, it didn’t happen in 2020.”

Donalds: “That’s not a loophole, that’s actually not a loophole, Dana. If you look at what happened in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and other jurisdictions in 2020, they did not follow election procedures passed by the state legislature, that’s an empirical fact.”

Bash: “Congressman, there’s no evidence of widespread fraud, that went through, what, sixty court cases.”