In response to Donald Trump’s VP contenders once again pushing lies and MAGA extremism, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Competing in Donald Trump’s MAGA veepstakes means humiliating yourself on national television by refusing to accept the outcome of the next election, lying about debunked crime statistics, flip flopping on whether you’d do business with a known failure and a con man, defending slander against the beautiful city of Milwaukee, and even pretending that a half-empty church with a mostly white audience is a great way to kick off ‘Black Americans for Trump.’ And of course, the only reward for any of Trump’s potential running mates is just to lose on the same ticket with Trump come November.”

Tom Cotton hedged on whether he would accept the 2024 election results and said January 6 was a “protest in Washington that got out of hand.”

Tom Cotton: “Jake, I think the president has said, as I’ve said about this election, of course, we will accept the results if the results are from fair and free elections.”

Jake Tapper, CNN: “But that’s not what happened in 2020. I mean, he contested it up to the US Supreme Court and then it went past that, as you know.”

Cotton: “Well, look, what happened on January 6, 2021, is that there was a protest in Washington that got out of hand.”

Tim Scott lied about violent crime and murder statistics, which, under the Biden-Harris administration, are down, and deflected when asked whether Mike Pence did the right thing on January 6.

Tim Scott: “What we need to focus on, Jon, is the violence that we’re seeing across this nation. Under Joe Biden, we’ve seen the greatest increase in violent crime in my lifetime, and so focusing on ways for us to reduce that crime means getting four more years of Donald Trump. Under Donald Trump, we actually respected law enforcement. Under Joe Biden, we’ve seen the movement to defund the police, leaving communities like the one I grew up in devastated and ravaged by a wave of violent crime that we have not seen literally in five decades.”

Jonathan Karl, ABC: “Actually, Senator, as you probably know, the latest stats on violent crime and on the murder rate, they’re actually down this past year.”

Karl: “You had said that Mike Pence absolutely did the right thing when he defied Donald Trump’s demand to not certify that election. Do you still stand by that, that Pence absolutely did the right thing on January 6th?”

Scott: “The constitution is clear.”

Doug Burgum flip flopped on whether he would do business with Trump, a failure and con man with multiple bankruptcies under his belt.

Shot:

Chuck Todd, NBC: “Would you ever do business with Donald Trump?”

Doug Burgum: “I don’t think so.”

Todd: “Why?”

Burgum: “I just think that it’s important that you’re judged by the company you keep and I…”

Todd: “You just wouldn’t do business with him?”

Burgum: “No, I wouldn’t.”

Chaser:

Burgum: “So look, if you asked me that same question today I’d be like ‘absolutely I would do business with him.’”

Byron Donalds tried to explain away Trump’s assertion that Milwaukee is a “horrible city” by lying about its murder rate and pushing election conspiracy theories.

Peter Alexander, NBC: “Republicans are set to formally nominate Donald Trump at the party’s convention in Milwaukee next month. Donald Trump, during his meeting with Republicans this week, called Milwaukee a ‘horrible city.’ The campaign later clarified, said he was talking about alleged voter fraud and the crime rate there. So, let me take those one at a time. Murders in Milwaukee are down 39% since last year, and the Trump campaign’s own election investigator in 2020 said that Wisconsin’s results were legit. So if Mr. Trump feels so strongly that Milwaukee is a horrible city, why is he having his convention there?”

Byron Donalds: “With respect to Milwaukee, he was talking about allegations of voter fraud and also the crime rate.”

Ben Carson said that Black Americans were migrating towards Trump after his appearance at a historically Black church in Detroit. The only problem? His audience was half-empty and mostly white.

Ben Carson: “The interesting thing is people are wondering why the Black population is migrating towards President Trump. It’s not just the Black population, it’s everyone in America.”