October 18, 2024 10:08 AM UTC

JD Vance Finally Says the Words: Trump Didn't Lose in 2020

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• by: Colorado Pols

It seems that the closer Republicans get to the end of the 2024 election, the more we return to the end of the 2020 election. It’s critical to understand why this is happening.

As Talking Points Memo reports, Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance finally gave a straight answer to a question he’s been asked about repeatedly since July: “Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?” Here’s what Vance said to that question at a rally in Williamsport, PA on Wednesday:

On the election of 2020, I’ve answered this question directly a million times: No.

I think there are serious problems in 2020. So, did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use, okay? [Pols emphasis]

I really couldn’t care less if you agree or disagree with me on this issue.

Vance claimed that he has “answered this question directly a million times,” which is absolutely NOT true. Just last week, in fact, Vance dodged the question five different times during an interview with The New York Times. Vance also infamously refused to answer that direct question during the Vice Presidential debate earlier this month.

Why does this matter? Because as we wrote earlier this month, “The Big Lie” has returned with a vengeance…and now it’s really about the 2024 election.

As Philip Bump explained for The Washington Post:

This, fundamentally, is why “was the 2020 election legitimate?” is a fair question for Republican elected officials. It’s certainly useful in the abstract to document which elected officials are willing to deny obvious reality. But it’s also a measure of the extent to which Republicans are going to be willing to stand up to Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2024 results should he once again fail to win more votes…

…The “was 2020 a legitimate election” question is a proxy for evaluating whether Republicans will allow Trump to do that again. [Pols emphasis] If you ask them whether they would prevent Trump from elevating false claims about this year’s election, you would get responses that centered on a hypothetical. When you instead ask them whether they are willing to acknowledge obvious reality — or if, instead, they believe that doing so is an unacceptable sign of disloyalty to Trump — you get a better answer to that question anyway.

The logic is simple: If you’re still willing to say, out loud, that Donald Trump did not actually lose the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, then you’re definitely willing to say the same thing a month from now should Trump lose to Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Big Lie was nonsense in 2020, and it will be nonsense in 2024. With Trump canceling numerous planned appearances in the next few weeks, this might well be the closing argument for the Republican ticket.

As Dana Milbank writes today for The Washington Post:

In 2020, Trump predicted that “the only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged” — then fomented an insurrection in support of his lie. Now he’s saying that his opponents are “professional thieves” and that cheating is “the only way they’re going to win.”

You don’t need to be clairvoyant to see where this is going.

Indeed.