Echoing his running mate, Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance repeatedly refused to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election when pressed on it during the CBS-hosted debate against Democrat Tim Walz on Tuesday.
Instead, when asked directly, he falsely implied that there were problems with that year’s vote — and then sought to draw false equivalence between legitimate concerns about election interference, and the deadly Jan.6, 2021 attack on the Capitol incited by Trump.
The moment, which came late in the debate, led Walz to ditch the conciliatory tone that both candidates largely stuck to throughout, and pivot to an impassioned defense of democracy in the United States.
The exchange started when debate moderator Norah O’Donnell brought up Trump’s persistent refusal to accept the outcome in 2020, and asked Vance if he would commit to accepting this year’s results should the GOP ticket lose.
The Ohio senator evaded that question. Instead, among other things, he asserted that “censorship” — which he appeared to suggest describes efforts to curb disinformation — is a bigger threat to democracy. Vance also denied that Trump bore any responsibility for Jan. 6, claiming that the former president asked protestors to demonstrate “peacefully.” And he argued that Hillary Clinton’s accurate complaints about the impact of the interference efforts organized in Russia in 2016 proved Democrats are equally to blame for false claims of election fraud.
Vance also dismissed those interference efforts as a low scale purchase of “Facebook ads.”
Walz’s response: “Jan. 6 was not Facebook ads… It was very clear. [Trump] lost the election, and he said he didn’t. A president’s words matter.”
Things took a turn when Walz asked Vance directly if Trump lost the 2020 election, and the Ohio Senator said instead that he’s “focused on the future.”
“That’s a damning non-answer,” Walz countered.
Vance dug in, asserting that he agrees with Trump’s false claims that there were “problems in 2020,” and attempted to redirect the discussion back to “censorship.”
In his final rebuttal, Walz responded, “I see a candidate out there who refused, and now again, I’m pretty shocked by this. [Trump] lost the election. This is not a debate. It’s not anything other than in Donald Trump’s world.”
Walz noted that Trump’s previous Vice President, Mike Pence, isn’t on the ticket this time precisely because he stood up to Trump and refused to help overturn the 2020 election results.
“That’s what we’re asking you, America,” Walz said while looking directly into the camera. “Will you stand up? Will you give your oath of office even if the President doesn’t? And I think Kamala Harris would agree, she wouldn’t have picked me if she didn’t think I would do that.”
“I think you’ve got a really clear choice on this election, on who is gonna honor that democracy and who is gonna honor Donald Trump,” Walz concluded.
Watch some of the exchange below:
The CBS vice presidential debate will likely be the last face off before Election Day on Nov. 5, as Trump has declined Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposed Oct. 23 debate.
