JD Vance declined to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, drawing a sharp rebuttal from Tim Walz, who called his response a “damning non-answer.”
“When this is over, we need to shake hands, and the winner needs to be the winner. This has got to stop,” Walz said, delivering perhaps his clearest and most forceful answer of the night — on the final question of the debate.
When Walz pressed Vance to acknowledge that Trump lost the last election, Vance replied: “Tim, I’m focused on the future.”
Vance used his time to present a revisionist version of Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, saying Trump had simply asked his allies to protest the election results peacefully at the Capitol. 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.”
Eliding Trump’s many efforts to overturn the election results, Vance said simply that Trump eventually did hand over power to Joe Biden on Jan. 20, 2021.
At Tuesday’s debate, Vance selectively portrayed January 2021 as what he sees as a peaceful transfer of power.
“Remember [Trump] said that on January 6 the protesters ought to protest peacefully. And on January the 20th, what happened? Joe Biden became the president, Donald Trump left the White House,” Vance said, implying that the only duty of the president to enable a peaceful transfer of power is to physically leave the White House on Inauguration Day. Whether that person has conceded their loss, or filed more than five dozen lawsuits in opposition to that loss, or riled up his or her supporters to the point of deadly violence before that inevitable departure is, apparently, immaterial to his definition.
Walz rejected Vance’s evasions, saying he was “pretty shocked.”
“When Mike Pence made that decision to certify that election — that’s why Mike Pence isn’t on this stage,” said Walz. “What I’m concerned about is, where is the firewall with Donald Trump? Where is the firewall if he knows he can do anything, including taking an election, and his vice president’s not going to stand [up] to it?”