PRESS RELEASE Contact: press@congressionalintegrity.org
For Immediate Release
Date: July 15, 2024
Washington, D.C. – Today, Donald Trump announced Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his Vice Presidential pick. Vance has spent his short time in the Senate spreading election denial conspiracy theories and attacking the rule of law to defend Trump at all costs.
In response, Congressional Integrity Project executive director Kyle Herrig said the following:
“J.D. Vance is a Trump lackey who still refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election and refuses to condemn the attack on the Capitol on January 6th. Vance stood by Trump’s side through his multiple felony convictions and trials. And, Vance has vowed retaliation against the Department of Justice for doing their job by investigating and prosecuting a known conman. If elected, Trump-Vance will be the most extreme MAGA president and vice president in American history and the stakes for our democracy couldn’t be higher.”
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J.D. Vance: Undermining Our Democracy
- Vance Has Always Embraced The Big Lie. Ever since he was endorsed by Trump in 2022, Vance has embraced the false conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen. Vance has claimed that there was massive fraud in the 2020 presidential election, including in Ohio, a state that Trump won by nearly 10 points. “There were certainly people voting illegally on a large-scale basis,” Vance claimed. Asked about the supposed massive fraud in Ohio, Vance said: “I think it’s probably true that Trump won by a larger margin in Ohio.” Asked by Spectrum News if he felt the election was “stolen,” Vance said, “Yeah, I do. I mean, look, I think the fundamental problem is we had a massive effort to shift the election by very powerful people in this country. I don’t care whether you say it’s rigged, whether you say it’s stolen, like I’ll say what I’m going to say about it.” In an op-ed published with Arizona Senate candidate and fellow election conspiracy theorist Blake Masters, Vance called for more “audits” of the 2020 election and accused “oligarchs” and Democratic groups of doing “everything they could to steal an election.” He’s also echoed “Deep State” conspiracy theories about Trump.
- Vance Still Refuses To Call January 6 An Insurrection. Like Trump, Vance has worked to rewrite the history of January 6 and rehabilitate those who attempted to overturn a free and fair election. Vance said that calling the January 6 attack on the Capitol an “insurrection” is the “dumbest thing in the world.
- Vance Would Have Supported Fake Elector Slates If He Was Vice President In 2020. “If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors and I think the US Congress should have fought over it from there. That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020. I think that’s what we should have done.” [ABC News, ‘This Week’, 2/4/24, VIDEO]
- Vance: Biden Is Preemptively Stealing The 2024 Election. “Biden is attacking his most likely 2024 opponent. He’s using the justice system to preemptively steal the 2024 election. This is what’s happening, plain and simple.” [J.D. Vance, X, 6/8/23]
Political Violence
- Vance Refused To Attribute An Assassination Attempt Against Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s To Republican Rhetoric. During a Fox News townhall, Vance reportedly argued that the attempted assassination of Nancy Pelosi in November 2022 – in which an extremist broke into her San Francisco home and attacked her husband with a hammer – was not reflective of Republicans, but instead reflective of people living in the country illegally.
Reaction to Trump’s Criminal Proceedings
- Vance: Democrats “Invented A Felony” To Convict Trump. “This decision is a disgrace to the rule of law and our Constitution. Dems invented a felony to “get Trump,” with the help of a Soros funded prosecutor and a Biden donor Judge, who rigged the entire case to get this outcome. This isn’t justice, it’s election interference.” [J.D. Vance, X, 5/30/24]
- Vance Threatened To Hold All Future DOJ Nominees In Retaliation For Trump’s Indictment and Arrest. Just minutes after Trump was officially arrested by federal law enforcement officials, Vance released a video announcing plans to place on hold all Biden administration nominees for the Justice Department: “If Merrick Garland wants to use these officials to harass Joe Biden’s political opponents, we will grind his department to a halt.”
- Vance: “We Will Grind The DOJ To A Halt” In Retaliation For Trump’s Criminal Investigations. “If Merrick Garland wants to use these officials to harass Joe Biden’s political opponents, we will grind his department to a halt.” [J.D. Vance, X, 6/13/23, VIDEO]