During an interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro for her podcast "The Interview" on Thursday, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance refused on several occasions to admit that his running mate, Donald Trump, lost the 2020 presidential elections. "There's an obsession here with focusing on 2020," he said at one point, dodging the line of questioning "I'm much more worried about what happened after 2020, which is a wide-open border, groceries that are unaffordable."
The discourse by Vance is part of a larger pattern by many GOP politicians who have repeatedly put into question Joe Biden's victory in 2020. The unfounded claims have also raised the stakes for the upcoming presidential elections, as the question of how Donald Trump would react to a potential Harris victory lingers.
On Tuesday, the former president refused to put those doubts to rest as during an interview at the Economic Club of Chicago, as he doubled down on claims that the 2020 elections were "crooked" and labeled the process "a peaceful transfer of power," as The Washington Post reports.
Speaking to an audience of mostly business people, the president for the most part focused on economic policies in a back and forth with Bloomberg News editor in chief John Micklethwait. But towards the end of the hour-long session, the focus shifted towards the January 6 insurrection in which Trump supporters, trying to stop the affirmation of Joe Biden's win, assaulted 140 police officers, damaged the Capitol and destroyed government property.
"The primary scene in Washington was hundreds of thousands ... and it was love and peace and some people went to the Capitol and a lot of strange things happened there," said Trump of the infamous incident, adding that he left the morning he was supposed to leave and that, in all, there was a "peaceful transfer of power."
Q: After January 6, will you commit now to respecting and encouraging a peaceful transfer of power?
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 15, 2024
Trump: You had a peaceful transfer of power
Host: You had a peaceful transfer of power compared with Venezuela
Trump: I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this interview
Host: The... pic.twitter.com/1zsqhy4GNQ
He also falsely stated that "about 5[00], 6[00] or 700" people went to the Capitol that day. More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes in the riot, ranging from misdemeanor offenses like trespassing to felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy in what has been deemed the largest criminal investigation in American history. Roughly 730 people have pleaded guilty to charges.
Throughout the interview, Trump continued to insist, without evidence, that the 2020 election was "crooked" and stolen. "If you think an election is crooked, and I do 100 percent, if you think the day it comes when you can protest, you take a look at the Democrats, they protested 2016," Trump said, veering off topic as he repeatedly did on questions throughout the event.
"We want to have honest elections," he concluded, failing to appease critics who wonder if he'll accept the results by the end of the current election cycle.
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