How JD Vance Has Disqualified Himself From Becoming Vice President - The New York Times
Posted on 10/01/2024
On Tuesday night, JD Vance will face Tim Walz in what is likely to be the only vice-presidential debate of the 2024 election. As American voters assess Mr. Vance, they should scrutinize whether he has demonstrated the fundamental fidelity to the Constitution that the office requires.
Before and after his selection as Donald Trump’s running mate, Mr. Vance said repeatedly that if he had been vice president on Jan. 6, 2021, he would have intervened in the electoral count in favor of President Trump.
Unlike Mike Pence, Mr. Vance has made clear that he is willing to cater to Mr. Trump’s obsession with the myth that his victory in the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and that on Jan. 6 Vice President Pence refused to exercise his constitutional powers to prevent that theft.
Unwavering commitment to those two lies served as critical qualifications for Mr. Vance to be selected as Mr. Trump’s running mate. In the 2024 election, that dedication must also disqualify Mr. Vance from ever holding the office he now seeks.
By saying he would have prevented Congress from counting the electoral votes that confirmed President Biden’s victory, Mr. Vance has admitted that he would have asserted an extra-constitutional power to abet Mr. Trump’s plot to remain in power. And he would have done so based on long-disproven conspiracy theories of fraud and illegality in the election that Mr. Trump legitimately and lawfully lost.
Even more chilling, Mr. Vance’s pledge about what he would have done in Mr. Pence’s place on Jan. 6, 2021, is a promise about what Mr. Vance will do on Jan. 6, 2029, should he preside over the electoral count as vice president. He is telling us more than four years in advance that if he is a candidate to be president himself, he would be willing to defy the courts and Congress to seize power regardless of the lawful outcome of the 2028 election.
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Before and after his selection as Donald Trump’s running mate, Mr. Vance said repeatedly that if he had been vice president on Jan. 6, 2021, he would have intervened in the electoral count in favor of President Trump.
Unlike Mike Pence, Mr. Vance has made clear that he is willing to cater to Mr. Trump’s obsession with the myth that his victory in the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and that on Jan. 6 Vice President Pence refused to exercise his constitutional powers to prevent that theft.
Unwavering commitment to those two lies served as critical qualifications for Mr. Vance to be selected as Mr. Trump’s running mate. In the 2024 election, that dedication must also disqualify Mr. Vance from ever holding the office he now seeks.
By saying he would have prevented Congress from counting the electoral votes that confirmed President Biden’s victory, Mr. Vance has admitted that he would have asserted an extra-constitutional power to abet Mr. Trump’s plot to remain in power. And he would have done so based on long-disproven conspiracy theories of fraud and illegality in the election that Mr. Trump legitimately and lawfully lost.
Even more chilling, Mr. Vance’s pledge about what he would have done in Mr. Pence’s place on Jan. 6, 2021, is a promise about what Mr. Vance will do on Jan. 6, 2029, should he preside over the electoral count as vice president. He is telling us more than four years in advance that if he is a candidate to be president himself, he would be willing to defy the courts and Congress to seize power regardless of the lawful outcome of the 2028 election.
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