Host George Stephanopoulos cut Sen. J.D. Vance's mic after verbal sparring on ABC News' "This Week," including Vance defending former President Donald Trump against what Vance argued were Trump's constitutional rights amid political prosecutions, judgments, and juries in "left-wing jurisdictions."
"If you actually look at so many of the court cases against Donald Trump, George, this is not about prosecuting Trump for something that he did," the Ohio Republican told former President Bill Clinton's senior adviser in an interview that ended abruptly. "It's about throwing him off the ballot because Democrats feel that they can't beat him at the ballot box, and so they're trying to defeat them in court.
"This case, like so many legal cases against Donald Trump, they're trumped up. They're in extremely left-wing jurisdictions or it's actually the Biden administration prosecuting his chief political rival."
Stephanopoulos began the interview attempting to pin down Vance on not supporting victims of sexual assault, stemming from the $83.3 million ruling against Trump in the second E. Jean Carroll trial.
"I think most Americans recognize that this is not what we want to fight the 2024 election over," Vance continued. "Let's fight it over issues. Let's fight it over how to redeliver prosperity to the American worker and peace to the world at large, not over these ridiculous court cases that, frankly, they've been throwing at Trump for well before he became a political candidate.
"And they're going to be going after him for a long time because his agenda is actually a threat to the people who have been calling the shots in this country for far too long."
Stephanopoulos attempted to turn focus to Carroll's allegations, but Vance did not bite.
"These are juries, George, in extremely left-wing jurisdictions," Vance added. "These are cases that are very often funded by left-wing donors, and they're cases that are funded explicitly to harm him politically — not to seek justice for any particular group of individuals.
"George, if you look at all of these cases, the through line, twofold: No. 1, they're funded by Donald Trump's political opponents. And the goal here is not to help us actually have a real conversation about how to advance the country forward. Their goal is to defeat Trump at the courts because these people know they can’t defeat him at the ballot box."
President Joe Biden has attempted to rule Trump a "threat to democracy," while his operatives and supporters literally are trying to subvert democracy by blocking Americans' right to vote for or against him, Vance noted.
"So many of these people who say we're living in a world where there's a threat to democracy — Donald Trump or his supporters are threats to democracy — and yet they're using the courts to deny the American people from even having a choice," Vance said. "If you don't like Donald Trump, of course, you can vote against him. But you should at least have that choice. And it's telling that the people who talk about threats to democracy are trying to destroy the democratic process in this country.
"We've got to talk about the issues, George. There are so many crises happening all across the world. There are so many problems right here at home. I think Donald Trump is the best guy to fix those problems. And I think that we have a very, very good chance of persuading the American people.
"What they don't want to talk about is weird juries in New York City. They want to talk about how to make their lives better and how to bring the world to a more peaceful place."
Stephanopoulos attempted to seize on Vance's denying the rulings of the New York City jury where Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million for defamation.
"When the cases are funded by left-wing donors and when the case has absolute left-wing bias all over it, George, absolutely I think that we should call into question that particular conclusion," Vance said. "We have to remember, of course, that these cases exist not because they were trying to seek justice. Reid Hoffman, a far-left donor, did not fund this case because he cares about what happens to sexual assault victims.
"He funded this case to harm his political opponent, Donald Trump. It's pretty weird. It's a weird thing to do to use the courts in this way.
"It's never happened before in American history. And, yes, I think it should call into question the entire apparatus that's being used to go after Donald Trump."
Stephanopoulos then appeared to conflate Vance's defense of Trump against prosecution to Jan. 6, and again Vance fired back when asked if he would have certified the 2020 presidential election if he were vice president.
"Oh, George, this is such a ridiculous question, in part because the law has changed here," Vance said. "We, of course, had a major legal change in the Electoral Count Act."
Unfazed, Stephanopoulos continued to press Vance on a hypothetical on challenging the 2020 election.
"Here's what I think happened in 2020 — and I know you guys are obsessed with talking about this. I have to make a point here: You constantly say to people like me, 'Why do you talk about Jan. 6? Why do you talk about the election of 2020?' And then you ask about this multiple times during a six-minute interview," Vance continued.
"But, look, you asked the question, and I'll answer it.
"Do I think there were problems in 2020? Yes, I do.
"Do I think it was a problem that big technology companies, working with the intelligence services, censored the presidential campaign of Donald Trump? Yes.
"Do I think it's a problem that Pennsylvania changed its balloting rules in the middle of the election season in a way that even some courts in Pennsylvania have said was illegal? Yes, I think these were problems, George; and I think there is a political solution to those problems."
Trump's 2020 election challenge is protected by the Constitution, not a criminal violation, according to Vance.
"So litigating which slate of electors were legitimate, I think, is fundamentally the political solution to the problems that existed in 2020," he said. "It's a reasonable debate to have. And I find it weird, George, that people like you obsess with what I call 'what happened in 2020.' You're so incurious about what actually happened in 2020, which is why so many people mistrust our elections in this country. We've got to do better, George."
Stephanopoulos again turned back to the 2020 hypothetical, asking, "Would you have certified the election results had you been vice president?"
"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 U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there," Vance said. "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."
Stephanopoulos then suggested Vance, who was once an avowed "never Trumper" before siding with the former president, would have followed Trump's orders on rejecting the Electoral College vote in contested states — something then-Vice President Mike Pence said he would not do.
"George, it's not about what Donald Trump asks somebody to do," said Vance. "It's about, What do we do when you have a problem like what happened in 2020? How do you respond to it? How does the political system respond to this?
"You can't have a media apparatus that looks, for example, at the intelligence services working with technology companies to censor Americans and say, Well, we just can't deal with this. There's no solution to this problem.
"And by the way, George, I don't want to talk about this stuff because I think what happened in 2020 is far, far less important than what's happened since 2020: the wide-open southern border; the fentanyl crisis plaguing our communities; the inflation crisis that is making it hard for Americans to afford a good ,middle-class lifestyle. We need to litigate the 2024 election about those issues.
"You guys are obsessed with talking about 2020. I'm happy to answer the questions, but I think it's a disservice to the American people that you're so preoccupied with it."
After that exchange, Stephanopoulos attempted to pin Vance down on rejecting a hypothetical Supreme Court ruling, which ultimately ending in Vance's mic getting cut, as he was attempting to debate the ABC News host.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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