Top Takeaway: JD Vance Would Not Certify an Election Trump Lost

The most important takeaway from Tuesday night's vice-presidential candidate debate is that Sen. JD Vance would not certify an election that Trump lost.

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If we think back to the deadly terror of January 6th, 2021, we remember then President Donald Trump watching on TV as his sometimes armed supporters attacked police, broke into the U.S. Capitol, and continued forcing their way into the chambers with the intent of stopping the certification of the 2020 election, which Trump had decidedly lost. And he knew he lost, his election challenges.

Then Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said (and you can parse the details here, but this is the takeaway), “There were over 60 court cases where judges, including judges appointed by President Trump and other Republican presidents, looked at the evidence in many cases and said there is not widespread fraud."

We didn’t know if our democracy would hold as watched what Director Wray later called a domestic terrorist attack. Donald Trump did not call help for the besieged Capitol police. He and his daughter Ivanka and others in his circle watched on TV as the violence unfolded and they waited to be re-instated over the will of the people.

Many people helped save the day, but a key hero was also an unlikely hero: Donald Trump’s Vice President, Mike Pence. Pence saved the day, even though his life was at risk. If it weren’t for whatever conscience or fear Pence had about democracy or the law, Donald Trump might be living his dream as a dictator of the former United States right now.

So it’s noteworthy and disqualifying when Vance would not say that he would certify an election Trump lost. He would not be a Mike Pence, upholding democracy and the Constitution.

Vance was asked: “You have said you would not have certified the last presidential election and would've asked to the states to submit alternative electors. That has been called unconstitutional and illegal.”

And he waffled. He pivoted to saying he was focused on the future.

It was such a moment of demonstrating that Vance was unfit (and given that Donald Trump is an unhealthy 78, Vance as president needs to be considered) that at least one undecided voter was turned off to the point of deciding to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

An. undecided Michigan voter said, “I’m going to be voting for Kamala Harris. You know, one of the stark, sort of, aspects of that debate that really stuck with me was when they were talking about January 6 and how Mike Pence certified the election, and they were wondering if JD Vance would certify the election should Trump lose. And, you know, JD Vance didn’t really give us a definitive answer. And I– I’m disappointed in that fact. And I don’t think that I can trust someone, you know, with my vote if they’re not going to respect it.”

There are two other key takeaways in terms of how voters will see the debate