“Yesterday, JD Vance claimed that Trump could defy rulings of the Supreme Court as President. Vance also admitted he would have done what VP Pence refused to do on January 6th — help Trump illegally seize power. That’s tyranny. Neither Trump nor Vance is fit to serve,” Cheney posted to X on Monday.
Vance responded on Tuesday to reporters at the U.S. Capitol about the broadcast and Cheney’s post, according to quotes provided by his office.
“I would not have done anything unconstitutional. What I said on This Week and what I’ve always said is that there actually has to be a political solution to some of these debates on January 6th — that’s what I’ve said and I don’t think that’s inconsistent with the constitution,” Vance said.
“I think Liz Cheney is clearly missing her 15 minutes of fame. I’m not surprised that she tries to inject herself into the public discourse at my expense, but I mean, look, nobody cares what she thinks. She lost by forty points,” Vance said.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump, the Republican front-runner for the 2024 presidential election, still contends that the 2020 election was stolen from him. But there is no evidence of that, and rulings in more than 60 court cases rejected Trump and others’ efforts to overturn Biden’s win of both the popular and Electoral College votes.
Trump pleaded not guilty to pending criminal charges in federal and Georgia state courts on allegations involving his efforts to overturn the election. Both indictments, and cases in other states, include allegations that the Trump campaign or others tried to produce fraudulent lists of Trump electors to send to Congress for the Jan. 6, 2021 election certification vote on Biden’s Electoral College win.
On Tuesday the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected Trump’s assertion of broad immunity from prosecution for acts committed when he was president.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Vance, who was endorsed by Trump, elected in 2022 and has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Trump this year, told Stephanopoulos that he believed there were problems with the 2020 election. Vance alleged that big technology companies worked with the Trump administration’s intelligence services to “censor” Trump’s campaign in 2020 and he criticized Pennsylvania’s election procedure changes 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 U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there,” Vance said during his Sunday interview.
Vance’s comments about the Supreme Court came after Stephanopoulos asked him about remarks Vance made in a September 2021 podcast about his advice to Trump.
“Fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people,” Vance said in audio of the Jack Murphy Live Podcast. “And then when the courts stop you, stand before the country, like Andrew Jackson did and say, ‘The chief justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it.’”
Stephanopoulos asked if Vance believed it was OK to defy the Supreme Court.
Vance said the Constitution says the Supreme Court can make rulings.
“But if the Supreme Court said the president of the United States can’t fire a general, that would be an illegitimate ruling, and the president has to have Article II prerogative under the Constitution to actually run the military as he sees fit,” Vance said.
Follow @LynnHulseyDDN on Facebook, Instagram and X.
About the Author
