We’ve gotten used to ignoring Donald Trump’s verbal assaults on American democracy. When he threatens to “ terminate ” parts of the Constitution or to use military tribunals to punish his political opponents, we all chuckle and say, “Oh, that’s just Donald!” as if the former president were a harmless, conspiracy-minded drunk uncle at Thanksgiving.
But JD Vance is something different.
Trump’s running mate is intelligent, articulate and, as a Yale-trained lawyer , he doesn’t just shoot his mouth off. He knows exactly what he’s saying, and why. In short, you can take everything Vance says both literally and seriously.
And last Saturday, he said something that everyone needs to listen to, whether you are a Republican or a Democrat.
In an interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro of the New York Times, Vance once again refused to admit that Trump lost the presidency in 2020. Instead, the Ohio senator raised concerns about how the Hunter Biden laptop story had been handled in the runup to the that election. When asked if he would have certified the results of the 2020 election, he said no .
“Is it OK that big technology companies censored the Hunter Biden laptop story which independent analysis said cost Donald Trump millions of votes?…I’ve said that I would have voted against certification because of the concern that I just raised.”
Stop for a second and process what Vance is telling us. This no longer has anything to do with voter fraud, even imaginary voter fraud . He is saying that he would refuse to certify a presidential election if he believes the press treated his preferred candidate unfairly.
Vance isn’t some random lawmaker who can indulge in political grandstanding without doing a lot of damage. He aspires to be the vice president, which means one of his constitutional duties would be presiding over the counting of the electoral votes in January 2029.
Vance is telling us, without mincing words, that he will flat-out refuse to accept any election result that he, personally, doesn’t think fair. And in Trump’s world, there’s no such thing as a fair election if you don’t win.
Keep in mind that there’s every possibility Vance himself will be the Republican nominee in 2028 — he may well be presiding over what should be his own defeat.
The best possible spin you can put on this is that Vance is willing to replace rule of law and constitutional order with his own judgment. Vance wants to create a government of men, not of laws. He is looking us in the eye and saying, “Elect me and I’ll do everything I can to make sure my side always wins, no matter what. Are we good?”
Are we good? If Trump wins, both he and Vance will claim they have a mandate to do all the awful things they are always talking about on the campaign trail.
Using the military to round up “the enemy within?” Check . Try his political enemies for treason? Check . Use the Department of Justice to blackmail tech companies into doing what he wants? Check . Prosecute “lawyers, political operatives and donors” who try to keep him from winning the 2024 election? Check . Gut the civil service and eliminate what’s left of the guardrails of democracy so that nothing stands in his way as president? Check .
What’s worse, the Supreme Court says that, if he’s elected president, Donald Trump can do all of this without fear of prosecution . Of course, now that JD Vance is promising to make sure that his side never loses, presidential immunity isn’t looking like as big of an issue as it once did.
To misquote Maya Angelou, when someone tells you what they are going to do, believe them. Donald Trump and JD Vance have told us they are going to ignore their oath, ignore the constitution, and ignore the rule of law. If Trump has his way, it won’t even be a government of men, it will be a government of one man: Donald Trump.
JD Vance is asking us to elect him to the one position in America where he could plausibly try to overturn the results of the presidential election in 2028 — an election in which he’ll likely be a candidate. In November, make sure you know what you are voting for and why. Because you might not get a second chance.
Chris Truax is an appellate attorney who served as Southern California chair for John McCain’s primary campaign in 2008.
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