参议员JD Vance周日为唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)作为前总统辩护面临一连串的法律问题在他重返白宫的竞选活动中。
在接受美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)“本周”(This Week)主持人乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯(George Stephanopoulos)的采访时，万斯也对他对2020年大选的看法加倍了。他说，选举结果不应该立即得到认证，他还建议特朗普应该无视美国最高法院的“非法”裁决。
斯蒂芬诺普洛斯问俄亥俄州共和党人万斯，他是否会按照宪法的要求和时任副总统迈克·彭斯的要求，以副总统身份认证2020年的选举结果。
万斯称这是一个“荒谬的问题”，并声称斯特凡诺普洛斯“沉迷于谈论这个问题”，但他接着表示，他希望看到2020年大选的认证以不同的方式进行。
“我认为2020年出现了问题吗?是的，我有，”他说，列举了一系列问题，包括社交媒体对一些有关亨特·拜登的内容的限制，以及在新冠肺炎疫情期间修改州选举法以适应健康问题。
他继续说:“如果我是副总统，我会告诉宾夕法尼亚州、佐治亚州和其他许多州，我们需要有多张选举人名单，我认为美国国会应该从那里开始争取。”“这是处理选举的合法方式，包括我在内的许多人认为2020年的选举存在很多问题。我认为这是我们应该做的。”
《宪法》对此没有这样的规定。目前还没有证实2020年选举中存在广泛欺诈的证据，选举结果得到了包括许多共和党人在内的全国各地地方官员的肯定。
斯特凡诺普洛斯还向万斯询问了2021年9月的一次播客采访。他在采访中表示，如果特朗普在2024年连任，他将建议前总统“解雇行政州的每一名中层官员和每一名公务员，用我们的人民取而代之”——如果法院试图阻止他，“就像安德鲁·杰克逊那样站在全国面前说:‘首席大法官已经做出了裁决。’现在让他来执行吧。"
“解雇政府中的所有人，然后违抗最高法院?你认为总统可以违抗最高法院吗?”斯特凡诺普洛斯问道。
万斯坚称他“没有说解雇政府中的每个人”，但斯特凡诺普洛斯反驳说，万斯在播客中说特朗普应该取代“行政州的每个公务员”。
然而，万斯继续说，“我们这里的一个主要问题是，政府中的行政人员和官僚对选举产生的部门不作出回应。...如果这些人不遵守规则，那么你当然必须解雇他们，当然，总统必须能够以他认为应该的方式管理政府。这就是宪法的运作方式。”
“宪法还规定总统必须遵守最高法院的合法裁决，不是吗?”斯特凡诺普洛斯按下。
“宪法规定最高法院可以做出裁决...但如果最高法院说美国总统不能解雇将军，那将是不合法的裁决，”万斯说。
万斯在华盛顿参议院银行、住房和城市事务委员会听证会上发言
汤姆·威廉姆斯/CQ通过新闻网点名，文件
万斯分别认为针对特朗普的民事和刑事案件带有偏见，包括纽约的一个陪审团裁定前总统应对性侵负责，另一个纽约陪审团裁定E. Jean Carroll获得8300万美元的诽谤赔偿金，该陪审团称她受到了特朗普的侵犯-这在反特朗普的广告中备受关注。
特朗普否认有不当行为，并誓言要上诉。
当万斯被要求回应支持特朗普意味着默许虐待者的说法时，他告诉斯特凡诺普洛斯:“我认为，当唐纳德·特朗普试图恢复繁荣时，选举他为总统以某种方式让他们的生活变得更糟，这实际上对性侵受害者非常不公平。”
“如果你真的看了这么多针对唐纳德·特朗普的法庭案件，乔治，这不是因为特朗普做了什么而起诉他。这是要把他从选票中剔除出去，因为民主党人觉得他们无法在投票箱中击败他。因此，他们试图在法庭上击败他，”万斯认为，尽管共和党人和非民主党人对特朗普提出了一些投诉。
“我认为大多数美国人都认识到，这不是我们想要在2024年大选中争取的。让我们为问题而战，”这位参议员补充说。
他试图驳回纽约陪审团的调查结果，称“极左司法管辖区”存在陪审团，并认为政治在一些指控中发挥了作用。
“因此，纽约市的陪审团在认定某人负有法律责任时是不合法的...诽谤和袭击?”斯特凡诺普洛斯问道。
万斯回答说:“乔治，当这些案件是由左翼捐赠者资助的时候，当这个案件充满了绝对的左翼偏见的时候，我绝对认为我们应该对这个特定的结论提出质疑。”
JD Vance says he's wouldn't have certified 2020 race until states submitted pro-Trump electors
Sen. JD Vance on Sunday defended Donald Trump as the former presidentfaces a litany of legal issuesamid his comeback campaign for the White House.
In a contentious interview with ABC News "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos, Vance -- a onetime Trump critic -- also doubled down on his views of the 2020 election, saying the results shouldn't have been immediately certified, and he went on to suggest Trump should ignore "illegitimate" U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
Vance, an Ohio Republican who has been floated in the media as a potential running mate for Trump, was asked by Stephanopoulos if he would have certified the 2020 election results as vice president, as required by the Constitution and as then-Vice President Mike Pence did.
Vance called it a "ridiculous question" and claimed Stephanopoulos was "obsessed with talking about this" but went on to say he would have liked to see the certification of the 2020 election handled differently.
"Do I think there were problems in 2020? Yes, I do," he said citing a list of issues, including social media restrictions on some content about Hunter Biden and changes in state election laws to accommodate for health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"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," he continued. "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."
The Constitution makes no such provisions for this. There has been no confirmed evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 race, and the results were affirmed by local officials across the country, including many Republicans.
Stephanopoulos also asked Vance about a September 2021 podcast interview where he said that if Trump is reelected in 2024, he would advise the former president to "fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people" -- and, if and when the courts tried to stop him, "stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did, and say, 'The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.'"
"Fire everyone in the government, then defy the Supreme Court? You think it's OK for the president to defy the Supreme Court?" Stephanopoulos asked.
Vance asserted that he "did not say fire everyone in government," but Stephanopoulos pushed back, repeating that Vance said in the podcast Trump should replace "every civil servant in the administrative state."
Vance, however, continued, arguing, "We have a major problem here with administrators and bureaucrats in the government who don't respond to the elected branches. ... If those people aren't following the rules, then of course you've got to fire them, and of course, the president has to be able to run the government as he thinks he should. That's the way the Constitution works."
"The Constitution also says the president must abide by legitimate Supreme Court rulings, doesn't it?" Stephanopoulos pressed.
"The Constitution says that 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," Vance said.
Vance separately cast the civil and criminal cases against Trump as biased, including a jury in New York finding the former president liable for sexual assault and another New York jury awarding $83 million in defamation damages to E. Jean Carroll, who says she was assaulted by Trump -- which has been spotlighted in anti-Trump advertising.
Trump denies wrongdoing and has vowed to appeal.
"I think it's actually very unfair to the victims of sexual assault to say that somehow their lives are being worse by electing Donald Trump for president when what he's trying to do, I think, is restore prosperity," Vance told Stephanopoulos when asked to respond to the argument that backing Trump meant tacitly supporting abusers.
"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. 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 him in court," Vance argued, though Republicans and non-Democrats have brought some of the complaints against Trump.
"I think most Americans recognize that this is not what we want to fight the 2024 election on. Let's fight it over issues," the senator added.
He sought to dismiss the findings of the New York juries, saying there are in "extremely left-wing jurisdictions" and contending that politics played a role in some of the accusations being brought.
"So juries in New York City are not legitimate when they find someone liable for ... defamation and assault?" Stephanopoulos asked.
"Well, 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 replied.
