J. D. Vance, Trump’s 2024 running mate, is a prolific liar. He falsely accused Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, of stealing and eating pets, which has caused real harm to innocent people (see story here); then he tried to justify this lie as “telling stories” to get media attention.
And he’s asserted, at least twice, there was a “peaceful transfer of power” in 2021; which, of course, there wasn’t. The first time he told this lie was during the Vance-Walz debate on October 2, 2024, when he said,
“Yeah, well, look, Tim, first of all, it’s really rich for Democratic leaders to say that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy when he peacefully gave over power on January the 20th, as we have done for 250 years in this country.”
(See story here.) Hello? Trump did not yield power peacefully. He incited the violent takeover of the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, as part of his broader efforts to overthrow the 2020 election. The Capitol riot was a unique event in American history, and a threat to our democracy.
Vance repeated this big lie again at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania when he told an audience of factory workers,
“Yes, there was a riot at the Capitol on January 6, but there was still a peaceful transfer of power in this country, and that is always going to happen.”
(See story here.) The Yale-educated lawyer is playing slick word games. He’s trying to say because there wasn’t violence at Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021, the transfer of power resulting from the 2020 election was peaceful.
But inaugurations don’t happen in isolation, they’re merely the culmination of an entire process of designating a president, and you can’t ignore what preceded administering the oath of office. Certifying the election was an integral part of the transfer of power, and that was anything but peaceful (photo below).
Political rhetoric is, in a way, a contract with voters. Ordinary Americans without legal training shouldn’t need to hire consumer protection lawyers to interpret it for them. Vance should save his verbal gymnastics for Silicon Valley business deals and speak to voters in plain, honest language.
