In an excerpt of an interview with The New York Times set to be published in full this weekend, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Republican nominee Donald Trump’s running mate, was given five opportunities to acknowledge that the former president lost to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

And all five times he declined to do so.

What You Need To Know

  • Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Republican nominee Donald Trump’s running mate, declined five times in an interview with The New York Times to acknowledge that the former president lost to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election

  • The first time, he repeated his comment from the vice presidential debate earlier this month that he’s “focused on the future” while charging that there is an “obsession” with the 2020 election"

  • At the vice presidential debate earlier this month, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ running mate, pressed Vance point blank about if Trump lost in 2020; the Ohio Republican dodged the question, and Walz called it a "damning non-answer"

  • Vance also said in the NYT interview that if he were in Congress, he would not have voted to certify the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021, another view he expressed previously; he did, however, “commit to a peaceful transfer of power

The first time, he repeated his comment from the vice presidential debate earlier this month that he’s “focused on the future” while charging that there is an “obsession” with the 2020 election.

“There’s an obsession here with focusing on 2020, I’m much more worried about what happened after 2020,” Vance told “The Interview” podcast host Lulu Garcia-Navarro when asked the first time, before accusing the Biden-Harris administration for rising costs and high encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Senator, yes or no, did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?” Garcia-Navarro followed up.

He deflected and posed one of his own about social media companies working to censor a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in the lead to the 2020 election. (In testimony before Congress in 20320, former Twitter executives acknowledged that they made mistakes in suppressing the story, but said there was no collusion with anyone in the government.)

“Sen. Vance, I’m going to ask you again, did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?” Garcia-Navarro asked a third time. He again deflected by asking about censorship from technology companies.

“Sen. Vance, I’m going to ask you again, did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?” Garcia-Navarro asked a fourth time.

“I’ve answered your question with another question,” Vance replied. “You answer my question and I’ll answer yours.”

When she posed the question a fifth time, Garcia-Navarro said that “there is no proof, legal or otherwise, that Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election.” Vance replied that she was “repeating a slogan.”

“I’m not worried about this slogan that people throw, ‘Well, every court case went this way,’” Vance added. “I’m talking about something very discrete — a problem of censorship in this country that I do think affected things in 2020.”

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, a statement backed up by officials in both parties, including Trump’s own Attorney General William Barr. Cases brought by Trump and his allies claiming fraud were rejected from courts nationwide, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Former President Donald Trump faces four felony charges brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith accusing him of working to subvert the 2020 election results, which prosecutors charge culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Trump has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.

The Harris campaign said in a statement that Trump "chose JD Vance to be his running mate for one reason and one reason only: He will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t and put Donald Trump over our Constitution."

Vance's "refusal to acknowledge the simple fact that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election is proof that if Trump wins, there will be no one left to check his worst instincts and stop him from gaining unprecedented, unchecked power to do whatever he wants and put our country at risk," said Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika.

At the vice presidential debate earlier this month, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ running mate, pressed Vance point blank about if Trump lost in 2020. The Ohio Republican dodged the question, saying instead he was “focused on the future.”

“That’s a damning non-answer,” Walz replied.

Vance again declined to answer the question at multiple events in the days since the debate.

Vance also said in the NYT interview that if he were in Congress, he would not have voted to certify the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021, another view he expressed previously. He did, however, “commit to a peaceful transfer of power.”

“I, of course, believe that the peaceful transfer of power is going to make Donald Trump the next president of the United States,” Vance continued, adding: “We’re going to make sure that this election counts, that every legal ballot is counted” before mentioning lawsuits filed by the Republican National Committee in an effort to “ensure election integrity.”