Live updates: J.D. Vance says 2020 election was rigged

Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio falsely suggested on Saturday that the 2020 election had been “rigged”. The Republican vice-presidential candidate has faced renewed questions about the 2020 election since refusing at last month’s debate to acknowledge that former president Donald Trump lost.

“I think the election of 2020 had serious problems,” Vance said at a campaign event in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. “You want to call it rigged. Call it whatever you want to, it wasn’t OK.”

Vance was asked five times in an interview with The New York Times this week whether Trump lost the 2020 election, and he declined to answer each time.

Taking questions from reporters at a rally at a factory for military vehicles in Johnstown, Vance again refused to acknowledge his running mate’s defeat and downplayed the severity of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol even as he condemned it.

“Yes, there was a riot at the Capitol on January 6, but there was still a peaceful transfer of power in this country,” Vance said, describing the rioters as “a few knuckleheads who went off and did something they shouldn’t do”.