“Jan. 6 Was Not Facebook Ads”: Cordial VP Debate Gets Testy Over Trump’s 2020 Election Lies

At Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate in New York, Democratic candidate Tim Walz harshly challenged J.D. Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate on the Republican ticket, after the latter chalked the former president’s ongoing arguments that the 2020 election was rigged against him as healthy political debate. Vance also compared his refusal to accept the election results to Hillary Clinton’s accusations involving Russia buying ads promoting Trump’s candidacy. 

“Jan. 6 was not Facebook ads,” Walz replied to Vance’s assertion that Trump’s rhetoric and actions around his 2020 election loss are comparable to Clinton’s statement around the 2016 race and Vladimir Putin’s ad buys for Trump. “[The Jan. 6 Capitol attack] was a threat to our democracy in a way that we had not seen, and it manifested itself because of Donald Trump’s inability to say… he is still saying he didn’t lose the election.”

In addition to refusing to accept the results and conceding the race since the 2020 election was called for President Joe Biden, Trump has also been indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The charges include conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, conspiracy against the rights of citizens and obstruction of an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding. The falsehoods Trump has espoused about the 2020 election have cost the U.S. over half a billion dollars in legal fees from lawsuits, security and repairing the Capitol, according to a Washington Post report in 2021.

At the debate, which had been spirited and policy-centered among the candidates, who were remarkably civil and even at times agreed with each other, Vance was questioned as to whether he would seek to challenge this year’s election results, which he did not answer and instead, told CBS’ moderators that he prefers to speak about the future. He then alluded to the Biden administration and censorship, presumably referring to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s statements that he regrets allowing the Biden administration to pressure him to remove posts about COVID-19 during the pandemic. 

“I believe that we actually do have a threat to democracy in this country, but unfortunately, it’s not the threat to democracy that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want to talk about,” Vance said. “It is the threat of censorship. It’s Americans casting aside lifelong friendships because of disagreements over politics. It’s big technology companies silencing their fellow citizens, and it’s Kamala Harris saying that, rather than debate and persuade her fellow Americans, she’d like to censor people to engage in misinformation.”

Responding, Walz mentioned the death that the riot, which took place among Trump supporters, caused at the Capitol and how it spawned further threats of violence in his state. 

“I don’t think we can be the frog in the pot and let the boiling water go up,” Walz said. “He was very clear. He lost this election, and he said he didn’t. 140 police officers were beaten at the Capitol that day, some with the American flag. Several later died, and it wasn’t just there. In Minnesota, a group gathered on the State Capitol grounds in Saint Paul [Minnesota] and said, ‘We’re marching to the governor’s residence, and there may be casualties.’”

Walz later brought up the fact that Trump’s attempts to overthrow the results of the 2020 election and the subsequent actions of Vice President Mike Pence were ultimately the very reason that Vance was standing across from him on Tuesday night. 

“When Mike Pence made the decision to certify that election, that’s why Mike Pence isn’t on this stage,” Walz said. “What I’m concerned about is: where is the firewall with Donald Trump? If he knows he could do anything, including taking an election and his vice president’s not going to stand to it, that’s what we’re asking you, America: will you stand by your oath of office, even if the President doesn’t?”