JD Vance reiterates support for Trump while blasting Democrats for focusing on past

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) brushed off comments that a second Donald Trump presidency would be a “dictatorship,” stating that Democrats are focusing too much on the past because they “don’t have much to run on.”

“The idea that Trump is going to be radically different than what he was four years ago is just preposterous. He was an effective, successful president. I think he will be an effective, successful president again; that’s why I have endorsed him,” Vance said in a Sunday interview with CNN’s State of the Union. “And I think this desire to make the election all about the past is indicative of the fact that Democrats don’t have much to run on — I think Republicans do.”

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In a town hall with Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday evening, Trump raised more alarms after saying he wouldn’t be a dictator “other than Day One.”

Biden’s campaign quickly seized on Trump’s comments that evening, with campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez saying in a statement that “Donald Trump has been telling us exactly what he will do if he’s reelected and tonight he said he will be a dictator on day one. Americans should believe him.”

President Joe Biden also mocked Trump’s “Day One” comments during a fundraiser in Los Angeles on Friday, quipping, “Thank God, only one day.”

Worries about a Trump primary and general election win in 2024 have been raised by former Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who was vice chairwoman of the House Select Committee investigating the riots at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Cheney has said the United States would be “sleepwalking into a dictatorship” with Trump as the GOP’s nominee, urging people to take the former president’s comments “literally and seriously.”

However, Vance and other Trump allies have pushed back against the claims that Trump will install an authoritarian regime, claiming that the former president’s approach to the presidency will be similar to his work from 2016 to 2020.

“The guy was president for four years. We had peace, we had prosperity, we had wages rising faster than inflation,” Vance said Sunday. “Joe Biden has been president for three years now; the average Ohio family pays $10,000 more to afford the same standard of living.”

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He said Cheney is “clearly obsessed with 2020,” and Trump wants to “talk about the future,” despite CNN’s Jake Tapper pointing to several campaign messages and instances where Trump continues to promote debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

“He’s campaigning on re-delivering peace and prosperity for the American people,” the Ohio Republican said. “Now, if you want to talk about the 2020 election, we can have that conversation. But I want to talk about — I think President Trump wants to talk about the future. That’s what this election is going to be decided on. That’s what I’m focused on.”