Emily J. Higgins
· Public domain
Entry openedJan 2025
Last updatedOct 2026
Documented items4
Primary sources7
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Ultimately Responsible
J.D. Vance
Vice President of the United States, 2025–
Sworn in on January 20, 2025 as the 50th Vice President of the United States. Previously United States Senator for Ohio, 2023–2025. He has not said the 2020 election was stolen, and asked directly whether Trump lost it he has declined to answer; he has said the election "had a lot of problems". He has called January 6 "a bad day" and "a riot", and has said those who committed violence that day should not be pardoned. What is recorded below is what he has done and said on the record: the refusal, the treatment of those prosecuted, and his conduct in office.
Documented conduct
Feb 28, 2025
The Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy
Opened the confrontation with the Ukrainian president in front of the press, telling him: "I think it's disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media," and pressing him with "Have you said thank you once?" and "Just say thank you." The remainder of the visit was cancelled and the minerals agreement went unsigned.
Source: PBS NewsHour, February 28 2025
Oct 1, 2024
Refused to say the 2020 election was lost
Asked directly at the vice-presidential debate, "Did he lose the 2020 election?", he answered: "Tim, I'm focused on the future," and turned to another subject. His opponent called it "a damning non-answer." Eight months earlier, on ABC's This Week, he had said: "If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there."
Source: NBC News, October 1 2024; ABC News, This Week, February 4 2024
May 1, 2024
Dismissed the danger to the Vice President
Said on CNN's The Source, asked about the treatment of Mike Pence: "I'm truly skeptical that Mike Pence's life was ever in danger. I think politics and politics people like to really exaggerate things from time to time." Rioters in the Capitol that day chanted "Hang Mike Pence" while the Vice President was inside presiding over the count.
Source: The Hill, May 1 2024
2022
Called those prosecuted over the attack political prisoners
Wrote that "it is an insult to all of us that so many people are rotting in prison without being offered a speedy trial. These people are political prisoners," and argued that the real assault on democracy was their imprisonment rather than the attack on the Capitol. On January 12, 2025, after taking office, he said on Fox News Sunday that those who "committed violence on that day, obviously" should not be pardoned.
Source: PBS NewsHour; NBC News, January 12 2025