Farah Griffin: Vance leaning into 2020 election claims ‘should be disqualifying’

Former White House aide Alyssa Farah Griffin blasted Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Wednesday for leaning into former President Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen, saying it “should be disqualifying.”

Farah Griffin was asked to weigh in on the comments during a panel on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” after Vance suggested the former president did not lose the election “by the words that I would use.”

“It should be disqualifying,” Farah Griffin, a CNN contributor and co-host of ABC’s “The View,” told host Wolf Blitzer. “And, listen, it speaks to his character and his integrity. I don’t think there’s anyone on this panel who thinks that JD Vance legitimately believes that Donald Trump won the election and that Joe Biden lost it.”

She added that supporting election fraud claims has become a “litmus test” for Trump and his allies.

Vance’s comments mark some of his most extensive yet on the subject of the previous presidential election. The Republican vice presidential nominee was asked Wednesday during a campaign rally whether he believed his running mate lost to President Biden.

“I think there were serious problems in 2020,” he answered. “So did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use.”

In a recent New York Times interview, Vance repeatedly failed to say whether Trump lost. The Times’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro asked the Ohio Republican at least five times during a podcast about his view, and he refused to admit the results or answer the question fully.

Farah Griffin argued that Vance’s recent comments show he is passing the litmus test. She also invoked former Vice President Mike Pence, who faced scrutiny after certifying the 2020 election on the same day as the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, fracturing his relationship with Trump.

“There’s a reason my former boss, Mike Pence, is not on the ticket,” she said. “It’s because he held the line, he defended the Constitution and he certified 81 million American’s votes for Joe Biden, who won the election.”