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Why do you think it's a blunder? This is the classic politician move, if you're asked about a losing issue, just deflect. It sounds bad, but it's less bad than actually addressing the question. There's a reason they all do it. It distracts, it muddies the waters a bit. My opponent's asking me this ridiculous question to distract from Border Czar Harris's invasion of migrant criminals and nation-destroying inflation et cetera.
Assuming he can't say "yes" because Trump won't let him, what else should he say?
The real blunder is that Trump won't just shut up about the election and let Vance say he'd certify. People who care about Trump saying the election is rigged are voting for him anyway. There's no harm in just lying here.* I have to imagine Trump and the people around him really believe it!
* obviously it's bad and corrosive but i'm taking the perspective of political strategy here, and they all lie (sorry, strategically take positions) anyway
That’s an acceptable interpretation.
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Yes, I think this is a correct take. From Vance's own perspective, he did the right thing - deflect, avoid, pivot. The question he was given cannot be safely answered. He knows his opponents will try to pin him on it (Walz tried at the VP debate as well), and he's clearly got a couple of deflections memorised. The correct move is to try to distract, maybe go on the offensive if possible, and then just get past it and return to stronger terrain for himself.
The is a blunder here, but the blunder is not Vance's, but Trump's. I'm sure that Vance could take a much stronger line on elections, democracy, and fairness if he weren't handicapped by being Trump's running mate. Unfortunately, he is.
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I think it's bad that we have a political class we can tell are lying because that's what they do, but yeah, he's a politician and his mouth is moving.
I'm actually vaguely curious why "Biden was appointed President on January 20th, 2021" isn't the goto approach. Maybe it polls badly, maybe there's some obvious counter I'm missing, maybe MAGA doesn't like it, maybe they just don't remember the appointed-not-elected chants of 2000 and 2004, but it seems kinda an obvious dodge that doesn't concede anything people care about, while 'answering'. Maybe Vance and company want the easy question to keep getting repeated?
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