PHILADELPHIA — Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance on Wednesday said at a rally in Pennsylvania that former President Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election as Trump has falsely claimed since contesting President Joe Biden’s victory four years ago.

On the campaign trail, Vance has repeatedly sidestepped directly answering questions from reporters about whether he believed Trump lost.

But at a rally Wednesday afternoon in Williamsport, Lycoming County, Vance said: “On the election of 2020, I’ve answered this question directly a million times: No. I think there are serious problems in 2020. So, did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use, OK?”

Vance continued: “I really couldn’t care less if you agree or disagree with me on this issue. And here’s the thing that I focus on. Because what the media will do, they’ll focus on the court cases, or they’ll focus on some crazy conspiracy theory. What I know, what verifiably I know happened, is that in 2020, large technology companies censored Americans from talking about things like the Hunter Biden laptop story. And that had a major, major consequence on the election.”

Though the Ohio senator declared Wednesday that he had already “answered this question directly a million times,” he actually had repeatedly refused to answer it.

Late last week, for example, Vance was asked five times in a video-recorded interview with the New York Times whether Trump lost the 2020 election, and Vance avoided answering.

In the final weeks before Election Day, both presidential campaigns have zeroed in on Pennsylvania, and Vance has been campaigning heavily in the must-win battleground state.

On Tuesday night, he spoke at a town hall in Lafayette Hill, Montgomery County. On Thursday afternoon, Vance is scheduled to deliver remarks at a downtown Pittsburgh hotel.

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