Exclusive — JD Vance on Democrats Ousting Joe Biden: ‘Insanely Anti-Democratic,’ ‘Quite Dark’ that Elites Have Such Power, Disregard for Voters

Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), the Republican nominee for vice president, told Breitbart News on Monday that Democrat elites ousting President Joe Biden as their party’s presidential nominee just over 100 days before the election is “insanely anti-democratic” and “quite dark.”

Vance, who was announced as GOP presidential nominee former President Donald Trump’s running mate at the Republican National Convention on July 15, said in a phone interview on Monday afternoon before his hometown rally in Middletown, Ohio, that Democrat elites are proving that Democrats are the true threat to democracy in America with this move.

“Whatever we think about Joe Biden — and I certainly don’t like him or like his policies — they effectively removed the president because he became a political liability, and they gave voters no choice in the outcome,” Vance told Breitbart News. “It’s actually quite dark if you think about it: A bunch of billionaires and Democratic politicians getting together in a room, deciding to deprive voters of the choice of who would be the nominee of the Democratic Party. It’s really anti-democratic, and it’s hysterical that after years of saying Republicans are the anti-democracy party, we actually ran a primary. President Trump won the trust and the confidence of Republican voters and the right to represent them on the national stage. Whoever the Democrats ultimately nominate, there is no democratic legitimacy because voters were not consulted. They were never given the opportunity to participate in this process, and I think it’s extraordinarily insulting to them and to everybody to think we could have somebody who has an approximately 50-50 chance of becoming president of the United States who voters have never weighed in on.”

Biden announced on Sunday afternoon he was dropping out of the presidential race after weeks of members of his own party pushing for him to do so in light of his abysmal debate performance against Trump in late June. Biden had won the Democrat nomination earlier in 2024, fending off weak challenges from Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and from author Marianne Williamson. More than 14 million Democrats voted for Biden, and their votes have been erased now with the push to get him out of the race. Vance said if Vice President Kamala Harris wanted to run for president in 2024, she should have run against Biden — and the same with anyone else, for that matter.

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Courtesy of CNN Presidential Debate

“It’s definitionally anti-democracy. If they wanted to run somebody else for president, they should have done what everybody else has to do: Advance a candidate, fundraise for that candidate, get the message out there, try to persuade voters to select that candidate. That is how our process actually works,” Vance told Breitbart News. “What they did instead is they got Barack Obama, George Clooney, and George Soros in a room and decided to toss Biden aside because he was a political liability and try to install somebody else. It’s an insanely elitist and anti-democratic process. I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this in the history of our Republic where they have identified a political weakness on the president then threw him aside without giving voters the opportunity to weigh in.”

When Breitbart News noted that Biden is still technically the president even though he stepped down as a candidate in November’s upcoming election, Vance replied that he is “in theory, right?”

Asked what he makes of Biden remaining the president but having no public events scheduled for the upcoming week, Vance said this whole thing is really “creepy.”

“It drives home how creepy it is that Biden hasn’t appeared, and he hasn’t spoken to the country,” Vance said. “He hasn’t shown any sign of life other than to announce that he’s not running for president, and, yeah, I think if you have a guy announce he cannot run for president, you should be asking questions about whether he can serve as president. Look, I don’t know what else you can say about it other than it’s extremely creepy; it’s the Democrat elites trying to control the country without giving voters a chance to decide, and I’m just insulted by that. I’m not a Democratic primary voter, obviously, but I think that if you actually respect voters and you respect the process we have, they should get to make these decisions — not George Soros, George Clooney, and Barack Obama sitting in a smoke-filled room.”

More from Vance’s latest interview with Breitbart News is forthcoming.