As seemingly slick as J.D. Vance can be on camera, questions about January 6 are his kryptonite. We saw this in the vice presidential debate, and now we’ve seen it in an interview with the New York Times’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro: he simply refuses to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, which in turn inexorably makes him an apologist for insurrection. Hemmed in by his need to stay in the good graces of Donald Trump, and by his own apparent decision to embrace the notion that the attempt to overthrow the government was indeed a good and righteous act, he ends up exposing his untenable position. He supports the former president’s attempt to subvert the election and our democracy, and, crucially, had he been vice president instead of Pence, he would have used his ceremonial role in the certification of electoral votes to deny Joe Biden the presidency. Should he become vice president in the future, Vance’s loyalty would not be not to American democracy but to a dangerous authoritarian.

For a variety of reasons — cowardice, bad judgment, a misreading of polling — the Democrats have not pressed Trump’s attempt to end American democracy after the 2020 election with anything near the ferocity and consistency his unforgivable actions require. But as we’ve now seen, J.D. Vance can’t help but draw attention to the fundamental anti-American lawlessness of Trump and this latest GOP presidential ticket. Democrats should use this obvious opening to ensure Trump’s coup attempt is part of the national conversation in the closing weeks of this election.