Vice President JD Vance called out “left-wing media” and Democrats, specifically naming Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-CA, for “encouraging crazy people to go and commit violence” in a speech in North Carolina Wednesday.
“The very people who keep us safe ought to be honored and protected and praised by Democrats and Republicans alike,” Vance said. “It is time to stop the rhetorical assault on law enforcement.”
Vance covered the Trump Administration’s fight against crime in Washington, D.C., and Charlie Kirk’s assassination earlier this month before addressing Wednesday’s shooting at the ICE facility in Dallas.
Vance said the shooting was politically motivated and was perpetrated by a “violent, left-wing extremist,” evidenced by the “anti-ICE” writing on a bullet and other information Vance said was not yet public.
Vance’s speech also referenced the NBC story that falsely accused ICE agents of using a 5-year-old girl as bait to arrest her father, as covered by The Federalist.
“Political violence has gotten out of control in this country. We’ve got to stop it. We’ve got to condemn it. And that starts, unfortunately, at the very top of the Democratic Party,” Vance said. “If you want to stop political violence, stop attacking our law enforcement as the Gestapo … stop telling your supporters that everybody who disagrees with you is a Nazi. If you want to stop political violence, look in the mirror.”
MSNBC has repeatedly characterized ICE agents as the “Gestapo,” and last week DHS published a press release calling for the “Media and Far Left to Stop the Demonization of President Trump, His Supporters, and DHS Law Enforcement,” claiming that the “hateful rhetoric is contributing to political violence in our country and a more than 1000% increase in assaults against our brave ICE law enforcement.”
Vance said that while “of course, both sides have crazy people … if you look at the political violence in our country over the last couple of months, the last couple of years, it is not a both sides problem. It is primarily on one side of the political aisle,” and called for “the Democratic leadership in Washington, D.C. to look in the mirror.”
Catherine Gripp is a graduate of Arizona Christian University where she earned a degree in communication and a minor in political science. She writes for The Federalist as a reporting intern.
