On Wednesday, JD Vance continued to criticize Democrats and left-wing supporters for encouraging political violence, referencing the recent attack on ICE agents in Dallas as the latest instance of intolerable actions by his political adversaries.
The vice-president attributed the shooting that occurred on Wednesday to a violent individual with left-wing extremist views, pointing to evidence indicating that the suspected gunman had written anti-ICE slogans on their ammunition.
Speaking in Concord, North Carolina, amidst a backdrop of police vehicles and various law enforcement agencies, Vance accused the left of increasing the frequency of assaults on public officials.
The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed that shell casings with anti-ICE inscriptions were found, and the FBI is treating the incident as a politically motivated attack.
Vance also cited evidence ‘that was not yet public’ but reassured the audience that the alleged shooter was ‘politically motivated.’
‘To end political violence, we must cease branding our law enforcement as the Gestapo,’ he urged, reminding the audience that the left similarly labeled Trump supporters as ‘Nazis.’
But critics were quick to note that it was Vance himself who once likened Trump to Hitler.
‘The difference between me and JD Vance is that I’ve never called Trump Hitler,’ posted Michael Freeman on X.
JD Vance speaks at Concord-Padgett Regional Airport in North Carolina on Wednesday
Law enforcement gather at a stating area close to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office after a reported shooting, in Dallas
In private messages from 2016, Vance had referred to his future running mate as ‘America’s Hitler,’ voicing his significant reservations about Trump’s character and leadership; however, he later retracted those comments before his Senate campaign in Ohio.
Those characterizations seemed far from Vance’s mind on the stump in North Carolina on Wednesday.
‘If you want stop political violence,’ the vice president implored, ‘stop telling your supporters that everybody who disagrees with you is a Nazi.’
Vance blamed top Democratic leaders for pursuing ‘rhetorical assault’ on law enforcement since 2020, making it more dangerous for them to police the streets.
He also singled out California Governor Gavin Newsom for referring to the Trump administration and federal immigration officials as part of an ‘authoritarian government’ which was encouraging ‘crazy’ people to commit violence.
‘If your political rhetoric encourages violence against our law enforcement you can go straight to hell,’ he said angrily.
Vance opened his remarks by condemning the assassination of his friend and activist Charlie Kirk, which he argued was just one more example of the unacceptable rhetoric from the political left that was inspiring violent actions.
He acknowledged that there were ‘crazy’ people on both sides of the political aisle, but that recent high-profile attacks were coming from the far left.
The vice-president reacts to the crowd as he arrives to speak about tax cuts and support for law enforcement
This morning just before 7am local time, an individual fired multiple rounds at a Dallas, Texas ICE facility
‘It is not a both sides problem, it is primarily on one side of the political aisle,’ he said,
The vice-president also repeated his promise to prosecute organizations funding unrest and political violence in reaction to the Trump adminstration’s polices.
‘The Trump administration is going to do everything that we can to dismantle the networks, to destroy the funding, to make it harder for people to kill one another just because they disagree with what someone says,’ he said.
The vice-president also referred to the widely publicized murder of a 22-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina last month, just a short distance from the site of his speech.
He defended law enforcement officials in the city for doing their job, noting that the alleged murderer had previously been arrested 14 times but was still in the streets, thanks to weak laws in the city.
‘Because of soft on crime policies, she was murdered here, not in the war torn country she was from,’ he said.
The vice-president joined other North Carolina Republicans at the rally standing up for police and against violent crime. He praised state legislatures for passing a bill to send to the Democratic governor of the state’s desk.
‘The governor’s got to sign it,’ he said.
