Giving a fury-filled speech in North Carolina, Vice President JD Vance went nuclear on the “left-wing media” and Democrats, particularly California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), of lying about the good work done by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, alleging that those lies lead to political violence like the deadly shooting at an ICE facility in Texas.
For reference, both the Vice President’s speech and the shooting occurred on Wednesday, September 24. While the shooter hit three ICE detainees, one of whom was killed, no ICE agents were harmed. That appears to have been a mistake rather than intentional, however, as anti-ICE slogans were found on the ammunition used by the shooter, who appears to have been a leftist radical who tried to target ICE.
So, VP Vance, going nuclear on what happened and who encouraged it, declared that the leftist rhetoric spouted by Democrats like Gavin Newsom is responsible for these attacks. He began, “Here is what happens when Democrats, like Gavin Newsom did, say that these people are part of an authoritarian government.”
Continuing, and blaming the media as well for what it has falsely claimed about the administration and ICE, “When the left-wing media lies about what they’re doing, when they lie about who they’re arresting, when they lie about the actual job of law enforcement, what they’re doing is encouraging crazy people to go and commit violence.”
Further, VP Vance noted, in reference to a California bill that forces law enforcement agents not to wear identity-protecting masks when on duty, that this sort of attack is exactly what those legislators involved with the bill, such as Gov. Newsom, wanted out of it. He snapped, “When democratic politicians encourage doxing, when they encourage us to unmask ICE enforcement officers, what do you think is going to happen?”
Still not done, Vance added that though he finds their remarks reprehensible, he isn’t expecting applause-filled support from every member of every state government on the immigration issue, “You don’t have to agree with my immigration policies, you don’t have to agree with Donald Trump’s immigration policies.”
However, he concluded, he is expecting them not to rile up their client groups into trying to attack and kill federal agents, as has now happened multiple times thanks to their rhetoric. He said, “But if your political rhetoric encourages violence against our law enforcement, you can go straight to hell and you have no place in the political conversation of the United States of America.”
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Watch him here:
Governor Newsom tried to respond in a petulant quote-tweet of a post about VP Vance’s speech on X, snapping that he feels like he’s in hell when he listens to Vance speak. He said, “No thanks, JD. I will not be going ‘straight to hell’ today. Though when I watch you speak I certainly feel like I’m already there.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video