Political Violence Is ‘Not a Both-Sides Problem,’ Says JD Vance
To wrap up Monday’s episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Vice President J.D. Vance engaged in some of the “righteous anger” that Stephen Miller had recommended. While the vice president and his wife were comforting Kirk’s widow, he said, people were “dancing on [Kirk’s] grave.”
Specifically, Vance called out a “hack of a writer” at The Nation, saying she “lied about a dead man.” Two days after Kirk was assassinated, the progressive publication published a piece titled “Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning.” In it, Elizabeth Spiers wrote, “[Kirk] was an unrepentant racist, transphobe, homophobe, and misogynist who often wrapped his bigotry in Bible verses because there was no other way to pretend that it was morally correct. He had children, as do many vile people.”
Vance slammed the “liberal billionaires” and “well-funded institutions of the left” for their “soulless and evil…dishonesty” about Kirk. But he praised the Democratic friends and colleagues who reached out to offer condolences.
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Referencing Psalm 133, the VP said that since Kirk’s death, he has craved the “precious ointment” of dwelling in unity. “But first we must tell the truth,” Vance said. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is “the most important truth Charlie told,” he noted, and “all the truth he told flowed from that fundamental principle.”
To truly unite, Vance said, Americans must face the “difficult truths” from a recent YouGov poll. It found that 24% of “very liberal” people believe it’s acceptable to be happy about a political opponent’s death, while only 3% of “very conservative” people agree with that statement. In addition, Vance said, 26% of young liberals believe political violence is sometimes justified, while only 7% of young conservatives agree with that.
Any number is too high, Vance conceded. “But the data is clear: People on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence. This is not a both-sides problem. If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and [more] malignant problem…[which] has terrible consequences.”
Vance mentioned the 2024 assassination attempts against then-presidential candidate Trump and the 2017 shooting of Congressional leader Steve Scalise, also a Republican. He did not mention the June 2025 murders of Minnesota Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark.
The vice president recalled being verbally harassed while at Disneyland with his children. “Something has gone very wrong with a lunatic fringe, a minority, but a growing and powerful minority on the far left,” he told listeners. “There is no unity with people who scream at children over their parents’ politics. There is no unity with someone who lies about what Charlie Kirk said in order to excuse his murder.”
“There is no unity with the people who celebrate Charlie Kirk’s assassination,” Vance said.
Vance is “desperate for our country to be united in condemnation of the actions and the ideas that killed my friend,” he said. While governmental institutions work to “dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country,” he said, citizens can help by calling out anyone who celebrates Kirk’s murder. “Hell, call their employer,” he added.
Vance also urged listeners to start chapters of Turning Point USA and to shine “the light of truth like a torch in the very darkest places.” He concluded by saying, “St. Paul tells us in the book of Ephesians to put on the full armor of God. Let all of us put on that armor and commit ourselves to that cause for which Charlie gave his life, to rebuild a United States of America, and to do it by telling the truth.”
