Vice President J.D. Vance condemned Wednesday’s fatal shooting at an ICE facility in Texas, calling it a politically motivated act of violence.
The vice president urged Democratic leaders to tone down what he described as incendiary rhetoric surrounding the administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
Speaking in North Carolina on Wednesday, Mr. Vance described the shooter as a “violent left-wing extremist,” citing “anti-ICE messaging on their bullets” as evidence of political intent. He said additional details pointing to political motivation have not yet been made public.
“We know this person was politically motivated,” Mr. Vance said. “Motivated to go after law enforcement. Motivated to target those enforcing our border.”
He said, “It’s time to end the rhetorical assault on law enforcement.”
Mr. Vance accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and left-leaning media outlets of fueling hostility by portraying immigration officers as agents of an “authoritarian government” and spreading falsehoods about law enforcement.
“What they’re doing is encouraging unstable individuals to commit acts of violence,” he said. “You don’t have to agree with Donald Trump’s immigration policies, but if your political rhetoric incites violence against law enforcement, you can go straight to hell.”
Wednesday’s attack came just two days after a social media post from Mr. Newsom’s office that said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was “going to have a bad day today. You’re welcome, America.”
Ms. Noem called the post “menacing.”
“Well, it was cryptic; it was really menacing. It immediately panicked my family and friends within a couple of minutes of that being posted. When you get a post like that by a governor, immediately my staff and family think, what is going on? What does he mean?” Ms. Noem said on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
“This reads like a threat. This is ugly, @GavinNewsom,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X.
Mr. Newsom’s office defended its post, saying Mr. Trump made a similar remark on March 10, 2020, toward Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders when six states held presidential primaries or caucuses that Mr. Sanders, then a Democratic presidential candidate, was competing in.
Mr. Vance’s remarks came just hours after a gunman opened fire at an ICE facility in Dallas, killing one detainee and critically injuring two others.
The attacker died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities reported finding an anti-ICE message scrawled in large blue block letters on one of the bullet casings.
The Dallas shooting follows an attack on Sept. 10 in which Charlie Kirk, a Christian conservative activist and Trump ally, was shot to death while speaking at Utah Valley University.
President Trump has blamed the attacks on radical left-wing groups and pledged to crack down on organizations his administration believes promote political violence.
Echoing that stance, Mr. Vance said Wednesday that the surge in politically motivated attacks is linked to “an entire network of left-wing organizations that encourage, promote, and excuse violence.”
He vowed action.
“Here’s my sacred obligation — to law enforcement and to every American, uniformed or not — over the next few years, the Trump administration will do everything in its power to dismantle these networks, cut off their funding, and make it harder for people to kill each other over political disagreements,” Mr. Vance said.
While acknowledging that “crazy people” exist on both sides of the political spectrum, Mr. Vance said the recent wave of violence is overwhelmingly driven by the left.
“This is not a ’both sides’ problem,” he said. “It’s primarily coming from one side of the aisle. If we’re serious about ending political violence, Democratic leaders in Washington need to look in the mirror and renounce it — completely.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.