ATLANTA, Ga. — Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) argued Monday the fact that “no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris” is “pretty strong evidence” that Democrats “need to tone down the rhetoric” — then promised to do his part to help ease political division.
“I’m not going to say we’re always perfect. I’m not going to say that conservatives always get things exactly right, but you know, the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that we no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump,” Vance said to a large crowd at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event.
The Georgia stop was Vance’s first public appearance since the second assassination attempt on his running mate.
His motorcade was especially long accompanying him to and from the event, but the senator did not change his schedule and continued to campaign despite a would-be assassin targeting Trump the day before.
At the conclusion of his speech, Vance, 40, vowed to do his “part to tone down the rhetoric,” but said those who are calling for Trump to “be eliminated” need to stop.
“The people tell you that Donald Trump needs to be eliminated. You guys need to cut it out, or you’re going to get somebody hurt,” Vance said.
The former president was out golfing at his West Palm Beach course when 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was spotted by Secret Service aiming an AK-47-style rifle through the bushes in the vicinity of Trump.
The Secret Service agent fired shots at Routh, who retreated to a car, but was captured later despite his attempts to flee.
Trump was not injured and was escorted off the course by the Secret Service.
Vance’s remarks about there being no attempt on Vice President Kamala Harris’ life are similar to those made by X owner Elon Musk.
Musk wrote “and no one is trying to assassinate Biden/ Kamala” on Sunday, before deleting the post on X.
Trump shared a similar sentiment to Vance about the “rhetoric” from the left fueling the attempts on his life, telling Fox News on Monday that the words coming from Democrats are causing him to be “shot at.”
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump told Fox about the gunman. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
Vance continued his remarks about rhetoric in a post on X after his remarks in Georgia, calling on Americans to reject censorship if they want to reduce political violence.
“Reject censorship and you reject political violence. Embrace censorship, and you will inevitably embrace violence on its behalf,” Vance wrote.
“The reason is simple. The logic of censorship leads directly to one place, for there is only one way to permanently silence a human being: put a bullet in his brain.”