In the wake of far-right activist Charlie Kirk's assassination, Vice President JD Vance has stepped up his attacks on leftists, this time by baselessly claiming that the far-left is more likely to commit political violence than the far-right.
Vance hosted a special episode of Kirk's podcast to attack what he referred to as “the lunatics in American politics" and said without any evidence that the suspect in Kirk's killing was motivated by far-left ideology.
He also alleged that the left bears more responsibility for political violence:
"In a country of 330 million people you could of course find one person of a given political persuasion justifying this or that or almost anything 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, then one side has a much bigger and malignant problem and that is the truth we must be told. That problem has terrible consequences."
"The leader of our party, Donald J. Trump, escaped an assassin's bullet by less than an inch. Our House Majority Leader, Steven Scalise, came within seconds of death by an assassin himself. Now, the most influential conservative activist in generations, our friend Charlie, has been murdered."
You can hear what Vance said in the video below.
Shortly afterward, journalist Medhi Hasan, founder of Zeteo, went on Chris Cuomo's show on News Nation to counter Vance's lies. Hasan said the country is experiencing "a very macabre moment" and called out the far-right for using Kirk's death to "crack down on free speech." Hasan went after Vance's remarks in particular.
He said:
“JD Vance lied today on ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ when he said the statistics are clear that this is a left-wing problem. It’s the exact reverse, right? Exact reverse. You look at the ADL center for extremism, which looked at 444 people killed by extremists between 2013 and 2022 — 75% of them by the right.”
“You look at the University of Maryland study that was done for their terrorism center, which found that from 1948 to 2018, right-wing extremists were more likely to carry out violence than left-wing extremists."
"You look at the head of the FBI who [President] Donald Trump appointed, Chris Wray, who said the No. 1 domestic terror threat in this country comes from religious and racially motivated extremists — specifically white supremacists."
“You can keep going, the National Institute for Justice found that the majority of instances since 1990, violent terroristic acts, were right-wing extremists. The single-biggest day of political violence, Chris, in our lifetimes, in this country, was Jan. 6, 2021, when right-wing extremists attacked the Capitol, injured police officers. They were ideologically motivated."
“So it’s bizarre for Vance to go on TV or go online and say the exact opposite of what both the official statistics say and the think tanks say, all of our evidence tells us.”
Hasan also brought up the murder over the summer of Minnesota state Democratic Representative Melissa Hortman, adding:
“I mean, there was a Democratic lawmaker, Chris, I don’t know how many times we have to say this, who was murdered in her home with her husband in June, by a Trump supporter. And Donald Trump today said, ‘Who?’ when he was asked about it.”
You can hear Hasan's remarks in the video below.
Hasan was right.
The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism indeed confirmed his claim that 75% of extremists who killed people since 2013 were members of the far-right.
Additionally, a University of Maryland study confirmed that members of the far-right committed more acts of political violence since 1948 than any members of the far-left. The National Institute of Justice had also confirmed that the far-right committed most acts of "violent terrorism" since 1990.
And indeed, shortly after Hortman and her husband were murdered by a far-right extremist, President Trump told reporters he would not be calling Minnesota Governor Tim Walz following the shootings, calling it a "waste" of time—which makes his "Who?" response even more cruel.
Many have echoed his criticisms of Vance.
The Trump administration has vowed to crack down on left-wing groups they hold responsible for Kirk's assassination.
Attorney General Pam Bondi drew heavy criticism this week after vowing to “absolutely target” protesters engaged in “hate speech” and asserting she had the power to investigate businesses that declined to print memorial posters for Kirk.
It remains unclear what authority Bondi could use to pursue such “hate speech” cases, given the First Amendment’s broad protections for speech that does not directly incite violence.
The backlash against Bondi's remarks has been considerable, even from MAGA. Bondi later said on social media that “hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment," calling it "a crime."
