Hillbilly Elegy author turned right-wing darling J.D. Vance is doubling down on a joke he made about the fatal shooting on the set of the Alec Baldwin film Rust last fall that left many aghast.
Vance, a Republican running for Senate in Ohio, made light of the shooting in the immediate aftermath of the accident, which left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead and others injured.
Many were outraged, but in a recent interview, Vance said he was entitled to joke about the incident because "our country is kind of a joke." See his comments below.
When Alec Baldwin fired a gun on a movie set last fall that led to the death of a cinematographer, #OHSen candidate @JDVance1 tagged Twitter\u2019s CEO in a tweet and asked him to \u201clet Trump back on. We need Alec Baldwin tweets."\n\nI asked Vance how he justifies that type of rhetoric:pic.twitter.com/vWCbthK4oz— Taylor Popielarz (@Taylor Popielarz) 1643036358
The Rust shooting occurred last fall on the New Mexico set of the film when Baldwin accidentally discharged a prop gun during a rehearsal, fatally hitting Hutchins, who was also a wife and mother to a nine-year-old son, in the chest.
Just one day later, Vance took to Twitter to implore the platform's CEO to reinstate former Republican President Donald Trump's account because he wanted to see what Trump would tweet at Baldwin, whom Trump notoriously hates because the actor played him on Saturday Night Live.
Dear @jack let Trump back on. We need Alec Baldwin tweets.— J.D. Vance (@J.D. Vance) 1634916348
Asked by Ohio political reporter Taylor Popielarz why he made such an inappropriate joke less than 24 hours after Hutchins' death, Vance doubled down, telling Popielarz:
"...I think, unfortunately, our country is kind of a joke and we should be able to tell jokes about it, right? I think it's important for our politicians to have a sense of humor. I think it's important for us to be real people."
It's hard to imagine how intense the conservative uproar would be if a Democrat said "our country is kind of a joke." But Vance seemed unfazed, going on to say:
"Every single person that I know was joking about what Donald Trump would say if he was on Twitter, right? So I think the idea that we can't have somewhat offensive humor sometimes from our politicians is basically just asking us to have fake politicians all the time."
"That's not what I'm going to be. Maybe it turns some people off but I think the realness turns more people on."
Given the state of the Republican Party nowadays, Vance is probably right, but people on Twitter did not appreciate Vance's rhetoric at all.
@JDVance1 mocking someone\u2019s death publicly then acting like it\u2019s everyone else that\u2019s just \u201csensitive\u201d seems like he took the Republican PR training early— John Barron (@John Barron) 1643039973
@JDVance1 is the joke— I\u2019m the one on the left \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udc89\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@I\u2019m the one on the left \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udc89\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1643040170
@JDVance1 "Joking about a woman getting killed is funny!" Now do Ashli Babbitt.— Gordon Hardy (@Gordon Hardy) 1643043398
Hey @JDVance1, our country is not a \u201cjoke.\u201d\n\n Your answer was stupid.https://twitter.com/TaylorPopielarz/status/1485628282137714688\u00a0\u2026— Matthew Diemer for US Congress Ohio (@Matthew Diemer for US Congress Ohio) 1643069168
\u201cAmerica is a joke\u201d isn\u2019t a platform I\u2019ll be supporting.— Ahimsa \ud83d\udd4a\u262e\ufe0f (@Ahimsa \ud83d\udd4a\u262e\ufe0f) 1643040112
As someone who grew up in rural Southeast Ohio who now writes and teaches satire professionally, let me just confirm that this is ghastly, unfunny, and unwanted by \u201creal\u201d people— Brooke Preston (@Brooke Preston) 1643073734
Vance has never done anything to benefit anyone in Ohio but himself. He is out to get more, not to serve the public. I hope my fellow Ohioans aren\u2019t taken in by his. \u2018Ima good ole boy like you\u2019act. Just because you grow up poor does not mean you have the public interest at heart.— BeReesieKat#Crouton (@BeReesieKat#Crouton) 1643043623
Vance: \u201cVote for me but, like, ironically, cause democracy is stupid or whatever\u2026\u201d— Nick Lloyd (@Nick Lloyd) 1643047463
This is one of the more stunning answers from a politician I've heard in years covering Ohio politicshttps://twitter.com/TaylorPopielarz/status/1485628282137714688\u00a0\u2026— Tyler Buchanan (@Tyler Buchanan) 1643039535
Love hearing JD Vance speak about "realness." This is the dude who hated Trump and then deleted tweets about it.https://twitter.com/TaylorPopielarz/status/1485628282137714688\u00a0\u2026— Wood County Dems (@Wood County Dems) 1643047629
Vance is the author of the 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which became a sensation in 2016 for its vivid portrayal of American poverty and the neglect the poor often experience at the hands of the American government.
He publicly supported Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 and was vocally critical of former Republican President Donald Trump until last year, when he deleted his anti-Trump tweets and announced his run for Senate as a pro-Trump Republican.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social