ATLANTA, Ga. — Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) argued Monday that the fact that “nobody is trying to kill Kamala Harris” is “pretty strong evidence” that Democrats “need to hold their tongue,” and he promised to do his part to ease political divisions.
“I'm not going to say we're always perfect. I'm not going to say conservatives always get things right, but the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that in the last few months, nobody has tried to kill Kamala Harris, whereas there have been two people who have tried to kill Donald Trump,” Vance told a packed audience at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event.
The Georgia action marked Vance's first public appearance since the second assassination attempt on the vice presidential candidate.
The motorcade traveling to and from the campaign trail was particularly long, but the senator didn't change his plans and continued campaigning despite an assassination attempt on Trump the previous day.
At the end of his speech, Vance, 40, vowed to “play a role in moderating rhetoric” but said calls to “remove” Trump needed to stop.
“People are saying we need to get rid of Donald Trump, you guys have to stop that or someone is going to get hurt,” Vance said.
The former president was playing golf at a West Palm Beach golf course when Secret Service agents spotted Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, pointing an AK-47-style rifle at some bushes near Trump.
Secret Service agents fired shots at Routh, who fled to his car but was later arrested despite trying to flee.
Trump was not injured and was escorted off the course by the Secret Service.
Vance's comments about there not being an assassination attempt on Vice President Kamala Harris echo those made by X owner Elon Musk.
“No one is trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” Musk wrote on Sunday, before later deleting X's post.
Trump echoed Vance's sentiment that left-wing “speech” has fueled the attempt on his life, telling Fox News on Monday that Democrats' rhetoric has put him “under attack.”
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris and acted on it,” Trump told Fox about the shooter. “Their rhetoric got me shot, but I'm in a position to save our country. They're destroying our country from the inside and out.”
Following his Georgia remarks, Vance continued his comments on rhetoric in an X post, calling on Americans to reject censorship if they want to reduce political violence.
“To reject censorship is to reject political violence; to accept censorship is to accept, necessarily, the violence of censorship,” Vance wrote.
“The reason is simple: the logic of censorship leads to only one conclusion: there is only one way to silence a man permanently – with a bullet to the brain.”
