Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday labeled the suspected gunman who attacked an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Dallas as “a violent left-wing extremist.” The incident reportedly left one person dead and two others wounded before the attacker took his own life.
Vance also blasted Democratic leaders, accusing them of stoking hostility toward ICE officers and toward anyone who does not share their political positions.
Speaking just outside Charlotte, North Carolina, hours after the shooting, Vance delivered an impassioned address about the assault. CNN reported that the sniper fired into the ICE facility, killing one detainee and injuring two others. FBI Director Kash Patel said shell casings recovered at the scene included one marked with the words “ANTI ICE.” Patel added that no law enforcement personnel were harmed.
“In Dallas, Texas, an ICE facility… was opened fire upon by a violent left-wing extremist, a person who wrote ‘ANTI ICE’ messaging on their bullets,” Vance said. “And there’s some evidence that we have that’s not yet public, but we know this person was politically motivated.”
“They were politically motivated to go after law enforcement. They were politically motivated to go after people who are enforcing our border. And I think that is the most disgusting thing. The very people who keep us safe ought to be honored, and protected, and praised by Democrats and Republicans alike,” Vance added.
The vice president argued that inflammatory rhetoric by liberal politicians and “left-wing media lies” against immigration authorities embolden unstable individuals to attack officers.
“It is time to stop the rhetorical assault on law enforcement, because here’s what happens… when Democrats, like Gavin Newsom did, say that these people are part of an authoritarian government, when the left-wing media lies about what they’re doing, when they lie about who they’re arresting, when they lie about the actual job of law enforcement, what they’re doing is encouraging crazy people to go and commit violence,” he said.
Vance stressed that policy disagreements over immigration are legitimate, but rhetoric that incites violence against officers crosses the line. Those who spread it, he declared, “can go straight to hell” and do not deserve a role in American politics.
He pointed to an NBC News post on X that was deleted and later corrected. The original caption read, “ICE agents held a 5-year-old autistic girl outside her Massachusetts home to pressure her father to surrender to authorities last week, according to the girl’s family.”
NBC later replaced it with a new version: “Video shows ICE with 5-year-old girl while agents attempt to arrest her father.” The network added, “Correction: An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the activities of ICE agents in the video. The article has been updated.”
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin criticized NBC for not contacting DHS first, saying the outlet spread “smears.” Vance called the report “a complete fabrication.”
“But when you go around and lie about our law enforcement and you tell them that they’re mistreating five-year-old girls, what do you think is going to happen?” Vance asked. “When Democratic politicians incur doxing, when they encourage us to unmask ICE enforcement officers, what do you think is going to happen?”
“When the mayor of Los Angeles encourages violent protesters to get in the face of our law enforcement, what do you think is going to happen? What’s going to happen is political violence, and political violence has gotten out of control in this country,” he added.
Vance concluded that the blame begins with national Democratic leadership. “If you want to stop political violence, stop attacking our law enforcement as the Gestapo. If you want to stop political violence, stop telling your supporters that everybody who disagrees with you is a Nazi. If you want to stop political violence, look in the mirror,” he said.
{Matzav.com}
