The Associated Press and top Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, were blasted on Thursday after taking Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s remarks on the Georgia school shooting out of context.
During a rally on Thursday, Vance addressed the deadly shooting where two students and two teachers were killed allegedly by a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Vance said of the shooting, “I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools. We’ve got to bolster security, so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children, they’re not able.”
Reporting on Vance’s comments, the Associated Press wrote the headline, “JD Vance says school shootings are a ‘fact of life,’ calls for better security.” After getting slammed on social media and receiving a community note on X explaining the full context of Vance’s quote, the AP updated its headline to read, “JD Vance says he laments that school shootings are a ‘fact of life’ and calls for better security.”
The AP then posted the new headline on X, writing, “This post replaces an earlier post that was deleted to add context to the partial quote from Vance.”
Whatever shred of credibility still existed within the Associated Press was just executed by the Associated Press pic.twitter.com/Chi8fF5NZA
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) September 6, 2024
Vance spokesman William Martin slammed the AP in a statement to Fox News, accusing the legacy media outlet of “brazenly lying.”
“This is yet another case of the fake news media brazenly lying about a Republican politician. Senator Vance said exactly the opposite of what the Associated Press claimed,” he said. “It should come as no surprise that the AP lost any and all credibility it had years ago, because they will lie about literally anything in order to prop up the Democrats. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has called for all police officers to be removed from schools, putting children all over America at risk. It’s yet another example of how Kamala Harris’s weak, failed, and dangerously liberal agenda makes her unfit for office.”
Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.
Even after the AP revised its headline, Harris and Walz continued using the out-of-context quote to attack Vance. The Harris campaign posted a clip of Vance’s remarks with the caption, “JD Vance responds to the deadly shooting in Georgia by saying school shootings are just ‘a fact of life’ and attacking common sense gun safety reform.” Harris reposted the clip, saying, “School shootings are not just a fact of life.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way. We can take action to protect our children—and we will,” she added.
Walz, Harris’ running mate, also responded to the clip, writing, “This is pathetic. We can’t quit on our kids — they deserve better.”
Vance hit back at Harris, saying, “Instead of addressing her own failures, she lies about what I said.”
“More desperation from the biggest fraud in American politics,” Vance added.
Kamala wants to take security out of our schools instead of protecting our children. Instead of addressing her own failures, she lies about what I said.
More desperation from the biggest fraud in American politics. https://t.co/KNOwOtpcLx
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 6, 2024
Shortly after the shooting on Wednesday, President Joe Biden released a statement calling for gun bans and condemning Republicans for not doing more to pass gun laws.
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI
“Republicans in Congress must finally say ‘enough is enough’ and work with Democrats to pass common-sense gun safety legislation,” he said. “We must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again, require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers.”
