Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday the Left was largely responsible for the majority of political violence in the United States, days after Secret Service hurriedly escorted him offstage during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
“Political violence right now is coming not exclusively, but largely from one side of the aisle,” Vance said on Fox News’s the Will Cain show. “The president has now faced three serious attempts on his life in just the past year-and-a-half.”
Vance denounced critics who claimed that President Donald Trump had incited violence against himself during his appearance on Fox.
“If you’re engaged in that kind of rhetoric, you need to check yourself,” Vance said. “You need to look yourself in the mirror and say that political disagreement is fine, but inviting violence upon your political opponents makes you part of the problem.”
At the dinner, Vance was forcibly moved by the Secret Service off the main stage, where he was seated, along with Trump and first lady Melania Trump.
“I really didn’t know what was going on,” Vance said, describing the moment when the ballroom erupted in chaos over the shooting. “Just to give you my perspective, I’m sitting up there on the days with some journalists and obviously with the president of the United States, a few seats to my right, and there’s a lot of commotion, you kind of hear some loud noises. I had no idea what it was.”
During the commotion, guests in the ballroom ducked under tables as Secret Service stormed the event to protect Trump, Vance, and other Cabinet members.
“And then an agent comes and whispers in my ear, basically says, ‘Sir, we have to leave,’” Vance said.
During the melee, an agent was shot in the chest, but luckily the bullets did not pierce their Kevlar vest. The agent is expected to recover.
“I just feel very grateful to them and very grateful for what they do,” Vance said of the Secret Service. “And frankly, grateful to God that that agent who was shot was not seriously hurt. It could have been a lot worse, but the law enforcement did a great job.”
The vice president also pointed to the shocking death of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed while speaking on the Utah Valley University campus in September 2025.
INSIDE THE ROOM: TERROR AT THE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER
“You saw people come out and say that somehow it was justified, or that somehow Charlie Kirk believed this bad thing that you’re not supposed to believe, which is implicitly justifying the person who murdered him,” Vance said.
The alleged correspondents’ dinner gunman, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, reportedly donated $25 to the Democratic Party PAC ActBlue for former Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign in 2024.