Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday criticized Democrats and the left, accusing them of inciting political violence. He pointed to the recent attack on ICE agents in Dallas as the latest instance of unacceptable actions from his political adversaries.

Amidst police vehicles and representatives from two law enforcement branches, Vance accused the left of increasing assaults on public officials.

The vice president linked Wednesday’s attack to a violent left-wing extremist, noting evidence that the shooter had inscribed anti-ICE slogans on their ammunition.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that shell casings with anti-ICE messages were identified, and the FBI is investigating it as a targeted political attack.

Vance also cited evidence ‘that was not yet public’ but reassured the audience that the alleged shooter was ‘politically motivated.’

‘If you want to stop political violence, stop attacking our law enforcement as the Gestapo,’ he said, reminding the audience that the left was also referring to Trump supporters as ‘Nazis.’

But critics were quick to note that it was Vance himself who once likened Trump to Hitler.

‘The difference between me and JD Vance is that I’ve never called Trump Hitler,’ posted Michael Freeman on X.

 Vance called his future running mate ‘America’s Hitler’ in private messages in 2016, expressing deep concerns about Trump’s character and leadership. He later recanted those statements prior to his Ohio Senate race 

Those characterizations seemed far from Vance’s mind on the stump in North Carolina Wednesday. 

‘If you want stop political violence,’ the vice president implored, ‘stop telling your supporters that everybody who disagrees with you is a Nazi.’

The vice president blamed top Democratic leaders for pursuing ‘rhetorical assault’ on law enforcement since 2020, making it more dangerous for them to police the streets.

He also singled out California Governor Gavin Newsom for referring to the Trump administration and federal immigration officials as part of an ‘authoritarian government’ which was encouraging ‘crazy’ people to commit violence.

‘If your political rhetoric encourages violence against our law enforcement you can go straight to hell,’ he said angrily.

Vance opened his remarks by condeming the assassination of his friend and activist Charlie Kirk, which he argued was just one more example of the unacceptable retoric from the political left that was inspiring violent actions.

He acknowledged that there were ‘crazy’ people on both sides of the political aisle, but that recent high-profile attacks were coming from the far left.

‘It is not a both sides problem, it is primarily on one side of the political aisle,’ he said,

The vice president also repeated his promise to prosecute organizations funding unrest and political violence in reaction to the Trump adminstration’s polices.

‘The Trump administration is going to do everything that we can to dismantle the networks, to destroy the funding, to make it harder for people to kill one another just because they disagree with what someone says,’ he said.

The vice president also referred to the widely publicized murder of a 22-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutka on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina last month, just a short distance from the site of his speech.

He defended law enforcement officials in the city for doing their job, noting that the alleged murderer had previously been arrested 14 times but was still in the streets, thanks to weak laws in the city.

‘Because of soft on crime policies, she was murdered here, not in the war torn country she was from,’ he said.

The vice president joined other North Carolina Republicans at the rally standing up for police and against violent crime. He praised state legislatures for passing a bill to send to the Democratic governor of the state’s desk.

‘The governor’s got to sign it,’ he said.