A social media clash erupted Friday between JD Vance and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) after the Democratic lawmaker criticized President Donald Trump and his vice president for the arrest of a judge.
The online jabs began to fly shortly after it was spotted that FBI Director Kash Patel deleted a tweet that announced the arrest of a Wisconsin judge accused of trying to help an undocumented migrant avoid arrest.
“Deleting the tweet won't undo the constitutional crisis you have just thrust us into,” Khanna wrote in a post to his X account Friday morning. That prompted Vance to fire back with his own statement, which set off a flurry of attacks from the California Democrat.
“As the estimable Ro Khanna once said, ‘No one is above the law,’” Vance told his social media followers.
“Rich coming from a keyboard warrior,” Khanna replied. “This is an attempt to intimidate judges who are a check on your unconstitutional agenda. Do you have any substantive response to the argument I made at our alma mater? Happy to discuss this here or anywhere given what is at stake for our democracy.”
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But Khanna wasn’t done tearing into Vance just yet. About an hour and a half later, Khanna issued a follow-up response to the vice president.
“I have always respected your service as a Marine @JDVance with @CullenYossarian,” he said about Vance’s close friend Cullen Tiernan, a former Marine. “Why not respond to the substance of my argument above instead of the keyboard potshots?” Khanna added.
Patel's now-deleted social media post was quickly called out by many keen social media observers on Friday. But Khanna still shared a screenshot with his social media followers.
"Just NOW, the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction — after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week," Patel wrote in the X post. "We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest."