Reactions erupted online after Vice President JD Vance's remarks that "terrible" people "mistreat dogs" — something social media users were quick to say showed he has "no self-awareness" — especially considering his colleague and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem admitted to killing her own puppy.
In a podcast interview with New York Post columnist Miranda Devine this week, Vance spoke about his German Shepherd, commenting that his dog has not bitten anyone and pointing to former President Biden's dog, Commander, who had repeatedly bitten agents.
He bragged he'd trained his dog without using shock collars. "No electrocution of dogs here," he told Devine. "If you can actually cause suffering to an innocent animal, you're probably the kind of person who doesn't worry about suffering in people as well."
"And that's been my experience. If you mistreat dogs, that's almost a hundred percent sign that you're going to be a really terrible person," Vance added. "But you can tell if somebody's really mean to animals, you know, it's like the Jeffrey Dahmer thing. Like every serial killer ever has actually been really bad to animals."
Noem has not yet commented.
Vance's boss, President Donald Trump, reportedly does not like dogs.
Comments poured in on social media, with plenty of people calling out the hypocrisy:
"@JDVance is the master of self-owning his own side with absolutely no self-awareness. It's literally the only way he is (unintentionally) funny," author and combat veteran Matthew Spira wrote on X.
"This you, @KristiNoem?" Activist Portia A. Bulger wrote on X.
"Good to see VP #Vance drawing on scientific evidence to support his point. Freddy Kruger was mean to animals too. Slam dunk- case proven," Richard Mills wrote on Bluesky.
"Awesome take from a guy actively murdering fishermen," a Bluesky user named Travis wrote.
