Vice President JD Vance's previous demands for accountability are now creating complications for Donald Trump following public backlash over the president's recent ugly comments about Rob Reiner's murder
On MSNOW's "Morning Joe," multiple panelists referenced Vance's earlier insistence that anyone who criticized conservative commentator Charlie Kirk after his fatal shooting on a Utah college campus in September should face employment consequences.
In the aftermath of Kirk's death, Vance declared, "Call them out, and hell, call their employer. We don't believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility," during a guest appearance hosting Kirk's podcast.
But on Monday, hours after Reiner's death was reported, Trump took to Truth Social to write, “A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS."
Conservative columnist Matt Lewis raised the inconsistency during a Tuesday appearance on MS NOW, questioning who would hold Trump accountable for his attacks on Reiner following the deaths of the Hollywood icon and his wife — with their son accused of being the killer.
So I go back to the Charlie Kirk murder,” he told the hosts. “And I think people being rightly outraged, you shouldn't be celebrating this, this is a national tragedy. It was horrific. And just where is the compassion? Where is the decency?”
“And JD Vance said, if you see someone celebrating, call their boss,” he added. “And do you know there were, according to Reuters, there were like 600 Americans who were punished for saying something untoward about Charlie Kirk. In one case, there was a teacher from South Carolina, and all she did was post Charlie Kirk's own words, what he had to say about school shootings — she was fired. Now we have — those are our expectations for a kindergarten teacher, that they should be fired if they say something untoward about a tragedy. This is the president of the United States. What should our standards be for that office, for the dignity of that office, for calling us to our better angels?”
“And I'm sorry, this whole thing about like, well, you know, this is Trump, this is who Trump is. And the voters, the voters can separate his policies from — no! As a conservative, our character is destiny.”
- YouTube youtu.be
