Trump’s team scrambles after JD Vance calls school shootings ‘a fact of life’
Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, said in the wake of the deadly school shooting in Georgia that the massacres are sadly a “fact of life” and offered ways to fortify schools to make them safer against gun violence.
Kamala Harris put out a statement with Vance’s comments and called for “action to keep our children safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals.”
And it appeared to strike a nerve with team Trump that she used Vance’s comments against them.
“Kamala’s interns just released a statement pushing FAKE NEWS,” Trump War Room posted to X with its more than 2 million followers. “Watch the full video and you’ll clearly see that JD Vance does not say what they claim he said. These morons do nothing but lie every single day.”
Except Harris’ campaign shared the same video.
Here’s what Vance had to say:
“I don’t like that this is a fact of life,” he said. “But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools. We’ve got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children they’re not able.”
Vance said he doesn’t like the idea of his own kids going to a school with hardened security, “but that’s increasingly the reality that we live in.”
All of that was in what Harris’ campaign shared with her joint statement on the shooting with running mate Tim Walz. Vance said what team Trump said Vance didn’t say and accused the Harris campaign of distorting.
The 14-year-old accused of fatally shooting four people at his high school in Georgia is expected to make his first court appearance Friday, a day after his father was also arrested for allowing his son to have a weapon.
Colt Gray is accused of using a semiautomatic assault-style rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta. Nine people were also hurt in Wednesday’s attack. Authorities have not offered any motive or explained how Gray obtained the gun or got it into the school.
The teen’s father, Colin Gray, 54, was charged Thursday in connection with the shooting, including with counts of involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.