Vice President JD Vance laid out polling data on Monday showing that political violence is considerably more acceptable among self-described “very liberal” Americans than it is among “very conservative” Americans.
Vance hosted The Charlie Kirk Show on Real America’s Voice from the White House on Monday and, in his closing, laid out some “difficult truths” America must confront if it wishes to reach a place of unity, citing worrying data from a YouGov poll.
The survey showed that 24 percent of self-identified “very liberal” respondents believe it is acceptable for someone “to be happy about the death of a public figure they oppose.” In comparison, three percent of “very conservative” respondents felt the same as did ten percent of “liberal” respondents and four percent of “conservative” respondents.
The worrying trend continued when respondents were asked if political violence can be justified to achieve political goals. Of liberal respondents aged 18-44, 26 percent believe there are cases where political violence is a justifiable means to a political end. Seven percent of conservatives in the age range said the same, as did 12 percent of moderates.
“In a country of 330 million people, you can of course find one person of a given political persuasion justifying this or that, or almost anything, but the data is clear, people on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence,” Vance said of the data points.
“This is not a both sides problem. If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth we must be told. That problem has terrible consequences,” he added.
Vance highlighted the assassination attempts on President Donald Trump and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and the horrific assassination of Kirk last week as examples of the consequences. He further said that many on the left are sewing an environment that promotes political violence:
This violence, it doesn’t come from nowhere. Now any political movement violent or not, violent is a collection of forces. It’s like a pyramid that stacks on top. One support on top of the other. That pyramid has got a foundation of donors, of activists, of journalists, now, of social media influencers and, of course, of politicians. Not every member of that pyramid would commit a murder. In fact, over 99 percent I’m sure would not. But by celebrating that murder, apologizing for it, and emphasizing not Charlie’s innocence, but the fact that he said things some didn’t like, even to the point of lying about what he actually said, many of these people are creating an environment where things like this are inevitably going to happen.
Vance also stressed in his closing that telling the truth is “the only way to honor Kirk,” adding that the most important truth Charlie shared was that of Jesus Christ.
“Charlie believed, as I do, that all the truth he told flowed from that fundamental principle,” he said.
The YouGov poll sampled 2,646 U.S. adults on September 10. The margin of error is ± 2.5 percentage points.
