Vice President JD Vance’s office is shredding “leftists” and “fake news” outlets for continuing to spread “outright falsehoods” about a recent vacation the vice president took with his family for his birthday.
“The vice president took a canoe trip down the street from his house in Ohio with his wife and three young kids on his 41st birthday, and Democrats are trying to turn it into a story about elitism,” Vance communications director Will Martin told Breitbart News exclusively. “Leftists like Tommy Vietor and Richard Painter have spent decades rubbing shoulders in DC—they have no clue how normal families operate. The idea of a family canoeing together is completely foreign to them. The Guardian is fake news that refuses to correct outright falsehoods, and their buddies at supposedly reputable outlets are happy to parrot their lies. The far-left media is desperate to smear Vice President Vance and they’ve hit a new low by attacking him for enjoying his birthday with his wife and kids.”
The matter, which some are calling “Canoe-Gate,” stems from how the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) ordered local government officials to raise the water level of a river in Ohio so their watercraft could easily patrol the area.
It all started with a piece from the Guardian late on Wednesday which said in the headline, “JD Vance’s team had water level of Ohio river raised for family’s boating trip.”
In the article by Guardian writers Stephanie Kirchgaessner and David Smith, the outlet’s writers alleged that the water-raising was done for recreational reasons for the vice president and his family in addition to security reasons. They rely on anonymous sources to make the claim.
“One source with knowledge of the matter who communicated with the Guardian anonymously alleged that the outflow request for the Caesar Creek Lake was not just to support the vice-president’s Secret Service detail, but also to create ‘ideal kayaking conditions,’” they wrote. “The Guardian could not independently confirm this specific claim.”
Then Kirchgaessner and Smith proceed to quote leftist “ethics experts” Richard Painter and Norm Eisen. Painter had worked in George W. Bush’s White House and Eisen was Barack Obama’s “ethics czar.” Both claimed, without evidence, that something untoward had happened here with regard to Vance and his office.
But since the publication of that story, the U.S. Secret Service’s spokesman has gone on record to make it absolutely crystal clear that the vice president and his office had nothing to do with raising the water level in the river and that it was purely a U.S. Secret Service decision for security reasons.
USSS spokesman Anthony Guglielmi even told Breitbart News that when the USSS conducted a trip to the Ohio area ahead of the vice president’s trip there for his birthday, a local vessel actually ran aground necessitating for security reasons the raising of the water level. Guglielmi noted that USSS regularly does this type of thing, saying in a brief phone call on Friday that “it’s very normal, it’s very routine,” and that agents need to have access to watercraft for security and safety reasons in a given area—and that the decision was made without input or involvement from the vice president’s office.
“The vice president’s office was not involved in the Secret Service’s decision to raise water levels during a recent trip to Ohio,” Guglielmi added in an emailed statement to Breitbart News. “It was operationally necessary to adjust the water levels to accommodate the motorized watercraft used by the Secret Service, local law enforcement, and emergency responders. These decisions were made solely by agents during our standard advance planning process and did not involve the Office of the Vice President. As with every protective mission, we work meticulously with our partners to develop and implement security plans that ensure the safety of our protectees.”
This statement from the USSS was available and public early Friday, and was shared widely by the president’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. on social media:
But the fake outlets that ran with the original stories on this continue to refuse to correct them or significantly update them.
A Vance spokesperson also made it clear this was solely a Secret Service decision, saying, “The Secret Service often employs protective measures without the knowledge of the Vice President or his staff, as was the case last weekend.”
Now, because of these fake reports, the damage has been done to Vance’s reputation. The New Republic ran a headline claiming: “JD Vance Abused Power to Raise River Levels for Family Kayaking Trip.”
HuffPost said this in a headline: “JD Vance Had A River’s Water Level Raised For His Family Vacation.”
The Daily Beast said this: “JD Vance Ordered a River’s Water Level Raised for His Family Boat Trip.”
Other leftists like former Obama National Security Council official Tommy Vietor sent out posts falsely claiming Vance and his office were involved in the Secret Service decision:
And failed late-night comedian Stephen Colbert, whose show is set to be canceled soon because of his abysmal ratings, attacked Vance over the Secret Service decision, saying it was an “insane spoiled baby emperor move.” The Guardian, for good measure, amplified Colbert’s false attack, which was based off its original false story.
Some America First leaders like Trump Jr. are speaking out and pushing back too:
While it remains to be seen what happens next, it would seem like there is potentially some kind of legal action that the vice president may want to take–if he wants to take a leaf out of President Donald Trump’s book, that is, as Trump has successfully sued a number of media outlets for printing inaccurate stories on him.
