Vance attacks mainstream American media over Minneapolis shooting coverage

US vice-president J.D. Vance delivered a blistering rebuke to major news organisations over their coverage of a fatal shooting involving an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis, accusing the media of distorting facts and endangering law enforcement officers in the process.

Speaking with visible anger, Vance described the reporting as “an absolute disgrace,” warning that such narratives “put our law enforcement officers at risk every single day”. He said he had been shown what he called a CNN headline — “Outrage after ICE officer kills US citizen in Minneapolis” — which he read aloud before pausing sharply. “Well, that’s one way to put it,” he said, arguing that the framing stripped the incident of crucial context.

“This was an attack on federal law enforcement,” Vance insisted. “This was an attack on law and order. This was an attack on the American people.” He stressed that he used the word “attack” deliberately, accusing large sections of the corporate media of fundamentally mischaracterising what had occurred.

Vance said the headline ignored what he described as a violent prior encounter involving the same officer. “What that headline leaves out is the fact that that very ICE officer nearly had his life ended, dragged by a car six months ago — 33 stitches in his leg,” he said. “So you think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile?”

He also claimed the woman who died was interfering with an active enforcement operation. “What that headline leaves out is that that woman was there to interfere with a legitimate law enforcement operation in the United States of America,” he said.

The vice president bristled when questioned about drawing firm conclusions while investigations remain ongoing. “What is — I’m sorry, guys. What’s going on here?” he snapped. “You guys are meant to report the truth. How have you let yourself become agents of propaganda, of a radical fringe that’s making it harder for us to enforce our laws?”

While acknowledging limits to what could be known about intent, Vance said the officer’s perception of danger was clear. “Look, I don’t know what it’s — in a person’s heart or in a person’s head,” he said. “But what I am certain of is that she violated the law, and that officer had every reason to think that he was under very serious threat — to his safety or his life.”

He drew a distinction between legitimate debate and what he called reckless storytelling. “If people want to have a serious conversation about what she was really doing, that’s reasonable,” Vance said. “What’s not reasonable is plastering across the media that this was an innocent woman and that the ICE agent committed murder.”

Vance urged critics to direct their outrage at political leaders, not officers on the ground. “Attack me. Attack the president of the United States,” he said. “Don’t attack our law enforcement officers. They are trying to do the job the American people demanded that they do.”

Pressed on whether his rhetoric risked inflaming tensions, Vance turned the charge back on the press. “The reporting on this has been one of the biggest scandals I’ve ever seen in media,” he said. “I’ve never seen a case so misrepresented and so misreported.”

He argued that strong enforcement lowers, rather than raises, the national temperature, pointing to a reported 20 per cent drop in violent crime over the past year. “That didn’t happen by accident,” he said, crediting the decline to policies that “empower our law enforcement officers to enforce the law.”

Vance closed with a pointed appeal. “We need a media that tells the truth,” he said. “It’s deeply irresponsible to suggest that someone who defended himself from being rammed by a car is guilty of murder. Be a little bit more careful.”

With IANS inputs