The campaigns for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump scuffled over Sen. JD Vance's comments that school shootings are a "fact of life" in the wake of the Georgia killings, with the former president's team arguing the remark was taken out of context and the vice president's team calling it out as callous.
The Republican vice presidential nominee made the comment at a campaign rally in Arizona on Thursday when he was asked by a reporter about the shooting at Apalachee High School that killed two students and two teachers.
"I don't like that this is a fact of life," Vance said at the rally in Phoenix. "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."
JD Vance responds to the deadly shooting in Georgia by saying school shootings are just “a fact of life” and attacking common sense gun safety reform pic.twitter.com/ISNRuXneg6
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 6, 2024
"If these psychos are going to go after our kids we've got to be prepared for it," he said. "We don't have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We've got to deal with it."
Vance emphasized that restricting access to guns as many Democrats have urged won't end the carnage in America's schools,.
The Harris camp fired back in a statement on X: "Donald Trump and JD Vance think school shootings are a 'fact of life' and 'we have to get over it.'"
The "get over it" referred to Trump's comments after a school shooting in Perry, Iowa, in January.
Harris and Gov. Tim Walz "know we can take action to keep out children safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals," the statement noted.
"Donald Trump and JD Vance will always choose the NRA and gun lobby over our children. That is the choice in this election," it added.
Harris has called for stricter gun laws, a ban on assault weapons, as well as enhancing security in schools.
Our statement on JD Vance calling school shootings “a fact of life” https://t.co/8OfUFHHzaL pic.twitter.com/rFFF3i4qa2
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 6, 2024
A spokesperson for Vance, William Martin, said the Ohio senator's comments were taken out of context by the Associated Press.
"This is yet another case of the fake news media brazenly lying about a Republican politician. Senator Vance said exactly the opposite of what the Associated Press claimed. It should come as no surprise that the AP lost any and all credibility it had years ago, because they will lie about literally anything in order to prop up the Democrats," he said in a statement to Fox News.
The wire service later replaced its post about the article on X. It did modify the story.
"This post replaces an earlier post that was deleted to add context to the partial quote from Vance," the AP said.
