Kamala campaign, Tim Walz and AP busted for 'brazenly lying' about JD Vance's position on school shootings

The Associated Press (AP) deleted an X post and updated a false headline after getting busted by X’s Community Notes, but not until the post had over 2.5 million views. The headline claimed that JD Vance said school shootings are "a fact of life." The Kamala Harris campaign, along with her running mate Tim Walz, also jumped on the story, making the same false claim.

JD Vance spoke in Phoenix, Arizona on Thursday night, and on the subject of school shootings, he said "I don't like that this is a fact of life. 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 so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children they're not able." This comes on the heels of a school shooting that took place at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia

The Associated Press ran a story on his remarks with the headline "JD Vance says school shootings are a 'fact of life,' calls for better security." The story with that headline was posted on X where it had 2.5 million views before the AP deleted amid backlash. 

They changed the headline to read "JD Vance says he laments that school shootings are a "fact of life" and says the U.S. needs to harden security to prevent more carnage like the shooting this week that left four dead in Georgia."

Kamala Harris' campaign posted the clip, claiming "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." 

Walz shared the video with the false caption, saying "This is pathetic. We can’t quit on our kids — they deserve better."

The campaign went beyond just a tweet and a caption full of lies, issuing a statement on Vance's comments, saying "Yesterday, Vice President Harris said 'it doesn't have to be this way' in response to another senseless school shooting. Donald Trump and JD Vance think school shootings are a 'fact of life' and 'we have to get over it.'

"Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know," the statement from campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa read, "we can take action to keep our children safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Donald Trump and JD Vance will always choose the NRS and gun lobby over our children. That is the choice in this election."

Democrats.org put out their own "rapid response" statement, in which they quoted DNC official Alex Floyd, who said "Let’s be clear: no matter what Donald Trump and JD Vance say, tragedies like this do not need to be a ‘fact of life,’ and we don’t just have to ‘get over it’ when Americans, including young children, are violently murdered. But there’s another choice: Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are ready to stand up to the gun lobby to protect our communities. Trump and Vance have railed against commonsense reforms and federal bipartisan gun safety legislation that would protect innocent lives. As Trump and Vance put the gun lobby ahead of the American people, voters are ready to reject their dangerous and out-of-touch agenda in November."

And they quoted the AP, which had written "School shootings are a ‘fact of life,’ so the U.S. needs to harden security to prevent more carnage like the shooting this week that left four dead in Georgia, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said Thursday.”

Kamala Harris' campaign, her running mate Tim Walz, the Democrat Party, as well as the Associated Press and other media outlets all quoted Vance with the intention of making it seem like he said something that they did not say. Vance, like any sane person, opposes school shootings and advocated for more security for schools to prevent additional massacres.

William Martin, a spokesman for JD Vance, slammed the AP, telling Fox News, "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. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has called for all police officers to be removed from schools, putting children all over America at risk. It's yet another example of how Kamala Harris's weak, failed, and dangerously liberal agenda makes her unfit for office.”  

Social media users slammed the AP and a proposed X Community Note for the post read, "Misleading headline: The full quote is, ‘I don’t like that this is a fact of life." The AP also wrote, "This post replaces an earlier post that was deleted to add context to the partial quote from Vance.”

The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway said "The Associated Press should be shunned. They are churning out dangerous and harmful propaganda daily. It's intentional. They are trying to hurt the republic. Stand up to their evil."

The X account for the Harris campaign has repeatedly put out posts that are misleading, including out of context quotes as well as outright lies and has spread debunked hoaxes about their opposition candidate, Donald Trump. YouTuber and political commentator Tim Pool has announced his intention to file a lawsuit against the campaign after they claimed he called for a death sentence against Democrats after the election in the event of a Trump win.