Vice-President JD Vance launched a ferocious assault on the media during a White House press briefing on Thursday, positioning himself as the administration's chief defender of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent involved in a fatal shooting.
A Combative Defence of Law Enforcement
The briefing was dominated by the administration's response to the death of Renee Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother, who was shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Vance, adopting a starkly confrontational tone, insisted that Good had attempted to ram the officer with her car, framing the incident as an attack on law and order.
He singled out media coverage for particular scorn, criticising a CNN headline that read "Outrage after ICE officer kills US citizen in Minneapolis" as emblematic of what he termed the "corporate media's" misleading narrative. "The way that the media by and large has reported this story has been an absolute disgrace and it puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day," Vance declared.
This stance was maintained despite video evidence suggesting Good was driving away and the absence of any proof linking her to terrorism. Vance bypassed the traditional caution exercised during active investigations, opting instead for a full-throated, politically charged defence.
Unsubstantiated Claims and a "Broader Network"
The Vice-President escalated his rhetoric by making a series of claims without presenting evidence. He alleged that Good was part of a "broader leftwing network" employing "domestic terror techniques" to obstruct immigration enforcement. When pressed by reporters to identify who was behind this network, Vance admitted, "Well, it’s one of the things we’re going to have to figure out," but doubled down on the accusation.
"There’s an entire network – and, frankly, some of the media are participating in it - that is trying to incite violence against our law enforcement officers," he asserted, gazing around the packed briefing room. He directly admonished journalists, stating, "everybody who’s been repeating the lie... you should be ashamed of yourselves."
The session echoed the aggressive media-bashing style of former Trump-era officials, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt observing approvingly from the sidelines. Vance dismissed reporters' attempts to highlight that the investigation was ongoing, retorting that they had become "agents of propaganda of a radical fringe."
An Audition for the Future and a Darker Trumpism
Beyond the immediate controversy, the briefing was widely seen as a political performance. It came days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a potential rival for the 2028 presidential nomination, took centre stage following the military operation in Venezuela. Vance's forceful appearance was interpreted as a bid to reclaim influence and demonstrate his loyalty and pugnacious style to the President.
In his closing remarks, Vance called for toning down the political temperature, a statement starkly at odds with his own incendiary language and the President's own social media posts on the matter. President Trump had previously described Good as "very disorderly" and accused her of "violently" attempting to run over the ICE officer.
Analysts suggest the Vice-President offered a more polished but equally menacing version of Trump's antagonism towards the media and the left. For his allies, the display was a success; for critics, it signalled a younger, darker political force willing to weaponise unverified claims. As the 2028 election landscape begins to form, rivals like Rubio may find they need more than foreign policy victories to compete with such visceral, headline-grabbing theatre.
