Vice President J.D. Vance presented [1] polling data on Monday indicating that political violence is viewed as more acceptable among self-described “very liberal” Americans compared to their conservative counterparts.
Vance, hosting The Charlie Kirk Show on Real America’s Voice from the White House, used his closing remarks to outline what he called “difficult truths” that the country must face in order to move toward unity.
He cited a YouGov survey released last week that examined public attitudes toward political violence and reactions to the death of political opponents.
According to the poll, 24 percent of self-identified “very liberal” respondents said it was acceptable for someone “to be happy about the death of a public figure they oppose.”
By comparison, three percent of “very conservative” respondents gave the same answer, along with ten percent of “liberal” respondents and four percent of “conservative” respondents.
When asked whether political violence could be justified as a means to achieve political goals, the numbers also showed a sharp divide.
Among liberals aged 18 to 44, 26 percent agreed that violence can be justified in some cases.
Seven percent of conservatives and 12 percent of moderates in the same age group expressed the same view.
“In a country of 330 million people, you can of course find one person of a given political persuasion justifying this or that, or almost anything, but the data is clear, people on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence,” Vance said while discussing the survey results.
“This is not a both sides problem. If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth we must be told. That problem has terrible consequences,” he added.
Vance referenced several incidents to underscore the stakes, including the attempted assassinations of President Donald Trump and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), as well as the murder of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk last week.
He said these events highlight how rhetoric and behavior can build an environment where violence becomes more likely.
“This violence, it doesn’t come from nowhere. Now any political movement violent or not, violent is a collection of forces. It’s like a pyramid that stacks on top. One support on top of the other. That pyramid has got a foundation of donors, of activists, of journalists, now, of social media influencers and, of course, of politicians,” Vance explained.
“Not every member of that pyramid would commit a murder. In fact, over 99 percent I’m sure would not. But by celebrating that murder, apologizing for it, and emphasizing not Charlie’s innocence, but the fact that he said things some didn’t like, even to the point of lying about what he actually said, many of these people are creating an environment where things like this are inevitably going to happen.”
In closing, Vance said that the best way to honor Kirk’s memory was to continue speaking the truth, as Kirk himself did.
“Charlie believed, as I do, that all the truth he told flowed from that fundamental principle,” Vance said, adding that Kirk’s faith in Jesus Christ shaped his worldview and message.
If we want to stop political violence like what happened to Charlie Kirk, we have to be honest about the people who are celebrating it and the people who are financing it.
My closing remarks on today’s episode of the Charlie Kirk Show: pic.twitter.com/pEAqbAL3yr [2]
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 15, 2025 [3]
The YouGov poll surveyed 2,646 U.S. adults on September 10.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.