JD Vance Attacks Obama for Calling Out Republicans Exploiting Kirk’s Death

Vice President JD Vance slammed former President Barack Obama for criticizing the GOP’s response to the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

Obama, speaking earlier this week, warned against what he called an effort by Trump and his allies to “identify an enemy” and weaponize national grief to shut down criticism of Kirk’s hardline ideology — which, notably, included proposals to abolish the Civil Rights Act. The former president urged Americans to condemn violence without letting tragedy become a tool for political intimidation.

“When it happens to some, even if the person is on the other side, it happens to all of us, and we have to be clear and forthright in condemning it,” Obama said. “That doesn’t mean that we can’t have a debate about the ideas that people who were victims of political violence were promoting.”

That didn’t sit well with Vance.

Pressed by Fox News host Jesse Watters, who summarized Obama’s comments as saying the White House was “dividing the country” and “exploiting Charlie Kirk’s death to attack Democrats,” Vance said:

“We’re not exploiting Charlie Kirk’s death to do anything except for achieve justice,” Vance snapped. “And I think if Barack Obama — I haven’t seen that comment, Jesse, but if he said that, that’s absolutely disgusting.”

Vance pivoted quickly to familiar conservative grievances, drawing a direct line between Kirk’s murder and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

“We saw this in the summer of 2020,” he said. “Now, thank god that wasn’t primarily, actually 20 people, over 20 people died in the riots in the summer of 2020. That is political terrorism.”

“But it’s not just the people who were killing the cops,” he continued. “It’s not just the people who were engaging in throwing the Molotov cocktails in the riots. Where was the money coming from? Who was organizing this violent activity?”

Vance rejected the idea that his rhetoric is an attack on all Democrats — but said he believes someone on the left is behind the violence.

“That is not going after Democrats, unless, by implication, you’re saying every single Democrat is involved in planning political violence,” he said. “If that’s true … then we’re going to get to the bottom of the truth, and we’re going to stop the political violence. And we’re going to do it however we have to do it, of course, within the constitutional limits that Charlie loved so much.”

The exchange highlighted the growing divide in how the left and right respond to political violence — and the increasingly volatile role such tragedies now play in national discourse.

While Obama stressed the need to separate mourning from ideology, Vance made clear the administration has no intention of stepping back from its narrative, claiming that Kirk was a martyr, and his death was the latest chapter in a broader war on conservative values.

If this interview was any indication, the Kirk assassination is already being weaponized by Republicans.

Watch the clip below:

🚨 BREAKING: JD Vance HITS BACK at BARACK OBAMA for saying the White House is “EXPLOITING CHARLIE’ DEATH” 🚨

“That’s absolutely DISGUSTING” 🔥 pic.twitter.com/5paEsLr5nb

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) September 18, 2025