JD Vance Spars With Jon Favreau Over Dallas Shooting Information

It was, in some ways, an all too familiar set of circumstances. A shocking shooting followed by a near-instantaneous search for answers as to the motive, with people examining a message written on a bullet in hopes of understanding the situation.

Similar to the assassination of Charlie Kirk just two weeks ago, a killing of at least one detainee at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas, which also resulted in serious injuries to two other detainees, quickly generated a conflicting array of information and opinion on Wednesday.

Federal authorities said that the shooter had opened fire from the roof of a nearby building, firing “indiscriminately,” and hitting several victims. The gunman, identified as Joshua Jahn, 29, died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, officials said.

Vice President JD Vance labeled the shooter as a “violent left-wing extremist” at a speaking event in North Carolina. He said that information not yet made public proved “this person was politically motivated,” without elaborating on what evidence the government had.

The Times, in interviews with authorities and others about the shooting, has not independently verified Mr. Vance’s description of the shooter or a motive; Mr. Jahn, who had an extensive online profile, had voted in a Democratic primary in 2020 in Texas, but showed little obvious interest in politics.

Mr. Vance also engaged in a high-profile clash about the Dallas shooting with Jon Favreau, a prominent progressive podcast host, as well as Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, who Mr. Vance suggested had helped foster a dangerous environment with anti-ICE rhetoric. President Trump also suggested liberals were to blame for the violence.

The reaction to the shooting is indicative of a now-common playbook in an age of violent attacks, often punctuated by hasty conclusions and righteous anger.

The online skirmish between Mr. Vance and Mr. Favreau began in the hours after the shooting in Dallas, as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced shortly after the attack that “our ICE law enforcement is facing unprecedented violence against them,” adding that a motive for the shooting had not been established.

Mr. Vance reposted Ms. Noem’s message, and included his own comment, saying that “the obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop.”

That post from Mr. Vance drew the ire of Mr. Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama and a host of “Pod Save America,” the popular politics podcast.

Mr. Favreau said that “the vice president is not a reliable source of information,” and said that Mr. Vance had previously erred several times by voicing “a political take” only to be contradicted by law enforcement.

In the case of the assassination of Mr. Kirk, messages written on bullets found at the scene of the crime led to a great deal of conjecture after the fact, with numerous assumptions being made about what could be derived about the shooter’s motivation.

On Wednesday, Mr. Vance and others leaned on a post by F.B.I. Director Kash Patel that showed a clip of rifle-caliber ammunition, with one casing having a message on it that read “ANTI-ICE” in what appeared to be blue writing. The actual motivation behind the messages written on the bullets in both Mr. Kirk’s assassination and Wednesday’s killing are still not known, and The Times has not confirmed details shedding light on the ammunition casing in Dallas.

By late Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump had also begun to attack Democrats, posting on Truth Social that he was “CALLING ON ALL DEMOCRATS TO STOP THIS RHETORIC AGAINST ICE AND AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT, RIGHT NOW!” and decrying “the Left Wing Domestic Terrorism that is terrorizing our Country.”

“The continuing violence from Radical Left Terrorists, in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, must be stopped,” Mr. Trump wrote.

In a statement later released by Homeland Security, Ms. Noem said that the “far-left” needed to moderate its rhetoric. “Comparing ICE Day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences,” she said.

Mr. Vance was even more outspoken, attacking Mr. Newsom in his North Carolina speech, accusing the Democrat of demonizing ICE as “part of an authoritarian government” during an interview on Tuesday night on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

“If your political rhetoric encourages violence against our law enforcement, you can go straight to hell and you have no place in the political conversation of the United States of America,” Mr. Vance said.

Mr. Newsom — who, like Mr. Vance, is considered a possible presidential candidate in 2028 — had said in his interview with Mr. Colbert that “the ICE issue is alarming beyond words,” and expressed concern at federal agents’ tactics, including using masks and unmarked cars.

“These are not just authoritarian tendencies, these are authoritarian actions by an authoritarian government,” Mr. Newsom said, adding, “This can’t be normalized.”

Mr. Newsom also responded on X to Mr. Vance’s remarks on Wednesday, posting: “No thanks, JD. I will not be going ‘straight to hell’ today.”

“Though when I watch you speak I certainly feel like I’m already there,” the governor wrote.