Vance’s Double Standard: Nazi Jokes Are “Kids Being Kids,” But Mocking Charlie Kirk Gets Your Visa Revoked
JD Vance thinks praising Hitler and talking about putting political enemies into death chambers is harmless kids being kids," but criticizing Charlie Kirk is somehow deserving of state-supported punishment.
It sure looks like he's got quite the double standard.
Yesterday, Vance defended Young Republican leaders who were caught in leaked chat logs making racist, antisemitic, and pro-Nazi comments, dismissing their behavior as harmless kids being edgy. But just a month ago, this very same JD Vance was calling for people to be reported to their employers for making far milder comments about Charlie Kirk's death. And this week, his administration revoked visas from foreigners who criticized Kirk online.
Let's start with what Vance said yesterday about the Young Republicans scandal. When asked about leaked Telegram messages showing Republican leaders joking about gas chambers, expressing love for Hitler, and using racial slurs more than 250 times, Vance had this to say:
The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That's what kids do. And I really don't want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke - telling a very offensive, stupid joke - is cause to ruin their lives. At some point, we're all going to have to say, enough of this BS, we're not going to allow the worst moment in a 21-year-old's group chat to ruin a kid's life for the rest of time. That's just not ok.
You can see that video at the end of this clip here:
JD Vance dismisses Young Republicans who in a group chat said "I love Hitler" and joked about slavery and rape as "a bunch of kids" who "told stupid jokes" and adds that "most of the stupid things I did when I was a teenager and young adult, they're not on the internet."
There are several problems with this defense. First, these weren't kids"-many of the participants were in their twenties and thirties, and some held high-level government positions. Peter Giunta was chief of staff to a New York assemblymember. William Hendrix worked for Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach. Michael Bartels serves as a senior adviser in the Trump administration's Small Business Administration.
Second, these weren't just stupid jokes." The leaked messages included participants saying I love Hitler," joking about putting political opponents in gas chambers, using racial slurs hundreds of times, and discussing rape as epic." One participant wrote about creating the greatest physiological torture methods known to man" for political opponents.
But the bigger issue isn't Vance's factual errors-it's his breathtaking hypocrisy.
Just last month, Vance guest-hosted Charlie Kirk's radio show and had a very different message about edgy, offensive" comments. When people made critical remarks about Kirk's death, Vance urged listeners to hold them accountable:
Call them out, and hell, call their employer. We don't believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility.
This wasn't theoretical. Many people lost their jobs after Vance's call to action. Apparently, their edgy, offensive" jokes were uncivil and unacceptable, and a perfectly good reason to ruin their lives," but when it's pro-Nazi (!!!) content, suddenly Vance wants to give it a pass? Come on.
And this week, Vance's own administration took it even further. The State Department revoked visas from at least six foreigners who made critical comments about Kirk's death on social media. The department explicitly stated as much in a tweet:
If you can't read that, it says:
The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.
The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk. Here are just a few examples of aliens who are no longer welcome in the U.S.
It then proceeded to show the posts from people whose visas it had revoked, making it blatantly clear that they were deciding to punish people in America for their speech, an unambiguous First Amendment violation. The State Department then showed social media posts from some of those whose visas were revoked, and they appeared way less edgy" and offensive" than anything that was revealed in that Young Republicans chat.
So let's be clear about the double standard here: When Young Republicans joke about Hitler and gas chambers, they're just kids" telling edgy, offensive jokes" that we shouldn't ruin their lives over. But when foreigners or Americans criticize a conservative influencer-with comments that were objectively far milder than I love Hitler"-they deserve to lose their jobs, their visas, and their livelihoods.
And, of course, this is a regular pattern from the Trump administration. Graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk was literally kidnapped off the street for writing a mild op-ed in support of Palestine. The administration has revoked over 6,000 student visas this year, sometimes targeting students who protested in support of Palestine (the State Dept. falsely said it was for terrorist activity.") Jimmy Kimmel's show was taken off the air over an extremely mild joke about MAGA's reaction to Charlie Kirk's death.
And there are many more examples as well.
Hell, there are even more examples of Vance trying to dismiss horrible things his friends say as kids being kids." Remember Marko Elez, the 25-year-old DOGE bro who was found to have posted a ton of truly racist shit just last year? After the tweets came out, Elez resigned, but JD Vance quickly stepped up to defend the tweets as some form of youthful edgy indiscretion:
So, again, when it's blatantly racist, hateful shit, Vance's response is:
I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life.
The pattern is unmistakable: pro-Nazi, blatantly hateful rhetoric from Republican allies gets dismissed as harmless fun, while even mild criticism of conservative figures or support for Palestinian rights gets you targeted for life-ruining punishment by federal agencies.
Vance owes the American people an explanation that he will never give. When exactly are edgy, offensive jokes" acceptable, and when do they deserve government retaliation? Because right now, it appears the only rule is that it's all in good fun if your hateful, pro-Nazi posts are in support of the MAGA plan. And simply cannot be allowed if they call out bad behavior on the part of MAGA folks.
If joking about Hitler and gas chambers is just boys being boys, then surely criticizing a political commentator should barely register as offensive speech. Yet somehow, the people making Nazi jokes get Vice Presidential protection while their critics get federal persecution.
This is the MAGA world view: hateful neo-Nazi supporting bigotry is all cool if you're doing so in support of team MAGA. But if you're not on the team, then it's fine to weaponize the entire government against your political views. This is the very blueprint for authoritarian control of speech.
Vance knows full well that he's using a double standard here. But that's part of his fascistic view of the world. He's flaunting the fact that he will abuse his position to protect his friends, while eagerly punishing his political opponents for doing way less. It's right out of the fascist playbook.
Vance finds it hilarious that he's getting away with such a double standard, but that doesn't mean anyone else needs to play along. Keep calling it out. And if there are any true reporters left, they should keep asking him about this double standard over and over again.