Critics took to social media demanding that the New York Times apologize for an opinion piece accusing former President Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, of pushing "blood-and-soil nationalism."
The piece by New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie was initially published on Saturday with the headline: "JD Vance’s Blood-and-Soil Nationalism Finds Its Target."
After outcry on social media, however, the Times changed the headline to "Shouldn’t JD Vance Represent All of Ohio?" Bouie’s message, however, accusing Vance of espousing "blood-and-soil nationalism" and suggesting he would progress past simply a "rhetorical war" against immigrants if elected vice president, remained.
Critics online accused the Times piece of inciting violence against Vance and essentially calling him a Nazi just two months after the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Vance's wife, Usha, is the daughter of Indian immigrants. Other X users and the Vance campaign pointed to how the couple share three biracial children.
"'Blood and soil' The @nytimes has now stooped to essentially calling @JDVance a Nazi," Republican strategist Andrew Surabian wrote, sharing a screenshot of the original headline. "Truly vile stuff from the supposed paper of record – If they had any ethics at all they would retract this and apologize."
"Just months after a psychopath tried to assassinate my father, the @nytimes is now openly trying to incite violence against @JDVance," Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X.
"PS: JD is the father of 3 biracial kids, which makes this smear even more disgusting!" the Republican presidential nominee's eldest son added.
"With an assassination attempt on President Trump’s life only two months ago, it’s abhorrent the New York Times would spew such disgusting bile – against a father of three biracial children nonetheless," Vance's national press secretary Taylor Van Kirk said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "With headlines like these, it's no wonder why countless people are asking if the purpose was to incite violence against Senator Vance. We sincerely hope that isn't the case and that the Times will come to their senses and retract this disgusting headline."
"So now the Times is directly calling JD Vance a Nazi," Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk wrote to his 3.4 million followers. "This is the kind of regime propaganda that nearly got President Trump assassinated."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Times for comment, but they did not immediately respond.
In the Times piece, the columnist took issue with Vance’s comments about Springfield, Ohio, where residents have been pointing to an uptick in crime, mayhem and car crashes due to the massive influx of roughly 20,000 Haitian immigrants into what was a small town of approximately 58,000 people since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Residents at city council meetings have alleged that Haitians are killing and eating ducks in parks and pet cats and dogs, allegations which Vance and Trump repeated on social media and at the debate. Local officials said they had not received reports of such incidents.
"What matters to Vance is who they are, where they come from and what they look like," Bouie wrote of Haitian immigrants. "They don’t belong to this soil, he might say, and therefore they don’t belong. Right now, the most Vance can do to wage this war is use his words. I shudder to think what might be possible if he had the authority of the state to wield as well."
Former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus slammed the Times' piece for attacking Vance despite rising antisemitism under the Biden-Harris administration since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.
"Under the Biden-Harris Administration, Jewish Americans can’t safely wear religious symbols in many places in America; Jewish students are harassed, intimidated, and calls for their genocide, which are eerily reminiscent to the holocaust, [permeate] our educational Institutions. Israel faces existential threats while Harris ‘both-sides’ the argument everytime [sic] she speaks," Ortagus wrote. "Our generation of Jews have known levels of antisemitism that we haven’t experienced since WW2. But the legacy media tries to somehow paint my friend @JDVance as the problem for American Jews. I can tell you from my public and private conversations with him, that he is ardently pro-Israel. Further, he refuses to tolerate the open season on Jewish Americans that has flourished under the Biden-Harris Administration."
"I look forward to the Oct 1st VP debate, where JD will absolutely expose Walz and Harris on these issues," she added.
"It’s disgusting that the media is now pushing these ridiculous, violence inciting claims about @JDVance just two months after @realDonaldTrump was nearly assassinated," Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz wrote on X. "Also friendly reminder to the media & the left that JD is the father of 3 biracial kids. They should immediately retract and apologize to JD."
