JD Vance and the MAGA battering of Renee Good

“This is a guy who’s actually done a very, very important job for the United States of America… He deserves a debt of gratitude.”

These are the words uttered by the Vice President of the United States about a man who just shot a woman named Renee Nicole Good in the face — three times. The same man who shared a horrifying video of the shooting, where someone can be heard saying “fucking bitch” immediately after the shots rang out.

Our descent into fascism is happening at roller coaster speed, with an entire country bearing witness through viral videos and social media posts. Our government is led by a man who acts only in service to his own power, driven by an endless lust for vengeance. All of this is terrifying and happening more rapidly than our heats and brains can process.

And…

As a former advocate for survivors of domestic and sexual violence I am particularly stuck on those words above. Those words were spoken by JD Vance in the midst of comments about the shooting that were completely divorced from the reality presented by the videos we have now all seen. Comments that insisted on the shooter’s immunity from any punishment for his actions, and which had no room for any sympathy for Renee Good or the wife and children she left behind.

Vance’s comments dripped with misogyny, and essentially amounted to a public battering of a woman just shot and killed by an agent of the government he helps lead. The same misogyny that underscores this entire administration. An administration led by our Abuser-in-Chief and staffed at every level by abusers. One whose policies and practices completely mirror the dynamics of an abusive relationship. And all of that was on full display in JD Vance’s remarks about the shooting.

Let’s break this down. First, Vance repeats the lie that Renee Good hit the ICE agent with her car. A lie that we can refute with our very own eyes. But it doesn’t matter what we see or what we know, the abuser’s version of events is the only one that matters. Gaslighting and outright lies being the vehicles through which abusers enforce a reality where they are always the victim and any harm they cause is solely the responsibility of the person they hurt. Vance follows this exact playbook when he says that Good’s death was a “tragedy of her own making”. He absolves the ICE agent (and yes I am refusing to say his name) of any culpability without even allowing for any meaningful investigation to take place. In fact, he and the administration may not even allow a meaningful investigation to take place at all. Instead, he makes Renee Good completely at fault for her own death. Why? Because he identifies the ICE agent as the sole victim here: “He’s been assaulted, he’s been attacked, he’s been injured because of it.” His lies leave no room for any acknowledgment of or care for a dead woman and her traumatized family. This is absolutely peak abuser behavior — seeing others solely as extensions of your own needs instead of as people with lives and loves and feelings that deserve concern.

Speaking of deserving, Vance goes on to ask for prayers for the ICE agent before saying the man deserves our gratitude. Wow, was that devastating to hear. I cannot count the number of times survivors told me their abusers hurt them and then told them to be grateful. Punished them for not appreciating everything they do and then used their victim’s “ingratitude” to justify yet more abuse. I cannot tell you how much it pained me to hear the second most powerful person in the country demand our thanks for a man who pointed a gun at a woman’s face and shot her to death. Who then described the ICE agent’s shooting of Good as “a very, very important job for the United States of America”. And to make matters even worse, Vance claims the shooter is entitled to “absolute immunity”. Besides being factually incorrect this statement is so profoundly scary I am struggling to find the right words to describe it. So I will sum it up in this way: in JD Vance’s America federal agents can kill someone and have complete license to do so.

That is about as anti-democratic as I can possibly imagine and any politician — Democrat, Republican, or Independent — should be fighting with every tool available to them to stop this.

A man shot a woman in the face in front of an entire community of people and the government of this country lauds and protects him from any accountability. That is so absolutely terrifying I am practically jumping out of my skin as I write this.

Domestic violence is about power and control. It is about using hurt and fear to maintain power and elicit control. Everything this administration does can and should be understood through this lens. From their terrorizing of immigrants to their scapegoating of trans people. Through their withholding of federal funds to their hostile takeover of our cities. They want absolute power and control of every aspect of our lives. They will tell us that up is down and the sky is purple and whatever you see isn’t real. They will hurt you and tell you it’s your fault and demand gratitude for the pain they have perpetrated. They will say they had to do it, they had no other choice.

JD Vance’s disdain for a woman who they believed dared to push back on their quest for absolute power is palpable. And it’s pretty damn triggering too. I posted a much shorter version of this on my socials and the response was immediate and heartbreaking. People identified themselves as survivors and talked about the impact of his words. Some talked about recognizing their own abusers in Vance’s comments and one person worried that more victims will die because their abusers have been emboldened by the Vice President of our country. A worry I think is absolutely founded. One survivor said very pointedly that she is now terrified her abuser “will get a badge, a gun, a bonus, and immunity” and that she is not the only one. Her response to my post stopped me in my tracks.

Survivors know what this is. They see Trump and Vance and Miller and understand them as abusers. Vance’s comments about Renee Nicole Good only reinforce what we already know: this country is being run by people who will use unlimited amounts of violence to ensure their power is also unlimited. Survivors know this, but we also need our Congresspeople — of both parties — to understand this. We need them to call out the violence and abuse for what it is and use their power to get in the way, put up every roadblock possible, and do all that they can to protect those most targeted.

And we — every single one of us —need to do the same. Work on a hyperlocal level to fight back on this national horror. Care for the immigrant communities who are being terrorized by this regime of abusers. Set up networks of support and push for local policies that keep people safe. The harm from the national level is raining down upon us, but every mutual aid society, every coalition built, and every response network organized serves as an umbrella to protect us from that rain. And we have to help everyone around us understand that this is abuse, and that it will not be solved by capitulation or compromise. There is no compromise with violence. The work isn’t about finding a shared vision with violent people, it’s about protecting people from that violence. Creating shelters of peace for the victims of this abuse. Shelters that will also be there for us when the abusers come for us too.

I cannot describe how much it pains me to hear the Vice President say we owe a debt of gratitude to a man who shot a woman in the face. As a former survivor advocate now turned gun violence prevention activist, it also terrifies me. Because here is what I know:

Domestic violence is exponentially more lethal when paired with easy access to guns. And that man with a gun created a lethal situation, only to be given cover by the abusers that occupy the White House. The same White House that is working desperately to protect the men who abused girls and young women on Epstein’s island. The White House that is currently led by a man held liable for sexual assault.

We have so much work to do.