Either the perp in this case is crazy, stupid, or incredibly lucky not to be dead rather than just arrested. These three conditions are, of course, not mutually exclusive.
Someone thought it would be a fun idea to attack the home of the sitting Vice President of the United States. To quote one of my favorite philosophers, Mad Dog Tannen: You thought wrong, dude. Police have a suspect in custody, and the Secret Service is investigating it as a federal crime:
A man was taken into custody overnight after allegedly damaging Vice President JD Vance’s home in Cincinnati, U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said.
Vance’s press secretary Taylor Van Kirk said that the Vance family was in Washington, D.C., during the incident.
“An adult male was taken into custody by the Cincinnati Police Department after being detained by U.S. Secret Service personnel for causing property damage, including breaking windows on the exterior of a personal residence associated with the Vice President,” Guglielmi said in a statement.
The house was empty at the time, but the Vances had been in the home over the holidays, leaving just before this took place. According to the Associated Press, the perp began smashing the windows with a hammer, drawing the attention of the Secret Service detail guarding the home:
The man was detained shortly after midnight by Secret Service agents assigned to Vance’s home, east of downtown Cincinnati, agency spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. He has not been named.
The Secret Service heard a loud noise at the home around midnight and found a person who had broken a window with a hammer and was trying to get into the house, according to two law enforcement officials who were not publicly authorized to discuss the investigation into what happened and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The man had also vandalized a Secret Service vehicle on his way up the home’s driveway, one of the officials said.
Clearly, this wasn’t just a case of a burglar making an incredibly dumb choice of targets. Vandalizing the car makes this look much more like an attempt to target the home for the sake of damaging it or worse, including attacking the people inside. That will almost certainly make this into a case for federal prosecutors, as the Department of Justice has wanted to start ramping up the disincentives for these kinds of attacks for obvious reasons of late:
The incident comes amid heightened concerns over political violence after multiple high-profile killings last year, including the killings of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband. President Donald Trump faced two assassination attempts during the 2024 election, and in recent months, several Indiana Republicans faced swatting or threats amid redistricting pressure from Trump.
Let’s not forget about the torching of the governor’s mansion in Pennsylvania, either. That is the closest corollary to this attack, at least at first blush. The perp in that case was a radical anti-Semite and Hamas supporter, angered by Josh Shapiro’s support for Israel. The issue might be different in this case, but don’t be surprised if the perp here turns out to be a radical rather than just a garden-variety nutcase. However, don’t discount that possibility entirely, either.
The police and Secret Service will hold a presser later today to discuss the case. We’ll either update this post or run follow-ups as developments require. Stay tuned, and expect Pam Bondi to ramp up a federal prosecution quickly if there is any predicate at all for it.
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