A vice president who has spent a month sparring with hecklers from the stage has run into a tougher audience on his own side — conservatives who think the whole routine is rehearsed.
Vice President JD Vance dismissed the protesters who interrupted him at an airport hangar in Belgrade, Mont., near Bozeman, as “a few yahoos” on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, then reached for profanity hours later when demonstrators disrupted his second stop of the day in Kansas.
Three demonstrators — two women and a man — were removed from the Montana event. The Kansas stop, at Haas Metal Engineering in Topeka, produced a different formula: a curse word, followed by an apology to the kids in the room.
From Yahoos to a Different Word
Roughly four minutes into his Topeka remarks, as Vance told the crowd he had grown up in a town much like theirs, a protester shouted, “You’re a war criminal!” The rest of the shout disappeared under a chant of “USA! USA!”
Once the noise died down, Vance answered. “The thing I’ve realized, having done these rallies for the last couple of weeks, is that the only chance the Democrats have is to interrupt and shut down the debate because when we have a free and open debate, the American people will realize that all the Democrats are selling is a fat load of bull****,” he said.
About two minutes later, while he was describing pee-wee football teams sponsored by local businesses, another protester began screaming. “Now, ladies and gentlemen, we have another bull**** artist. Excuse my language, for the kids,” Vance told the crowd, then added in a somewhat odd voice, “He’s out of here!” The rest of the speech — roughly 30 minutes, 4,037 words by the transcript — went by without another disruption.
The Pastor Challenging Doc Marshall
Vance came to Topeka to campaign for Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, his second swing through the state in as many months. With the midterms set for Tuesday, Nov. 3, Republicans are straining to protect slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. The Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Democrat who has never run for office, has Marshall locked in a bruising fight.
Vance attacked Hamilton directly, calling him “a lab creation of Washington operatives” and “a career leftist who says we must repent for being white.” He went further on the pastor’s faith. “But I do know the lawgiver in Adam Hamilton’s world — it isn’t Moses. It’s not Jesus. It’s (Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer,” he said.
Hamilton is the pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the nation. Vance also criticized his handling of a child sexual abuse scandal at a Church of the Resurrection summer camp in the mid-2000s. At one point the vice president warned against sending Hamilton to represent Texas, then quickly corrected himself.
Marshall drew warmer words. Vance called him “a dear friend” and told the crowd, “Roger is always on your side.” Recalling railroad-safety reform efforts after the 2023 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Vance said the push met “unbelievable pushback,” adding, “Doc Marshall was there fighting right along with us.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum spoke before Vance. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and state GOP Chairwoman Danedri Herbert got a greeting as the vice president opened, and he went on to praise the Trump administration’s drive to scrap diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Another Marshall term, he told the crowd, would let Republicans tear down further what he called racial hatred and racial discrimination.
Hecklers Dogged Him All Month
Hecklers hampered Vance’s campaign speeches six times in October before the Kansas stop. He called a protester in Lakeland, Fla., a “clown” and a “Democrat plant” on Oct. 1. A heckler waving a Mexican flag in Tyler, Texas, drew the label “crazy person,” and Vance used a strange voice to tell him to get out.
A man seated directly behind him in North Carolina earlier in October stood and demanded the release of the Epstein files; Vance answered with a remark about illegal border crossings. A man in a suit at a Cincinnati rally threw off his red MAGA hat and shouted at him, and Vance told the crowd the man hadn’t washed his hair in about three months.
Conservatives Who Hear a Rehearsal
A growing number of conservatives see the performance as an act. A report published Thursday, Oct. 8, laid out their view that the swear-then-apologize sequence is staged. “There’s something deeper about American politics where people think you can fake authenticity by cursing,” a prominent conservative commentator, granted anonymity, told Politico.
That same commentator said President Donald Trump’s profanity lands differently because it is simply how he speaks, and compared Vance to a bad comedian who cannot resist a line about his wife, Usha Vance, not wanting him talking that way. Republican strategist and Vance ally Garrett Ventry offered a defense: that is how the vice president talks behind the scenes, he said.
The review of Vance’s recent remarks turned up swearing in Ohio, Georgia and Milwaukee, plus an apology at a launch event for the America.gov website in case there were children in the back. Maura Gillespie, a Republican communications strategist who once worked for former House Speaker John Boehner, said profanity can make some politicians seem more relatable and show passion. The danger, she said, is when it sounds rehearsed: “It comes across as inauthentic, and it actually ends up backfiring.”
