In an incident involving a journalist taking words out of context, establishment reporter Jacqueline Sweet found herself in hot water after sharing part of a 2021 interview with Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH. The tweet focused on Vance’s comments about earlier waves of immigration to the United States and mentioned higher crime rates, ethnic enclaves, and inter-ethnic conflict. However, she faced criticism from Greg Price of the State Freedom Caucus Network for taking Vance’s words out of context.
Price pointed out that Vance went on to discuss the “upsides to the waves of immigration” in the same interview, which Sweet intentionally left out of her tweet. He argued that this selective quoting painted an unfair picture of Vance’s views on the subject. The journalist was also criticized by Donald Trump Jr., who questioned why she blocked people for pointing out the dishonesty in her editing of the clip.
Sweet’s profile on X was subsequently made private after the backlash from both Price and Trump Jr. In the interview with Jack Murphy, Vance had discussed the downsides of massive waves of Italian, Irish, and German immigration to the U.S., but also acknowledged the upsides, such as cultural enrichment and the incorporation of these populations into the broader American fabric. During the 1920s, the U.S. slowed down immigration from these countries, allowing new citizens to better assimilate into society.