JD Vance heckled as he takes aim at Pope Leo XIV over Iran and tells him to ‘be careful what he says’
The Vice President was told 'you're killing children' as a heckler interrupted his "fireside chat".
JD Vance has fumed at a heckler after he was interrupted during an on-stage event, in which he issued a stern warning to Pope Leo XIV amid the pontiff's row with President Donald Trump.
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The Vice President was taking part in "fireside chat" at Turning Point USA's event in Georgia when a heckler blurted out “you’re killing children”.
“Jesus Christ does not support genocide,” the heckler said.
Vance agreed with the heckler, hitting back: “Jesus Christ certainly does not support genocide.”
Minutes later, a voice shouted out “you’re killing children! You’re bombing children,” in an apparent reference to the war in Gaza.
Vance hit back: “Sir, to complain about what happened in Gaza, why don’t you complain about Joe Biden and the last administration? We’re the administration that solved that problem.”
VP Vance getting heckled at TPUSA event
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 14, 2026
“You’re killing children!” pic.twitter.com/1rPZzghChb
He added: “Excuse me sir. Right now you’re seeing more humanitarian aid than it has at any time in the past five years.”
Vance also told the audience: “I recognise that young voters do not love the policy we have in the Middle East, OK… I understand.”
It comes as Trump doubled down on his attacks on the Pope in a new series of posts on social media.
In the latest string of posts, he asked for someone to "please tell Pope Leo... that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable" and went on to claim that Iran has killed "at least 42,000" protesters over the last two months.
It comes after he bizarrely claimed that he thought an AI image depicting himself as Jesus Christ “was me as a doctor” before he piled on yet more criticism of Pope Leo.
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, has sided with the president over the pontiff amid the row.
Responding to the feud during the Turning Point event, Vance said: “There are certainly things the pope has said I disagree with.”
He said he is open to debating the Iran War, but warned the pope: “In the same way, it is important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy.
“I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Vance had told the pope to "stick to matters of morality".
The AI image in question showed Trump dressed in a white robe with a glowing hand on the forehead of a man in a hospital bed.
He can be seen surrounded by patriotic symbols, including a waving US flag and an eagle flying above fireworks and fighter jets.After the defence of the image, Trump again took aim at Leo - saying the Pontiff should stay out of politics.
In a phone interview, Mr Trump said of the Pope: "He's wrong on the issues. I don't think he should be getting into politics. I think he probably learned that from this."
This followed a rant against Pope Leo posted on Sunday in which the President insisted the pontiff "wouldn't be in the Vatican" without him after the Pope condemned the war in Iran.