Charlie Kirk Misquoted? JD Vance Denies Controversial Remarks - Here's What Was Really Said

There is a clip going viral that is creating major controversy online in which during a conference the current US Vice President JD Vance addressed another online controversy surrounding the late Charlie Kirk. Vance pushed back against claims that Kirk made racist remarks about Black women, saying firmly, 'He never said anything like that. He never uttered those words.' But a viral clip has challenged that narrative.

JD Vance Defends Kirk Against Accusations of Racism

This all started when a contentious clip made out of two videos went viral on social media where first Vance is shown defending Kirk, and then the second clip of what Kirk had said plays below it, in a way proving that Vance is wrong. This led to a massive storm on social media with allegedly racist accusations at Kirk as this clip resurfaced. The clip can be seen below:

However, Vance's defense came after the original short video clip of Kirk went viral on social media, where he was accused of making a sweeping and offensive generalization about Black women's intelligence. But as it turns out Charlie Kirk was indeed reportedly misquoted. So Vance's defence does hold some merit.

What Charlie Kirk Actually Said

Tracking it further back, the controversy began when a segment from one of Kirk's recent broadcasts resurfaced online. Many users on both Reddit and X shared a shortened version of the clip that appeared to show him saying that Black women 'do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously.' The phrase was reportedly quickly denounced across social media as racist and demeaning. However, the full transcript tells a different story here.

As per several reports, Kirk was speaking about affirmative action and referenced four specific public figures namely Michelle Obama, Ketanji Brown Jackson,Joy Reid, and Sheila Jackson Lee in this particular instance. So his argument allegedly centered on how diversity and inclusion policies had been discussed in American politics. Kirk reportedly said that in previous years, if they had labeled those women as 'affirmative-action picks,' they would have been accused of racism. Moreover, he then added that those same individuals had publicly acknowledged benefitting from affirmative-action policies.

Maintaining Context in Online Political Discourse

And then in that context, Kirk said, 'We know. You do not have the brain processing power to be taken really seriously.' So his remark, while definitely controversial, was allegedly directed at those four individuals and not all Black women as a group as reports suggest. Furthermore, reports clarified that the viral post misrepresented this quote by removing the preceding sentences, which gave it a specific political context. The shorter clip stripped away those details it seems, even though this point is still being debated as a number of implications can be drawn from his full speech, too.

However this incident does bring forward the growing difficulty of maintaining context in online political discourse. In an age where short clips dominate attention spans, comments are often reshaped to fit a narrative rather than reflect intent. For supporters of Kirk, the viral quote was an example of how ideological opponents weaponize selective editing. For critics, even the full statement came across as unnecessarily inflammatory.