“Some people viewed Penny as callous and his actions as criminal on the day he encountered Neely, who had been shouting and acting erratically,” NBC’s Janelle Griffith and Erik Ortiz write. “Others contend Penny was selfless in his attempt to protect fellow passengers.”
Others, the vice president-elect has made clear, like Vance.
On the day Penny was acquitted, Vance lauded the decision, saying that he had “not said much about this case out of fear of (negatively) influencing the journey.” “But,” he continued on X, “thank God justice was done in this case. It was a scandal Penny was ever prosecuted in the first place.”
Vance’s warm invitation to the Army-Navy game comes as others on the right have embraced Penny, too.
Last year, Florida governor Ron DeSantis posted a link to Penny’s legal defense fund, writing, “We must defeat the Soros-Funded DAs, stop the Left’s pro-criminal agenda, and take back the streets for law-abiding citizens. We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny. Let’s show this Marine… America’s got his back.” Another former Republican presidential hopeful, Nikki Haley, wanted New York governor Kathy Hochul to pardon Penny, saying the move would “let people like Penny who really were very brave in that instance, it will let them know that we’ve got their back.”
Charlie Kirk, the right-wing commentator who heads up Turning Point USA, has repeatedly referred to Penny as a hero.
As for Vance, this isn’t the first time he has praised a vigilante whose actions divided the nation.
Back in 2021, when Vance was an Ohio Republican Senate candidate, he defended Kyle Rittenhouse, who had recently been fully acquitted of all charges after he shot and killed two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and wounded a third during the city’s Black Lives Matter protests.
In an interview with Newsmax’s Greg Kelly, Vance said that instead of treating Rittenhouse like a “17-year-old kid who was raised by a single mother” and “made good decisions and decided to be a positive force in his community,” he had been “slandered and lied about.”
“It’s not just about Kyle Rittenhouse,” Vance said at the time. Instead, he continued, it’s a question of what sort of “young men do we want to raise in our communities. What kind of virtues do we want our leaders to promote?”
Rittenhouse, Vance added just days after the acquittal, was displaying “basic manly virtue.”
