Vice President-elect JD Vance is bringing Daniel Penny—the person who was lately acquitted on a cost of criminally negligent murder in New York after placing Jordan Neely in a chokehold on a subway automotive, in the end killing him—as his plus-one to the Military-Navy soccer recreation on Saturday.
Vance and Penny, each veterans, will be part of President-elect Donald Trump in his suite on the one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary recreation in Landover, Maryland.
“Daniel’s man,” Vance wrote on X, previously Twitter, “and New York’s mob district lawyer tried to smash his life for having a spine. I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s in a position to have enjoyable and recognize how a lot his fellow residents admire his braveness.”
On Monday, Penny was acquitted of wrongdoing in a Manhattan courtroom after a number of days of jury deliberations—a ruling that left some within the gallery applauding and others sobbing.
In Could of 2023, Penny boarded an Uptown F prepare the place Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator, was exclaiming that he was hungry and thirsty, that he didn’t care if he lived or died, and that he needed to return to jail, according to witnesses. Some riders described the conduct as scary. Penny, a Marine veteran, approached Neely and positioned him in a chokehold that prosecutors stated lasted virtually six minutes. A health worker in New York Metropolis discovered that Neely died from compression to his neck, ensuing from the chokehold.
The New York Metropolis Police Division has additionally come under fire after Sergeant Carl Johnson confirmed in his testimony that officers responding to the scene didn’t give Neely probably lifesaving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and didn’t begin chest compressions till minutes after arriving. Johnson instructed his officers to not give Neely mouth-to-mouth out of worry they may contract AIDS—which is not transmitted through saliva—or one other illness.
After Monday’s ruling, Jordan Neely’s household announced that they’re transferring ahead with a civil lawsuit towards Penny.
“I simply need to say, I miss my son. My son didn’t must undergo this. I didn’t must undergo this both. It hurts, actually, actually hurts,” Andre Zachary, Neely’s father, stated. “What are we going to do individuals? What’s going to occur to us now? I’ve had sufficient of this. The system is rigged.”
Video of the chokehold shortly went viral, sparked weeks of protest, and drew nationwide consideration. The case, as NBC reported on Monday, divided individuals “in some instances alongside political and racial strains.” Neely was Black, and Penny is white.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 9: Andre Zachary, Jordan Neely’s father, holds a press convention outdoors the Manhattan Legal Courthouse on December 9, 2024 in New York Metropolis. (Picture by Alex Kent/Getty Photos)
“Some individuals seen Penny as callous and his actions as prison on the day he encountered Neely, who had been shouting and appearing erratically,” NBC’s Janelle Griffith and Erik Ortiz write. “Others contend Penny was selfless in his try to guard fellow passengers.”
Others, the vice president-elect has made clear, like Vance.
On the day Penny was acquitted, Vance lauded the choice, saying that he had “not stated a lot about this case out of worry of (negatively) influencing the journey.” “However,” he continued on X, “thank God justice was executed on this case. It was a scandal Penny was ever prosecuted within the first place.”
Vance’s heat invitation to the Military-Navy recreation comes as others on the appropriate have embraced Penny, too.
Final 12 months, Florida governor Ron DeSantis posted a hyperlink to Penny’s authorized protection fund, writing, “We should defeat the Soros-Funded DAs, cease the Left’s pro-criminal agenda, and take again the streets for law-abiding residents. We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny. Let’s present this Marine… America’s received his again.” One other former Republican presidential hopeful, Nikki Haley, wanted New York governor Kathy Hochul to pardon Penny, saying the transfer would “let individuals like Penny who actually had been very courageous in that occasion, it’s going to allow them to know that we’ve received their again.”
Charlie Kirk, the right-wing commentator who heads up Turning Level USA, has repeatedly referred to Penny as a hero.
As for Vance, this isn’t the primary time he has praised a vigilante whose actions divided the nation.
Again in 2021, when Vance was an Ohio Republican Senate candidate, he defended Kyle Rittenhouse, who had recently been fully acquitted of all costs after he shot and killed two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and wounded a 3rd throughout the metropolis’s Black Lives Matter protests.
In an interview with Newsmax’s Greg Kelly, Vance stated that as an alternative of treating Rittenhouse like a “17-year-old child who was raised by a single mom” and “made good choices and determined to be a constructive power in his neighborhood,” he had been “slandered and lied about.”
“It’s not nearly Kyle Rittenhouse,” Vance stated on the time. As an alternative, he continued, it’s a query of what kind of “younger males will we need to increase in our communities. What sort of virtues do we wish our leaders to advertise?”
Rittenhouse, Vance added simply days after the acquittal, was displaying “fundamental manly advantage.”
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