A University of Massachusetts Lowell radio host has resigned after his social media comment drew a federal investigation.
“JD VANCE THINKS BRITAIN & FRANCE ARE AMERICAS [sic] LIKELY ENEMIES,” someone wrote on Bluesky, a liberal alternative to X.
“‘It’s simple, we kill JD Vance,’ said the person behind an account named hanslopez.bsky.social,” Fox News reported. “The person identified themselves as a host of a radio show on WUML, which is funded by the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.” He is reportedly an alumnus of the school, not a current student.
The school told Fox News, which first reported on the incident, that it requested help from federal law enforcement who determined there was no threat.
“UMass Lowell police promptly coordinated with the FBI, Secret Service and Haverhill police the same day to ensure an appropriate response,” the school told Fox News. “Contact was made with the individual in question, and the necessary assessments were conducted in collaboration with federal partners. Authorities confirmed there was no immediate threat.”
“UMass Lowell takes seriously any threat of violence involving our community. Statements such as the post in question are inconsistent with the values of our democracy and our university,” the school also told Fox News. “The individual in question has since resigned from his volunteer role at WUML and removed the post from his Bluesky account.”
“WUML is a public station, with membership open to both UMass Lowell students and community members,” according to the radio station’s website.
This is not the first time someone on Bluesky has used their platform to advocate violence against the White House.
Last November, a man whose name is, ironically, James Donald Vance, “was sentenced to two years in federal prison for posting threatening communications online, including threats to kill the President and Vice President of the United States, and one of the President’s children.”
The Michigan man “posted several threatening posts on the social media service Bluesky in which he made specific threats to kill four people, including President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance,” according to a Department of Justice news release.
