Several mainstream media outlets, most prominently the Associated Press, were caught lying about comments made by Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), the vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party, regarding school shootings in the aftermath of a shooting at a Georgia high school.

Breitbart reports that Senator Vance, during a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, commented on the tragic nature of such shootings but was thankful for the presence of armed police officers in the school, known as resource officers, who stopped the shooter before he could take any more lives.

On Tuesday, at the Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, a 14-year-old gunman opened fire at the school, ultimately killing two students and two teachers, and injuring 9 others. Upon being confronted by the two resource officers who drew their own guns, the shooter voluntarily surrendered.

Commenting on the shooting, Senator Vance said that “if these psychos are going to go after our kids we’ve got to be prepared for it. We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We’ve got to deal with it.”

When asked by a reporter what could be done to stop such shootings, Vance responded by saying “I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools. We’ve got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children they’re not able.”

Following these remarks, AP omitted much of Vance’s statement and instead simply reported on the “fact of life” phrase. Only after major backlash did the AP revise its original story to instead say “JD Vance says he laments that school shootings are a ‘fact of life’ and calls for better security.”

“This post replaces an earlier post that was deleted to add context to the partial quote from Vance,” the outlet added.

In response, Vance spokesman William Martin blasted the Associated Press for deliberately lying in an attempt to portray Vance’s comments as heartless.

“This is yet another case of the fake news media brazenly lying about a Republican politician. Senator Vance said exactly the opposite of what the Associated Press claimed,” said Martin. “It should come as no surprise that the AP lost any and all credibility it had years ago, because they will lie about literally anything in order to prop up the Democrats. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has called for all police officers to be removed from schools, putting children all over America at risk. It’s yet another example of how Kamala Harris’s weak, failed, and dangerously liberal agenda makes her unfit for office.”

As the vice presidential nominee of former President Donald Trump, Vance is set to debate the Democratic nominee for vice president, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D-Minn.), on October 1st.