In the weeks since Senator JD Vance (R-OH) was selected as the running mate for former and potentially future President Donald Trump, Democrats have labeled him as "weird." With Vice President Kamala Harris selecting Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) as her running mate, one of the many takeaways is that they'll likely continue these immature insults and attacks.
Walz looks to have been the first Democrat to label Republicans as "weird." It's even gotten him glowing coverage from mainstream and leftist outlets.
Here's just a sampling of Tuesday's coverage:
- Axios: "Behind Tim Walz's 'weird'-to-VP pipeline."
- USA Today: "Tim Walz and the legacy of 'weird': Democrats embrace VP pick's one-word insult for MAGA."
- The Daily Beast: "Meet Tim Walz, Harris’ VP Pick Who First Called Trump 'Weird.'"
- Telegraph: "Who is Tim Walz? Kamala Harris' VP pick who made 'weird' Trump go viral."
- Rolling Stone: "Tim Walz Knows How to Expose Trump and the GOP," which included the subheadline, "Harris' vice presidential pick may ooze Midwestern charm, but he doesn't hold back when going after Republicans" and an entire subheader, "When he started calling Trump and Vance 'weird.'"
- The Guardian, with the headline, "Kamala Harris bets on progressive Tim Walz as running mate: "We are going to win,'" and a clip shared to their YouTube channel titled, "Tim Walz on calling Donald Trump weird."
Lest there's any doubt that these outlets are tying Walz to the "weird" label as a good thing, there's more than just the headlines.
As the piece from The Guardian mentions about Walz:
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His midwesterner dad charm and straight-talk propelled him up the list as a potential vice-presidential pick, though, and as the head of the Democratic Governors Association, he has been stumping for Biden and Harris for the past year.
It was his simple retort against Trump and his allies that caught national Democrats’ attention most: he called them weird. His clips on TV shows went viral, showing him pushing back on Republicans’ “weird behavior” while showcasing a list of what he had accomplished as a Democratic governor and how Democrats would govern if they win the White House again.
Walz explained in a TV interview why he had started calling Trump weird. It’s true that Trump’s policy would put women’s lives on the line and that he’s a threat to constitutional values, Walz said. But he’s also on the campaign trail “talking about Hannibal Lecter and shocking sharks and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind”.
“Have you ever seen the guy laugh? That seems very weird to me, that an adult can go through six and a half years of being in the public eye. If he has laughed, it’s at someone, not with someone. That is weird behavior,” Walz said of Trump.
One would think it's not very kind to refer to someone as "weird," yet The Daily Beast insisted on referring to Walz as someone nice. "The governor of Minnesota is a former high school teacher, Army veteran and hunter who brings Midwestern charm to the ticket," the subheadline references, which conveniently leaves out the issues with Walz's military career.
Here's what the piece also mentions:
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is a true dark horse: an unassuming, nerdy former high school teacher, military veteran and politician who is, gosh darnit, a nice guy.
Few ordinary Americans outside his home state had ever heard of the staunch progressive, much less considered him vice presidential material, until he helped pivot the Democratic messaging against Donald Trump from “threat to democracy” to plain old “weird.”
...
Walz shot into the spotlight last month after he coined the viral label “weird” for Trump and Vance. Fans fawned over his Midwestern “BDE” dad vibes.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mia highlighted the governor's radical record, which just goes to show you how it's Walz who is the weird one. He's certainly a radical extremist with his policies, including but not limited to being a "sanctuary state" for minor children who go through gender transition procedures that involve sterilization and/or genital mutilation.
As cheap as such a line of attack is, Vance has gotten ahead of it, as he's especially done in recent days. He'll likely continue to do so, with Walz being the official pick for Harris' running mate, and thus finding himself more in the news.
During the most recent episode of Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," Vance was asked by host Maria Bartiromo, "What do you say about this new strategy to call you weird from the Democrats?"
"I think that it's a lot of projection, frankly, Maria, from people who want to give transgender hormones to 9-year-old kids and want biological males to play in women's sports," Vance aptly offered, as he pointed out plenty of ways in which Democrats and their positions could be considered "weird."
"Look, I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm happily married, and I love my life. And I'm doing this because I want to be a good public servant who fixes the problems of the Democrats. They can call me whatever they want to. The middle school taunts don't bother me. What bothers me and what offends me is what Kamala Harris has done to this country," he continued, highlighting another concern with this "weird" label, which is how juvenile it is.
"Kamala Harris shot interest rates through the roof. And then she welcomed in millions of illegal aliens to compete with Americans for scarce homes. So I don't care what they call me, I just wish they would stop screwing up the country," he went on to say, speaking to plenty of concerns about the vice president's record.
#WATCH | JD Vance on being called weird: "I think that it's a lot of projection frankly from people who want to give transgender hormones to 9-year-old kids, and want biological males to play in women's sports" pic.twitter.com/7H1ZyLNtxQ
— VOZ (@Voz_US) August 4, 2024
Vance also appeared at a Trump rally on Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia, during which he invited Harris to "have a national conversation about weird."
During his remarks, Vance fittingly likened the "weird" insult to former President Barack Obama claiming small-town voters "cling to guns or religion," as well as when Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee referred to Trump supporters as belonging in "a basket of deplorables."
"Well, Kamala, I'm glad you brought that up," Vance continued, as the audience reacted positively to where he was going. "Let's talk about some things that are weird!" Trump's running mate went on to mention, "We think it's weird that Democrats want to put sexually explicit books in toddlers' libraries" as well as, "The far-left wants to allow biological males to beat the living crap out of women in boxing."
Vance went even more directly after Harris with further examples, such as how "we think it's weird for a presidential candidate to bail convicted rapists and murderers out of prison, and that's what Kamala Harris did." Such a line drew a particularly strong reaction from the crowd.
"And I think it's especially weird, when Kamala Harris comes to Atlanta, I believe came here to this arena, Kamala Harris comes to Atlanta and talks with a fake southern accent, even though she grew up in Canada! You can't make it up, that's pretty weird," Vance continued. "Go watch the clip, she sounded like a Southern belle, even though she grew up in Vancouver! Doesn't make any sense!"
As Matt covered at the time last week, just like Hillary did, Harris had a particularly fake and obvious southern accent during her own Atlanta rally. Vance has gone after Harris for her fake accent before, as he did when talking with CNN, which Sarah covered last week.
The clip ends with Vance exuding a sense of optimism for the Trump-Vance ticket. "But on November 5th, she can go back to using her San Francisco accent, 'cause we're going to send her packing and we're going to reelect Donald J. Trump president of the United States!"
Let's have a national conversation about weird, Kamala. pic.twitter.com/Ril52yfAv0
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 3, 2024
This is hardly the only instance of Vance clapping back at Harris and the Democrats. Earlier on Tuesday, he gave remarks in Philadelphia, the same city where Harris and Walz appeared that same day for the start of their tour of rallies in various key swing state cities. Vance looks to be following them around, with stops of his own in Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina.
The week before the Atlanta rally, Vance spoke at Trump's rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he called out Harris for daring to question his loyalty, despite how Vance has served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Kamala Harris questioned my loyalty to America. I enlisted in the Marines for this country. I went to Iraq for this country. I built a business for this country. And my running mate took a bullet for this country. What the hell has Kamala done to question our loyalty to America? pic.twitter.com/WykF5pRY4Y
— JD Vance (@JDVance) July 28, 2024
