It’s been three weeks since Tim Walz said what we’ve all been thinking about JD Vance and other MAGA heads: they’re weird! On Sunday, Vance and Donald Trump Jr., the VP wannabe’s top booster, finally unveiled their rebuttal.
And it seems as if they turned to Pee-Wee Herman for inspiration.
“I know you are, but what am I?”
Politics, but make it gay!
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When Kamala Harris introduced Walz as her running mate last week in Philadelphia, the Minnesota governor hopped on stage and delivered a rousing address to euphoric supporters. At the end of his remarks, his wife, Gwen, joined him.
When Walz saw Gwen, he stuck out his hand for a handshake before embracing her. The interaction didn’t garner attention at the time, mainly because it was unremarkable. Walz simply greeted his wife. No big deal!
But Team Trump, faced with dwindling poll numbers and an accelerated campaign, is getting desperate. Walz, a former high school teacher and football coach, seems like the quintessential normal guy. He doesn’t even own a single stock!
Left with little material, Don Jr. threw Walz’s own words back at him… using his aforementioned normal exchange with his wife as a jumping off point.
“Totally normal to greet your wife with a firm handshake and a bro hug/back slap. Tim Walz isn’t weird at all, guys 🤣🤣🤣,” he posted on X over the weekend.
Totally normal to greet your wife with a firm handshake and a bro hug/back slap. Tim Walz isn't weird at all, guys 🤣🤣🤣pic.twitter.com/PHAKNEUF3H
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 11, 2024
Unsurprisingly, Don Jr.’s insult didn’t land. As many pointed out, when it comes to critiquing marital interactions, members of the Trump family should probably stay silent.
No married couple–and we mean no married couple–carries on a seemingly more strained and uncomfortable relationship than Donald Trump and his third wife Melania. They’re seldom seen together; and when they are, she can’t seem to get away fast enough.
On social media, Ron Filipkowski put together a 1-minute, 50-second compilation of Melania snubbing her husband… and probably left a lot of material on the cutting room floor.
Related*
We now know where Melania’s been & exactly what she’s been doing all this time
The mystery has been revealed.
Since Don Jr decided he wanted to ridicule public affection between Walz and his wife, here is a montage of clips from the love affair that is Donald and Melania. pic.twitter.com/OlvlJELIkE
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 11, 2024
Even hand-holding seems to be over-the-line for the ex-FLOTUS, who infamously appeared to swap her now-78-year-old hubby’s hand away during a visit to Tel Aviv in 2017.
In a video that's caused a stir, the first lady appears to swat Trump's hand away with a visible flick of her wrist https://t.co/MXAieDb9v8 pic.twitter.com/UyiSX7k0Ah
— CNN (@CNN) May 22, 2017
Growing even more apart in recent years, Melania wiped her hand at the couple’s 2023 New Year’s Eve celebration at Mar-a-Lago.
Sweaty palms. Stressful times. pic.twitter.com/rQxIOJ4fbh
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 7, 2023
Acting in concert with Don Jr., Vance also tried to ding Walz over his, once again, perfectly normal embrace with his wife. The Ohio senator delivered his version of the ineffective attack during an interview Sunday with CNN’s Dana Bash.
“I remember when I had just been announced as the VP nominee, I gave my big speech and I saw my wife and I gave her a big hug and a kiss because I love my wife. And I think that’s what a normal person does,” he said, before shifting his focus to Walz.
“Tim Walz gave his wife a nice, firm Midwestern handshake and then tried to sort of awkwardly correct for it,” he added.
Sorry, I can't help it. One more video. JD Vance calls Walz “weird” for a handshake with his wife. Meanwhile, Trump shakes Melania’s hand like they're sealing a business deal, then nudges her to take a seat. Peak romance, folks. 😂 pic.twitter.com/GpXwXuCnRp
— Marc Broklawski (@marcbroklawski) August 11, 2024
During an interview with ABC News, Vance responded to the racist barbs levied towards his wife, Usha, by inferring she’s too attractive for white supremacists.
“Don’t attack my wife,” he said. “She’s out of your league.”
To prove that Trump isn’t racist, Vance relayed a story about how the criminally convicted ex-president calls Usha, who is Indian-American, “beautiful.” (Trump, unable to articulate a coherent case against Kamala Harris, who is also Indian-American, has resorted to questioning her racial identity.)
“Donald Trump has spent a lot of quality time with my wife,” he said. “Every time he sees her, he gives her a hug, tells us she’s beautiful, and jokes around with her a little bit.”
Q: Trump dined with Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist, at Mar-a-Lago. He has still not disavowed Fuentes
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 11, 2024
Vance: The one thing I like about Donald Trump is he actually will talk to anybody… Donald Trump has spent a lot of quality time with my wife. Every time he sees her, he… pic.twitter.com/6XPtqTaPSE
With Trump largely confined to Mar-a-Lago, Vance has been on a whirlwind media tour over the last couple of weeks. And the more people see him, the more they dislike him. A pair of devastating new polls show the VP wannabe’s favorability has fallen from -7 to -11, with a significant number of voters calling him–you guessed it–“weird.”
The antigay pol continues to live up to his billing. A staunch opponent of LGBTQ+ rights, Vance appeared to embrace some aspects of the community when he was a student at Yale Law.
Over the weekend, influencer Matt Bernstein shared a photo of Vance dressed in drag. Yale alumnus Travis Whitfill took credit for the picture’s resurfacing.
“It’s from a group chat of Vance’s fellow classmates and is from a friend of a friend,” Whitfill told the Daily Beast. “I believe it was grabbed from Facebook and was taken at a Halloween party.”
new: i have obtained a photo of jd vance in drag while at yale law school pic.twitter.com/jYf14Lwa4D
— matt (@mattxiv) August 11, 2024
Here are the receipts pic.twitter.com/MIrqAChuma
— Travis Whitfill MPH (@twhitfill) August 11, 2024
On Monday, Bernstein unveiled a second photo of Vance in drag…
a second photo has hit my inbox https://t.co/JRKIE9JHRD pic.twitter.com/4wIWF28mEU
— matt (@mattxiv) August 12, 2024
Of course, there’s nothing weird about a man dressing in drag for a Halloween party. But Vance’s hypocrisy on LGBTQ+ issues is weird, never mind callous.
Once a moderate Republican who compared Trump to Hitler, Vance has abandoned many of his previous convictions, including his appreciation for the drag artform.
Sofia Nelson, who was peers with Vance at Yale Law School and identifies as transgender, recently provided three years’ worth of their email exchanges to the New York Times. The messages paint Vance as an accepting and empathetic person, a far contrast from the antigay firebrand he plays on the campaign stump.
Vance’s mean-spirited smugness stands in sharp contrast to Walz’s happy warrior persona. One seems to be landing with voters, while the other is, well…
Weird!
Related*
Photos of JD Vance in drag resurface at worst possible time for gay-hating VP wannabe
When the photo went viral, drag name suggestions began to trend.
Woody
Who shakes their spouse’s hand?
Tampon Tim. Not weird at all.
abfab
Democrats will hear from three presidents at their convention next week in Chicago, where they will gather to recognize Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee and celebrate an unexpected campaign that has turned the race on its head.
President Biden is expected to address delegates next Monday, the convention’s first night, with former President Barack Obama speaking on Aug. 20, according to three people familiar with the planning who insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive arrangements. Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the party’s 2016 nominee, will also speak at the convention, two of the people said.
Mattster
Who constantly tries to hold hands with their spouse only to have it avoided or slapped away? That’d be Trump. More sad than weird I guess.
Keep it up with tampon comments, rampant misogyny towards the majority of the electorate sure is a winning strategy.
Eternal.Cowboy
Funny, both the people on the blue ticket both have net positive favorability ratings that continue to go up. The two guys on the other side both have net negative favorability ratings that continue to go down. It’s cause they’re weird and for whatever reason they and their supporters can’t see it and keep doubling down on weird. Spoiler alert, providing people healthcare products isn’t weird. It’s wildly popular.
PQ
Did you not see the video in the article in which Trump shakes his spouse’s hand on stage and then literally pushes her to leave the stage? I guess it would have been better if Tim shook his wife’s hand and then gave her a nice affectionate shove.
abfab
Meanwhile, Trump, who adopted his father’s view that some bloodlines are “superior” to others, has slipped into the usual Republican race-baiting by purposely fumbling Kamala Harris’s name, mispronouncing it different ways and christening her “Kamabla.”
abfab
Musk and Trump just ended their conversation after about two hours and six minutes. In parting, Musk echoed Trump’s often apocalyptic insistence that this election will be pivotal. “I think we’re at a fork in the road of destiny of civilization and I think we need to take the right path,” he said to Trump. “And I think you’re the right path.”
Sure.
Woody
Holding hands is not shaking hands. Another genius.
A “majority of the electorate” don’t believe 4th grade boys should have tampons in their restroom. Tampon Tim does, however.
abfab
The sky is falling.
abfab
Another weird one, George Santos, echoing the POS, has repeatedly called the case against him a witch hunt. See you in court, Chaquita.
CNY1983
give it up vance, unless you havent noticed NO ONE LIKES YOU.
Invader7
If these two nut bags are “normal” then I’m from Saturn !!!