Donald Trump has spent the past few weeks mocking his opponent’s name, questioning her race, and intensifying his already contemptible rhetoric, but, to running mate JD Vance, the real churlishness is coming from Democrats calling Republicans “weird.” “This is fundamentally schoolyard bully stuff,” the Ohio senator complained on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday before suggesting that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the weird ones. “They’re name calling instead of actually telling the American people how they’re going to make their lives better,” Vance said. “I think that’s weird.”
Vance’s I know you are, but what am I? rebuttal came during a tour of the Sunday shows, in which he mounted some attacks of his own against the Democratic ticket—accusing Walz of having “lied about his [military] service for political gain” and—perhaps most notably—suggesting Harris is avoiding the press because she wants to hide her agenda from the public. “The Harris campaign, what are their policy views?” Vance asked Jonathan Karl on ABC News’ This Week Sunday. “The person who wants to be our president ought to sit down for some tough interviews,” the Ohio Republican added. “I’m willing to do it, and I wish she would, too.”
Vance did little during his media swing to shake off the “weird” label his opponents have leveled at him, especially as he struggled to defend Trump for dining with a white supremacist who has insulted his own wife, Usha Vance. He also insisted that he was merely engaging in a “thought experiment” when he suggested people with children should get more votes than those who do not. “I regret that the media and the Kamala Harris campaign has frankly distorted what I said,“ Vance told Karl.
Still, the dig at Harris for her lack of unscripted appearances so far could prove potent. Though Harris has captured the momentum of the presidential race from Trump, she is not as well-defined as her opponent or the man she replaced on the top of the Democratic ticket. So far, that’s been part of her appeal, with the vice president running as a “change” candidate in what had previously been a rematch most voters didn’t want. Not holding court with the press is also likely part of her strategy, as interviews carry risks. But the more gaps remain in her policy platform, the more opportunities bad-faith actors like Vance will have to fill them in with distortions and lies, including baseless suggestions that Harris is “anti-family” and that Walz effectively supports “kidnapping” the children of parents who do not believe in gender-affirming care, as Vance claimed Sunday.
Such characterizations are perhaps too wild—and yes, “weird”—to stick. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t more damaging lines of attack available to Republicans, who are already mining Harris’s 2020 primary campaign to paint her as overly progressive. The best way to neutralize those attacks? Taking an aggressive approach and articulating her agenda before any MAGA narratives can take hold.
