Donald Trump has rejected claims from Democrats that his running mate JD Vance is “weird.”
Branding Trump and Vance as “weird” has become one of the mainstays of Democrat campaign messaging ahead of November. Over recent weeks there has been a mounting backlash against Vance, with many “weird” insults continually being directed at him by the Democrats.
Vance has come under fresh rebuke due to a resurfaced 2021 podcast interview where he claimed professional women “choose a path to misery” if they prioritize their careers after having children. He has also been criticized for comparing Kamala Harris to a Miss Teen USA contestant.
Trump has denied that either JD Vance or himself are weird.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump on September 04, 2024, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. During the discussion, Trump rebuked claims his vice president nominee JD Vance was weird.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
During a Fox News town hall event with Sean Hannity on Wednesday, Trump told a crowd in Pennsylvania: “JD is not weird. He’s a solid rock. I happen to be a very solid rock. We’re other things perhaps, but we’re not weird.”
The former president redirected the “weird” insult at the Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, who went viral for using the term in July.
“But he is a weird guy. He walks on the stage, there’s something wrong with that guy, and he called me ‘weird,'” Trump said. “And then the fake news media picked it up, that was the word of the day: ‘Weird, weird, weird,’ they’re all going. But we’re not weird guys. We’re very solid people who want our country to be great again.”
Newsweek emailed the campaigns of Harris and Trump for comment outside of business hours and will update the story as soon as comment is received.
Vance has also kicked back at claims he is weird, telling Dana Bash on CNN‘s State of the Union that the nickname was “fundamentally schoolyard bully stuff.”
However, Vance has maintained it doesn’t hurt his feelings.
In July, when a Fox News reporter asked whether being called weird hurt his feelings, Vance laughed and said: “No, not at all. It doesn’t hurt my feelings.”
In July, Walz went viral for calling Vance and Trump “just weird.” He cited their stance on Russia as an example. Since then, the insult has been adopted by the Harris campaign and leveraged repeatedly against the Republican ticket.
“These are weird people on the other side. That’s what it comes down to. Don’t, you know, get sugarcoating this. These are weird ideas. Listen to them speak,” said Walz.
On CNN’s State of the Union, Walz told presenter Jake Tapper the logic behind using weird as an insult.
“People kept talking about, look Donald Trump is going to put women’s lives at risk. That’s 100 percent true. Donald Trump is potentially going to end constitutional liberties that we have and voting. I do believe all those things are a real possibility, but it gives him way too much power,” he said.
Last month, a poll revealed that a number of Americans think that Vance is weird. The poll, carried out by Redfield & Wilton Strategies on behalf of Newsweek, found 44 percent of respondents agreed that JD Vance was “weird.” This was made up of 26 percent who said they “strongly agree” with the statement and 18 percent who said they “agree.”
However, 48 percent of the 1,500 survey respondents said they view all politicians as “weird.”
The Ohio senator had previously been criticized when an interview of him calling Democratic politicians “childless cat ladies with miserable lives” resurfaced in July. Vance made the comments in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in 2021.
Vance has since defended the comment, saying it was a “sarcastic comment” that has been misinterpreted.
Vance recently came under fire for his resurfaced comments about professional working women being “miserable and unhappy.” He originally made the comments on a podcast for the conservative non-profit American Movement in 2021. Many women have since criticized Vance for his comments online.
This occurred days after Vance posted a tweet comparing Kamala Harris‘ CNN interview to the now viral incoherent answer given by Miss Teen USA contestant Caitlin Upton in 2007 when asked why Americans couldn’t locate the U.S. on a map.
