JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee fired back at Kamala Harris’s running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz over calling GOP ticket ‘weird’, arguing that it’s actually the Democratic vice-presidential pick who has shown he’s the odd one out.
Vance pointed to an awkward moment caught on camera, where the 60-year-old Walz greeted his wife with a “Midwestern handshake” during a rally where Kamala Harris introduced him as her running mate, The New York Post reported.
“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,” Vance told CNN in an interview that aired Sunday.
“Tim Walz gave his wife a name, firm midwestern handshake and then tried to sort of awkwardly correct for it,” he added.
Donald Trump Jr. shared a clip of the interaction and said: “Totally normal to greet your wife with a firm handshake and a bro hug/back slap. Tim Walz isn’t weird at all, guys.”
The Ohio Senator said Harris and Walz, her running mate, “aren’t comfortable in their own skin” and are attempting to persuade the American public that it is the Republicans who are peculiar.
Vance believes that the handshake demonstrates Walz’s attempt to divert attention from his own awkwardness by persistently labeling him as strange. “I think what it is, is two people, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, who aren’t comfortable in their own skin, because they’re uncomfortable with their policy positions for the American people,” Vance told CNN host Dana Bash on “State of the Union”.
“And so they’re name-calling instead of actually telling the American people how they’re going to make their lives better,’ he said. ‘I think that’s weird, Dana. But look, they can call me whatever they want to,” he added.
Vance said: They’re trying to distract from their own policy failures. I mean look, this is fundamentally schoolyard bully stuff,” adding that, “They can accuse me or whatever they want to accuse me of, the Daily Mail reported.
‘I accept their attacks but I think that it is a little bit of projection,” he added.
In what seems to be an unprecedented move, Walz has labeled the 2024 Republican ticket as weird, with most of the criticism directed at Vance. The Ohio Senator dismissed the attacks, seemingly unfazed by the criticism leveled against him and the Republican ticket on Sunday.
Despite their Midwestern origins, both Vance and Walz have emphasized their backgrounds and upbringings as evidence of their understanding of the concerns and values of middle America.
When asked by Bash about Trump’s response to the ‘weird’ attacks, the former president said: “Not me, they’re talking about JD.”
The GOP VP pick chuckled and said: “Certainly they’ve levied that charge at me more than anyone else. But I think that drives home how they’re trying to distract from their own policy failures.”
“This is fundamentally schoolyard stuff,” Vance added.