Former President Donald Trump has responded to the Kamala Harris campaign using the term “weird” against him and his running mate JD Vance.
Harris’ campaign ads and emails, along with several Democrats, have started calling Trump and Vance “weird,” which has gained some significant traction online and has angered several Republicans.
Trump hit back on Tuesday, in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
“The whole thing is a con job. Just plain weird. You know who’s plain weird? She is plain weird. She is a weird person,” he said on The Ingraham Angle.
“Look at her past, look at what she does,” he added. “And look at what she used to say about herself. And I won’t get into it. What she used to say and who she was compared to what she said, starting at about 2016. She became a totally different person, only for political reasons.”
Newsweek has contacted the Harris campaign via email for comment.
On Sunday, Vance had responded when a Fox News reporter questioned him about it while he and his family were eating breakfast at a diner in Waite Park, Minnesota.
“There’s a new insult that her [Harris] and her husband have been using, calling you weird. Does that hurt your feelings?” the reporter asked.
Vance appeared to wince and smile while letting out a laugh. “No, not at all. It doesn’t hurt my feelings,” he said.
The “weird” label was seemingly the first to introduce by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz from Minnesota, who said about MAGA Republicans: “These guys are just weird.”
It has since caught on in the campaign. At a Massachusetts campaign fundraiser on Saturday night, Harris said: “You may have noticed, Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record. And some of what he and his running mate are saying, well, it’s just plain weird. I mean that’s the box you put that in.”
Steven Cheung, a representative for Trump’s campaign, previously told Newsweek in an emailed statement: “Kamala Harris and Democrats are actually projecting their weird and creepy vibes. The fact remains that Kamala is weak, failed, and dangerously liberal, and no amount of gaslighting from her moronic, too-online campaign will erase her despicable record. We’re going to beat the brakes off them and there is nothing they can do about it.”
Harris is yet to announce her own running mate. On August 6, she is expected to hold her first rally with them, kicking off a run of battleground state rallies that begins in Philadelphia.
Names that are reportedly considered include Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper was previously believed to be a contender, but he removed himself from consideration for the role.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.