Conservative political commentator Ann Coulter was hit by a blizzard of criticism for her tweet describing Tim Walz’s son as “weird,” with clips of an old roast resurfacing and going viral in the wake of her comment.
Gus Walz, 17, went viral himself Wednesday night for his heartwarming reaction to his father’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. The teenage son of Kamala Harris’ running mate stood and applauded with tears in his eyes, proudly telling other attendees: “That’s my dad!”
“Talk about weird,” Coulter wrote in response to the heartwarming moment, turning Tim Walz’s favorite term to attack Donald Trump and JD Vance to insult the Minnesota governor’s own son.
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Coulter later deleted her post amid an angry backlash. “I took it down as soon as someone told me he’s [autistic], but it’s Democrats who go around calling everyone weird thinking it’s hilariously funny,” she explained. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen, told People magazine this month that Gus was diagnosed as a teenager with a non-verbal learning disorder, an anxiety disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Coulter did not outright apologize for her post, writing in a follow-up Thursday that she’s on vacation and had not felt pressured to take her original tweet down. “Democrats are the ones who decided it’s fine to call people ‘weird,’” she added.
Some social media users decided to get revenge on Gus’ behalf by sharing clips online from the notorious 2016 Comedy Central Roast of Rob Lowe, some of which went viral. Coulter was one of the celebrities who’d been invited on the show, which was nominally about poking fun at the West Wing actor but which actually became more of a roast of Coulter herself.
Comedian Pete Davidson used his time at the roast to call her a “racist c---” and likened her to a member of the Ku Klux Klan. British comic Jimmy Carr called Coulter “one of the most repugnant, hateful, hatchet-faced b----es alive,” and said she looked like “a truck-stop transvestite whore.”
“Ann Coulter hopes Republicans can hold onto the House so she can continue to haunt it,” David Spade joked, while former NFL star Peyton Manning also insulted Coulter’s appearance by saying she “won the Kentucky Derby.”
“As a feminist, I can’t support everything that is being said up here tonight,” singer Jewel said. “But as somebody that hates Ann Coulter, I’m delighted!”
Coulter’s night didn’t improve much when it was her turn to dish it out. “I want to welcome everybody to the Ann Coulter Roast With Rob Lowe,” she said in her opening—and probably strongest—line. It went badly from there, with the crowd booing as she tried to hawk her book In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!
“Ann, after your set tonight, we’ve all witnessed the first bombing that you can’t blame on a Muslim,” Lowe said afterward.
Coulter later told The Hollywood Reporter she had “no idea” how her invitation to the show had come about, saying it simply “showed up on my book publicity schedule.” Asked about the mean jokes people had made about her, Coulter said: “I don’t notice ‘mean,’ but I do notice ‘jokes,’ and I didn’t hear many of those—until I took the mic!”
Coulter told the Daily Beast in an emailed statement, “I took it down as soon as someone told me that he’s autistic.” “But it’s Democrats who think it’s hilarious to call everyone ‘weird.’ JD Vance grew up with a drug addicted mother and no father.”
“Do you regret calling him weird? Maybe they shouldn’t have started that wildly funny witticism (sic.),” she added.
