In a sign that his campaign isn’t all going to plan, Donald Trump had to assure voters during a podcast appearance that he and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, are “not weird people.”
That cutting piece of messaging by Democrats has been in full force for the past week or so on social media, in cable news interviews, and in stump speeches. Vice President Kamala Harris, for instance, described Trump as “just plain weird” at an Atlanta rally on Tuesday. She had similarly described the GOP ticket as “weird” at a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, fundraiser on July 27.
On the friendly airwaves of The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show on Thursday, Travis introduced the topic by trying to portray Democrats as wanting men competing in women’s sports.
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“What’s weird, actually letting men pretend to be women and win championships, or just saying women’s sports should be played by women?” he asked.
Trump, in perhaps his most insistent defense yet, said at least four times in the next minute that Democrats are weird.
“Well, they’re the weird ones,” he said, before once again criticizing Harris’ laugh. “That’s a weird deal going on there. They’re the weird ones. Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not. And I’m upfront. And he’s not either, I will tell you. J.D. is not at all. They are.
“I mean, who wants to have open borders where prisoners—that’s weird—where prisoners and where mental institution patients are taken out of hospital and jails and they’re let into our country. That’s weird,” he said, without examples or evidence, before attributing other things to Democrats that he believes are “weird.”
Trump then blamed the media for reporting on Harris and her campaign’s messaging. “You notice the evening news, every one of them, you know, they introduced the word ‘weird,”’ and all of a sudden they’re talking about ‘weird,’” he griped. “No, we’re not weird people. We’re actually just the opposite. We’re right down the middle.”
The Harris campaign jumped on Trump’s defense shortly after. “Trump (who is weird): They’re the weird ones! Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not. And JD Vance is not either,” it wrote on X, along with a clip of the former president’s comments.
