New Democrats’ line of attack enrages MAGA Republicans

Democrats have unveiled a new line of attack, calling MAGA Republicans “weird,” which has infuriated some of them.

Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat from Minnesota who is one of the favorites to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s vice presidential candidate in November, apparently first used the term when he appeared on MSNBC last week.

“They’re strange people on the other side. They want to take your books away. They want to get into the exam room. That’s what it comes down to. And don’t sugarcoat it. These are strange ideas,” he said.

After President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race on July 21 and Harris was seen as the likely candidate, Democrats appear to have shifted their messaging from lofty warnings about a threat to democracy to a more understandable and direct approach: simply calling their opponents’ ideas and values ​​”weird.”

Harris’ campaign has focused on this description, repeatedly calling Trump and his vice presidential candidate JD Vance “weird” in campaign ads and emails.

Steven Cheung, a representative of Trump’s campaign team, said Newsweek in an emailed statement: “Kamala Harris and the Democrats are indeed projecting their strange and sinister vibes. The fact remains that Kamala is weak, failed and dangerously liberal, and no amount of gaslighting by her moronic, too-online campaign will erase her despicable record. We will slam the brakes on them and there is nothing they can do about it.”

Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate, criticized the new line of attack on X (formerly Twitter), calling the Democrats’ argument “stupid and childish.”

“This is a presidential election, not a contest to be prom queen,” he said. “It’s also a little ironic that it’s coming from a party that preaches ‘diversity and inclusion.’ Win politically if you can, but please stop the nonsense.”

Vance himself responded by sharing a video in which Harris introduced herself using her pronouns and quoted the phrase “JD Vance is weird” in the caption.

Florida Representative Matt Gaetz also weighed in, writing on X: “The party of gender blockers and drag shows for kids calls us weird? OK.”

Texas Senator Ted Cruz shared a post saying Harris’ junior staffers had been instructed not to look her in the eye, adding: “This is… weird.”

TikTok X-account Libs, known for its anti-LGBTQ+ stance, shared numerous photos and images of drag queens or gender nonconforming people and quoted the attack line in captions such as “JD Vance is weird” and “Republicans are creepy and weird.”

Another X-account wrote: “This whole trend of Democrats calling conservatives, Trump, and Vance weird is the biggest projection I’ve ever seen. Democrats of all races and genders are some of the funniest idiots I’ve seen in America.”

While Democrats are spreading the description as “strange,” the Trump team appears to be struggling desperately to find its message and the best lines of attack against a new opponent after months of focusing its campaign on Biden’s age and cognitive abilities.

Update 7/30/24, 8:12 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with commentary from Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign staffer. Representative.