How ‘Weird’ Became a Main Campaign Attack—for Democrats and Republicans
The campaigns and supporters of both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are competing to paint their opponents as strangest.
You’re weird.
No, you’re weird.
It sounds like teasing on an elementary-school playground, but it’s emerged as the choice weapon in the war of words for the presidency of the United States.
“Weird” has become an official line of attack between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris and their campaigns’ respective supporters.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]On Thursday, in response to a Trump appearance on Fox News, the Harris campaign sent out a press statement of their main takeaways, including “Trump is old and quite weird?”
It’s not the first time Harris has labeled Trump as “weird.” According to the 2021 book Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat Trump by political reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere, Harris reportedly gathered with aides in 2018 to prepare what a run for the presidency might entail.
“They tested her by running through hypotheticals of how she’d have responded in situations [Hillary] Clinton faced [in 2016], such as when Trump was stalking behind her in the second debate,” Dovere wrote. “That was easy, Harris said. ‘I’d turn around and say, “Why are you being so weird? What’s wrong with you?”’”
Since Harris officially launched her campaign for the presidency after President Joe Biden bowed out on Sunday, Democrats have repeatedly used “weird” to describe Trump, his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), and the Republican platform.
“Trump is fundamentally weird,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told Semafor on Monday. “And usually the party that seems like they’re focused on creepy things or weird things loses.”
“I think it’s really elegant in its simplicity,” Democratic strategist Caitlin Legacki told ABC News of the emphasis on weird. “I think it really reflects a newer way of thinking and campaigning and just calling it what it is.”
“These guys are just weird,” Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), who is reportedly among Harris’ shortlist of potential running mates, said on MSNBC on Tuesday. “They’re running for He-Man women-haters’ club or something. That’s what they go at. That’s not what people are interested in.”
Walz, who has used the term before to describe Republicans, has continued to hammer in that the rival party is downright abnormal, saying later in another appearance on MSNBC on Tuesday: “These are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away; they want to be in your exam room. That’s what it comes down to—don’t get sugar-coating this—these are weird ideas.”
Walz defended his use of the descriptor in another MSNBC appearance on Thursday, saying: “You know there’s something wrong with people when they talk about freedom: freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom to be in your exam room, freedom to tell your kids what they can read. That stuff is weird. They come across weird. They seem obsessed with this.”
“Listen to their stories. They think they’re connecting with people, and they tell things and everybody feels uncomfortable around them,” Walz said. “So I’m sticking with that, because I don’t know what else describes it.”
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Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.), another reported potential Harris running mate, offered an example of one such story, when on Monday on CNN he called it “weird” that Vance recently suggested Democrats would call it racist to drink Diet Mountain Dew—an awkward moment the Harris campaign also highlighted on social media.
Schatz piled on, posting “This is quite weird,” on X on Wednesday in response to a clip from 2021 of Vance saying that parents should have “more power” as voters than people who don’t have children. “Like, a very very bad idea, but also weird. And presumably, unpopular.”
The Democratic Party also posted on Wednesday: “In case you needed another reason to dislike JD Vance, he is weirdly anti-cat.”
Read More: Breaking Down the Controversy Over J.D. Vance’s ‘Childless Cat Ladies’ Comment
And late Thursday, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) posted a clip on X of Vance going through snacks backstage at a rally. “Another weird video of JD Vance,” Lieu said. “And why does he have this weird fixation with Diet Mountain Dew?”
Walz offered an example of Trump’s weirdness in a post on X on Thursday, sharing a clip of the former President at a rally speaking fondly, as he’s often done, about the Silence of the Lambs cannibal character Hannibal Lecter. “Say it with me: Weird,” Walz wrote.
But it’s not just Democrats honing in on “weird.” Trump has used the term to describe Harris before she became the 2024 presidential candidate. “She speaks in rhyme, it’s weird,” he said in an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson in August.
And the National Republican Senatorial Committee released a memo earlier this week that outlined a list of talking points against Harris—as GOP leaders have urged party members to steer clear of sexist and racist attacks—that included various policies in her “extreme agenda” as well as a section titled “Weird.”
The memo pointed to, among other things, the Vice President’s self-professed love for Venn diagrams and alleged habit of laughing at inappropriate moments—though the strategy may not be as effective going the other way. The Harris campaign has already tried to reclaim popular memes about her personality quirks—many of which Republicans had originally played up to paint her as bumbling and incompetent—to boost her profile, especially among youth voters.