Republicans are furious that the attacks describing them as fascist little weirdos are making an impression on the American public, and their response has been to get even weirder.
On Monday night, Fox News host Jesse Watters complained at length about the accusation from Democrats that GOP politicians — and Trump’s vice presidential pick Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) in particular — are “weird.”
Watters played a compilation of prominent Democratic lawmakers, politicians, and commentators discussing the attack line. “The agenda, the way they talk to people, the way they address people, it’s bizarre and it’s weird. It is weird,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) says in one clip.
While the Fox host was clearly upset about the commentary, the segment was shared on social media as a textbook example of the Streisand effect — helping further disseminate the “weird” message — especially when Watters zeroed in on the viral meme accusing Vance of describing having sex with a couch in his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy.
Vance did not describe such an act in his book, but the jokes and insinuations that he did have run rampant on social media. While lawmakers in general have not directly pushed the salacious, untrue piece of innuendo, Watters made a point to demand evidence from those spreading the claim.
Vice President Kamala Harris “is a dangerous Marxist who wants to turn America into San Francisco,” he said. “They’re making her into a mythical figure and hiding her record like they hid Biden. So how do they distract us from talking about her record? They’re accusing J.D. Vance of having sex with a couch.”
“We don’t buy the hoaxes and believe the hype anymore, our eyes are wide open,” Watters said. “If you’re going to accuse someone of having sex with a couch, you better have video.”
While Vance’s alleged furniture fondling is — as far as we know — a fiction, the VP hopeful is providing Democrats with plenty of real ammo against himself and Republicans.