'Going to haunt him': Comms expert explains why attacking 'weird' GOP is so effective for Dems

31 July 2024

In recent weeks, Democrats have ramped up a new line of attack against GOP presidential Donald Trump, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio (Trump's running mate) and their MAGA allies: calling them "weird."

The controversy surrounding Vance's resurfaced attacks on "childless cat ladies" and "childless Democrats" during 2021 and 2022 interviews has played into this anti-MAGA messaging. Countless Democrats have said that Vance's ideas — "punishing" Americans via taxes if they don't have biological children, claiming that childless people are "sociopaths" — are really "weird."

According to Dr. Brian L. Ott, a communications professor at Missouri State University, "weird" is smart messaging on the part of Democrats.

Ott told Newsweek, "It subtly evokes discomfort and anxiety without calling him a 'threat to democracy'…. The Trump campaign is struggling to respond effectively to it. It's hard to claim that it is in any way out-of-bounds politically, which makes any response to it seem like an overreaction and, well, weird."

Ott believes that attacking Trump as "weird" is better for Democrats than harping on the 78-year-old nominee's age — which, he warns, risks alienating older voters.

According to Newsweek's Flynn Nicholls, the "weird" line of attack originated with Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in 2023 and has since been "picked up" by everyone from Vice President Kamala Harris — now the presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee — to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

During a Monday, July 29 speech, Clinton said, "If Republican leaders don't enjoy being called weird, creepy and controlling, they could try not being weird, creepy and controlling."

On MSNBC, veteran Democratic strategist James Carville said of Trump's running mate, "J.D. Vance is for something called menstrual surveillance. How much weirder can you get than that?” Carville said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat.” “The whole outfit is obsessed and consumed with women’s reproductive decisions. They really are. And that is going to, that whole cat lady thing, man, that’s going to haunt him for a long time.”

During an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Walz explained why he started calling Trump "weird."

Walz told Tapper, "Listen to the guy. He's talking about Hannibal Lecter and shocking sharks and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind. And I thought we just think we give him way too much credit…. Have you ever seen the guy laugh? That seems very weird to me that an adult can go through six and a half years in the public eye, if he has laughed, it's at someone and not with someone. That is weird behavior."

Read Newsweek's full report at this link.

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