For his political opponents, Donald Trump offers a target-rich environment: his criminality, his bigotry, his "bleach those lungs"-levels of ignorance, and, of course, his overall weirdness. At first blush, his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, seems less vulnerable. Vance can speak in complete sentences without rambling about sharks or electrocution. Unlike his boss, Vance is fully literate and capable of writing grammatical sentences without random capitalizations. Vance has not been convicted of any crimes, and he even looks relatively normal, especially compared to the makeup-caked Republican candidate with an elaborate combover. If one accused Vance of smelling like body odor mixed with ketchup, most people would not believe it.
And yet, the fledgling presidential campaign of Vice President Harris is lampooning Vance nearly as often as they're going after Trump, and in the same terms: Vance is "weird." In particular, the Harris campaign has thoroughly lambasted Vance for his love of the tedious misogynist trope of the "cat lady." Vance has repeatedly insulted women who have not given birth by saying they're "miserable" and attacking cats, which are popular pets with people of all genders and parental statuses. He's defended these comments by claiming "the left" is "anti-child" and "anti-family," even though all evidence shows that children are happier when they're born to parents who want them. He even tried to joke that he's "got nothing against cats," which the Harris campaign correctly pointed out means that he is still standing by his denigration of people who have no biological children.
