Bad Jokes

When I want to make fun of a politician like donold trump, I usually do what most people do – I post a clip from one of his speeches or I upload a transcript of something he has actually said. I might simply mention a well-known quote. For example, referring to Hannibal Lecter or whale-killing windmills is an obvious reference to trump.

It's pretty normal to use a politician's own words and behavior to make fun of them. However, when JD Vance wanted to mock Kamala Harris, he didn't use any clips or quotes from her interview or speeches. Instead, he dug up an old clip from a Miss USA pageant, featuring a young lady who looks nothing like Kamala, has nothing to do with Kamala's campaign, and probably has never even met Kamala.

The clip was extremely embarrassing to the young woman, not to Kamala Harris. Somehow, JD thought it would be funny to publicly humiliate a stranger and that doing so would strike a blow against the Harris campaign. That’s a weird idea.

When it was pointed out to him that the incident in the clip was so distressing to the young woman that it had led her to contemplate suicide, did he say, "Oh no, I didn't know that, that's very concerning and I'll delete the post immediately"? He did not. Did he say, "I'm terribly sorry for having added to her pain, and I'll delete the post immediately"? He did not. Did he say, "It was a mistake to use that clip and I'll delete it immediately"? He did not. Did he just quietly delete the post? He did not. When given an opportunity to apologize, Vance refused to do so.

The young woman in the video has since deleted her Xtwitter account, even though she did nothing wrong. In the meantime, Vance's nasty little post is still visible.