From bad jokes to awkward donuts: Inside JD Vance’s very weird week on the road

Ever since Tim Walz accused JD Vance and his running mate of being “weird ,” the Republican vice presidential nominee has struggled to escape the perception, at least according to his political opponents, that he’s a strange, awkward guy who emerged from the right-wing corners of Silicon Valley and the Internet.

Sure, it may be hard to compete with the carnival charisma of Donald Trump, but another week on the campaign trail seemed to do little to change the attack lines against Vance.

There weren’t any all-time political gaffes like dismissing those without traditional families as “ childless cat ladies ,” but the US Senator for Ohio still managed to generate plenty of raised eyebrows and awkward silences.

It began on Sunday when Vance compared Vice President Kamala Harris to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to make a point on inflation.

“Giving Kamala Harris control over inflation policy, it’s like giving Jeffrey Epstein control over human trafficking policy,” Vance told Fox News, in an interview where he also said polls showing his side was behind were “fake.”

The following day, Vance was accused of “crimes against humanity”— or at least Philadelphia — for bringing up Swiss cheese during a stop at Pat’s King of Steaks, a legendary Philly cheesesteak shop that only offers American, provolone, and Cheez Whiz as toppings.

“I don’t like Swiss cheese either, but everybody says it’s insulting,” Vance asked at the Pat’s register, a seeming reference to John Kerry catching flak for asking for Swiss during a 2004 campaign stop.

Pat’s manager Sammy Garcia told The Philadelphia Inquirer his team “thought it was funny,” but Vance critics quickly seized on the moment on social media.

“Today, in my beloved city of Philadelphia,” Democrat Philadelphia representative Brendan Boyle posted on X. “JD Vance committed a crime against humanity,” he added, along with the hashtag #WorstVPpick.

Vance was the subject of social media scorn again a day later.

In Kenosha, Wisconsin, he said that to prepare for the upcoming vice-presidential debates, “I found a good friend from back home who embellishes and lies a lot, I’m having him stand in for Tim Walz .”

It was a reference to questions over whether Walz exaggerated or spoke unclearly about the extent of his military record , but to some, the remark was an ironic one, given Donald Trump’s unprecedented mendacity as president.

“Nice of Trump to help Vance with debate prep,” author and Jeopardy! Champion Hemant Mehta wrote online.

The awkwardness didn’t end there though.

At a photo-op in Valdosta, Georgia, on Thursday, where Vance stopped to buy donuts for his team , the candidate struggled to make small talk with a pair of employees who seemed little interested in what he had to say.

“I’m JD Vance, I’m running for vice president,” he told one worker.

“Okay,” she responded in a cringe-inducing video of the encounter.

The volume of insults and jokes about Vance has reached such a level that he’s now often shown supercuts of people insulting him during TV interviews.

On the Democratic National Convention stage this week, meanwhile, Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin asked why Vance would even want the job when they “tried to kill your predecessor” during the January 6 riots.

Vance has tried to brush off these insults, branding Walz a “ schoolyard bully ,” and celebrating the non-traditional aspects of his own family, but it seems these efforts haven’t been enough to change the tide of the overall campaign.

Seemingly not a day goes by without an old clip of Vance resurfacing from a podcast or TV interview, where he expounds on his often controversial “ natalist ” politics.

Last week, audio from a 2020 podcast captured Vance seeming to agree that raising grandchildren was “ the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female ” and that having grandparents help raise children was a “weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman.”

However weird or not Vance really is, the Trump campaign certainly wouldn’t mind a bump in its image, given a widening gap between it and the Harris campaign in the polls.

Vance and Walz are set to debate in October , and by all indications, it’s going to get weird.